Gan-Ru Ge: Piano Works Yiming Zhang

• Gan-Ru Ge (b. 1954): 12 Preludes:
• 1 12 Preludes: No. 1, Largo 03:27
• 2 12 Preludes: No. 2, Allegretto 01:30
• 3 12 Preludes: No. 3, Largo 02:27
• 4 12 Preludes: No. 4, Presto 02:21
• 5 12 Preludes: No. 5, Lento tranquillamente 03:45
• 6 12 Preludes: No. 6, Moderato 01:44
• 7 12 Preludes: No. 7, Grave 03:36
• 8 12 Preludes: No. 8, Allegro vivace 01:59
• 9 12 Preludes: No. 9, Allegretto 01:54
• 10 12 Preludes: No. 10, Adagio 02:49
• 11 12 Preludes: No. 11, Allegro 02:09
• 12 12 Preludes: No. 12, Lento 05:02
• Ancient Music:
• 13 Ancient Music: I. Gong 03:32
• 14 Ancient Music: II. Qin 03:06
• 15 Ancient Music: III. Pipa 04:54
• 16 Ancient Music: IV. Drum 04:54
• Gan-Ru Ge:
• 17 Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! 12:11
• 18 Hard! Hard! Hard! 10:56
• Total Runtime 01:12:16

Info for Gan-Ru Ge: Piano Works

Ge Gan-ru has always sought to bind the sounds and character of his native Chinese music to Western techniques, and his solo piano music provides some of the best examples. Based on folk songs – either transcribed or presented in fragments—Twelve Preludes for Piano is a major early work heard here in its revised version. In Ancient Music he employs the prepared piano to evoke the intimate sounds of Chinese instruments such as the qin (a horizontal lute) to create a unique acoustic effect, a quality that also permeates Wrong, Wrong, Wrong! and Hard, Hard, Hard! written for toy piano.

This album, recorded by Yiming Zhang, a rising star, exemplifies an enormous variety of my piano music. 12 Preludes is one of my earliest works dating back 40 years, and is based on elements of Chinese folk music. Each of the four movements of Ancient Music was inspired by Chinese traditional instrumental sonorities - “Gong”, “Qin”, “Pipa” and “Drum”. As in Chinese traditional music, Ancient Music is concerned with the living essence of every tone. Wrong, Wrong, Wrong! and Hard, Hard, Hard! are inspired by the poems in the same titles by Lu You and his former wife Tang Wan, respectively, in the 12th century. I purposely used cheap, often unstable instruments and the pianist’s untrained voice to achieve a most serious, sophisticated and heartfelt melodrama.’ (Ge Gan-ru)

Yiming Zhang

Yiming Zhang
Since 2012, Yiming Zhang has dedicated himself to performing Chinese piano works. In addition to giving lecture recitals of Chinese piano works with two musicologists in the field, Prof. Pu Fang and Prof. Liang Maochun, Zhang published The Piano Journal of the Republic of China, and compiled The Collection of the Republic of China’s Piano Music. The Forest, an album of the Republic of China’s piano works recorded by Yiming Zhang, was released in 2018 by China Record Group’s Beijing Branch.

Yiming Zhang has translated and published several books from English to Chinese, including Carl Czerny’s On the Proper Performance of All Beethoven’s Works for the Piano, flautist Peter-Lukas Graf’s Interpretations, music scores including Henle’s edition of Beethoven’s violin sonatas and Alban Berg’s piano sonatas, as well as Durand’s edition of Debussy’s piano works.

Yiming Zhang was awarded his doctoral degree in piano performance from Temple University, where he studied with Harvey Wedeen (piano) and Lambert Orkis (fortepiano, contemporary music, and chamber music). Before leaving for the United States in 2006, his piano teachers included Daniel Cheng, Yao Shizhen and Su Bin. Yiming Zhang is currently teaching at the piano department of Xinghai Conservatory of Music.

Booklet for Gan-Ru Ge: Piano Works