Evelyn Glennie (percussion), Tzu-You Lin (suona) & Tsung-Hsin Hsieh (percussion)
Taipei Chinese Orchestra, En Shao & Yiu-Kwong Chung
Appearing with leading orchestras and conductors around the world, Evelyn Glennie has also collaborated with musicians as diverse as Emmanuel Ax, the King’s Singers and Bjork. On the present disc, she appears with the Taipei Chinese Orchestra to perform original compositions and arrangements for percussion and Chinese orchestra.
The programme features works by composers from the Far East, as well as by German-based Nebojša Živković, whose duo Born to Beat Wild for bass drum and trumpet here is performed with a suona, ‘Chinese oboe’, replacing the trumpet.
The final work, Emperor Qin Crushing the Battle Formations, is a reworking by the composer Yiu-Kwong Chung of an ancient score first performed in the year 627 at the court of the second Tang Emperor.
Ecstatic Drumbeat is the last of four discs that present collaborations between the Taipei Chinese Orchestra and soloists from a Western tradition, with Evelyn Glennie following in the footsteps of flutist Sharon Bezaly (BISSACD1759), saxophonist Claude Delangle (BISCD1790) and trombone player Christian Lindberg (BISCD1888).
“Here’s something different: a meeting of Britain’s most famous percussionist and the Taipei Chinese Orchestra. This resourceful Taiwanese ensemble regularly collaborates with Western virtuosi, and the results are unpredictable, uneven, but never dull...Fascinating sounds crossing hemispheres, epochs and cultures.” The Times, 30th June 2012 ***
