This latest release, three fine works by Chinese-Canadian Vivian Fung, is…formal orthodoxy, broadly tonal melody, exciting rhythms, splashes of exotica. Add to this the terrific playing heard here—especially by the two young soloists, both superb on their Naxos debuts in music that is mentally as well as physically demanding—and the result is a disc that is every inch a Canadian classic.
The opening Violin Concerto is a good introduction to Fung, offering an immediate vista of her understated but brilliant orchestration and her technically demanding but musically riveting writing for the violin.
A work for solo ‘prepared’ piano may seem an odd filling for a concerto sandwich, but Glimpses employs such a range of sounds in its three sections that the effect is almost orchestral…Fung’s writing is altogether more listener-friendly and decidedly less pretentious…never failing to keep the listener’s attention.