Lan Shui
Lan Shui is among Asia's best-known conductors, widely recognized and praised during his long tenure as conductor of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. He led that group to prominence in the Western recording world.
Lan Shui was born in Hangzhou, China, in 1957. In the Chinese naming system, Shui is his family name, and Lan his given name, but in English-speaking countries, he uses the Western form. He was the child of a doctor and a banker. Shui began studies on the violin and piano as a child, but during the Cultural Revolution, when authorities clamped down on the performance and study of Western music, his piano teacher committed suicide, and he was forced to give up his studies. He was able to resume violin lessons after the grip of the Cultural Revolution weakened, traveling 28 hours by train to the capital city of Beijing. He landed a spot in an opera orchestra there, and the orchestra's conductor suggested that he try conducting. Shui, reluctant to give up a secure post as a violinist, refused, but the conductor feigned illness and asked Shui to take over a rehearsal. Finding that he was, as the conductor predicted, a natural, Shui finally agreed to switch. After five years of study at Beijing's Central Conservatory, he became the conductor of the Beijing Symphony Orchestra, but he was frustrated by continuing government restrictions on the music he was allowed to conduct.
So, in 1986, he applied to Boston University's master's-level conducting program and was accepted. Shui also took master classes with Leonard Bernstein at the Tanglewood Music Festival. He landed a post as assistant conductor with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and then as associate conductor at the Detroit Symphony, appearing as a guest with various American orchestras. In 1993, he was invited by Choo Hoey, conductor and founder of the Singapore Symphony, to conduct that orchestra for the first time, and in 1997, he was elevated to music director there. Shui remained in that post until 2019 when he retired and became conductor laureate. During his tenure, he built the orchestra's reputation internationally; the American Record Guide asserted "[o]ne cannot avoid comparing what Shui has achieved in Singapore with what George Szell did in Cleveland or Simon Rattle in Birmingham. He has turned a good regional orchestra into a world-class ensemble." He led the orchestra on tours of Asia, Europe, and the U.S. Shui also served as the principal conductor of the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra from 2007 to 2015.
Shui has issued some 30 recordings, most of them on the BIS label. For Orchid Classics, he led the Copenhagen Philharmonic in a complete cycle of Beethoven's symphonies. On BIS, with the Singapore Symphony, he recorded the first complete cycle of the symphonies of composer Alexander Tcherepnin, who lived in Shanghai and whose music contained Chinese elements. His catalog with the orchestra has included both Western and Chinese works. His recording of Richard Strauss' Rosenkavalier Suite, Tod und Verklärung, and the rarely heard Macbeth, Op. 23, appeared on BIS in 2020.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Scriabin: The Poem of Ecstasy, Op. 54, Prometheus, Op. 60 & Piano Sonata No. 5, Op. 53
Yevgeny Sudbin, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Lan Shui
Classical - Released by BIS on 2 Sep 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Complete Symphonies, Vol. 2 (Nos. 5-8)
Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra, Lan Shui
Classical - Released by Orchid Classics on 2 Sep 2016
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy: Jeux, Khamma & La boîte à joujoux
Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Lan Shui
Classical - Released by BIS on 4 Aug 2017
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto, Op.35 - Chen, He: Butterfly Lovers, Violin Concerto
Gil Shaham, Lan Shui, Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Symphonies - Released by Canary Classics on 1 Oct 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy: Nocturnes, L. 91 & Other Orchestral Works
Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Lan Shui
Classical - Released by BIS on 7 Jun 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Complete Symphonies, Vol. 1
Classical - Released by Orchid Classics on 7 Apr 2015
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Russian Spectacular
Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Lan Shui
Classical - Released by BIS on 9 Apr 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 2
Classical - Released by BIS on 1 Jan 2008
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninoff: Symphonies & Orchestral Music
Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Lan Shui
Classical - Released by BIS on 5 Feb 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Dvořák: Cello Concerto, Silent Woods / Brahms: Academic Festival Overture (Live In Singapore / 2012)
Li-wei Qin, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Lan Shui
Classical - Released by Universal Music Ltd. on 1 Jan 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Clarinet Concertos Dedicated to Benny Goodman
Martin Fröst, Malmö Symfoniorkester, Lan Shui
Classical - Released by BIS on 30 Jun 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy: La Mer
Lan Shui, Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by BIS on 1 Sep 2014
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 3
Yevgeny Sudbin, Lan Shui, Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by BIS on 28 Feb 2012
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy: Mer (La) / Bridge: The Sea / Glazunov: La Mer / Zhou: The Deep, Deep Sea
Classical - Released by BIS on 1 Apr 2007
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Long: Rhymes (Orchestral Music)
Jonathan Fox, Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Singapore, Shanghai Quartet, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Lan Shui
Classical - Released by BIS on 1 Jun 2004
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 1 & Piano Concerto No. 1
Yevgeny Sudbin, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Lan Shui
Classical - Released by BIS on 28 May 2013
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Lied Von Der Erde (Das) (Cantonese Text)
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by BIS on 27 Nov 2007
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Goldmark: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2
Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Lan Shui
Classical - Released by BIS on 30 Jul 2013
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tcherepnin: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 4
Noriko Ogawa, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Lan Shui
Classical - Released by BIS on 1 Jun 2003
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
R. Strauss: Macbeth, Rosenkavalier Suite & Tod und Verklärung
Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Lan Shui
Classical - Released by BIS on 1 May 2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
French Trumpet Concertos
Classical - Released by BIS on 28 May 2013
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo