Daqun Jia: Percussion Works

Album review

Qobuz doesn't often get the opportunity to present composers from the Middle Kingdom: and so here is Jia Daqun (whose first name is pronounced "Da-Choon"; Jia is his surname), who was born in 1955 and whose place in contemporary music not only at home but across the globe is now beyond question. Yes, a number of his works borrow from the Chinese national tradition, but don’t Spanish composers borrow from Iberian folk music, and all composers from their own roots? In Pole, Jia mixes Chinese and western percussions; while Songs without Words forms a bridge between Chinese percussion, and the very different percussions of Japan. Prologue of Drums brings in Chinese percussion and traditional Chinese wind instruments. Note that Jia Daqun teaches composition at the Shanghai Conservatoire - with 1,200 doctoral students, no less - and clearly doesn't limit his work to pieces based on Chinese or Asian music: symphonies, chamber music, piano music, etc. We should also note that his daughter, Ran Jia (or Jia Ran) is one of the most thrilling musicians on the young international piano stage, already famous for her bewitching performances of Franz Schubert's Sonatas, a composer to whom she has dedicated two albums - on the second, brought out with RCA, some of her father's works also feature. © SM/Qobuz