Dragon, Concerto for Pipa—A Historical Meeting Between East and West

Dragon, Concerto for Pipa—A Historical Meeting Between East and West

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Christian and Liu (photo from GFN Productions)

A pipa? I didn’t know what it was when I was invited to to listen to one at Quebec composer Christian Thomas’s home studio in Granby, Quebec. After a little online digging, I discovered the pipa is a Chinese four-string lute whose origins in China date back 2000 years and that it was used in the soundtrack to Kung Fu Panda 3.

(photo from Liu Fang)

The reason for my trip to Christian’s studio was to hear his new four-movement composition Dragon, Concerto for Pipa, before it was going to be put to disc and performed live, first in Montreal, then, hopefully, across the world. The orchestral parts in the studio were played back via a Mac computer / Logic software setup, while the pipa part was performed live by the musician the concerto was written for, Liu Fang. Liu, based in Canada since 1996, is one of the world’s most eminent pipa players. She’s been described by magazines L’actualité and La Scena Musicale as “the empress of the pipa” and “an ambassador of musical soul and spirituality”, respectively.

How this concerto came to be is like one of those stories that seems to have been shaped by destiny. When Christian attended Liu Fang’s solo concert at Montreal’s Bourgie Hall, he was so captivated by her performance that he immediately wanted to compose a concerto for her and the pipa. “It is such an expressive instrument,” Christian told me during my visit to his studio. “And Liu plays with such sensitivity. It’s a very technical instrument—it’s very difficult to play—but when Liu plays it, we don’t pay attention to the technical side because Liu is so fantastic at her instrument.”

Christian discussed his idea with Liu after the concert, then followed up with her a week later with a draft of the project. “When Liu met Christian,” said Richeng, Liu’s manager and husband, who accompanied Liu at the studio. “She was very impressed because Christian is very open-minded, very passionate, and loved her music. She then listened to to some of Christian’s past compositions, and particularly to his singing”—Liu heard Christian sing in the score for musical comedy La vie en bleu— “and was very impressed by his talents.” She was doubly impressed after she’d returned a year later from a trip to China and heard the concerto’s completed 2nd movement. That’s when it hit her that this concerto was an opportunity of a lifetime.

I can attest to the 2nd movement’s impressiveness, as I can those of the three other movements. The whole piece is a tour de force, and hearing Liu play her instrument felt akin to being in an exotic dream I didn’t want to wake from. Liu told me that starting at age six, she practiced the pipa for four hours a day, two before school and two after, and it shows in the way she’s able make it all look so graceful and effortless. As Christian described it, Liu “dances the ballet with her hands.” My own metaphor came to me as I watched and listened to Liu play, about how her connection to the pipa seemed so instinctive, natural, and intimate, that it came across less as an instrument than an extension of her being—perhaps a third lung, or even a second heart, if my emotional response to what she was communicating was anything to go by.

While rooted in Chinese culture, Dragon, Concerto for Pipa sounds universal. This is no surprise considering Christian’s extensive experience composing scores for theater, film, documentaries, and television. His cinematic sensibility imbues the concerto with narrative momentum and a sweeping grandeur—fitting for a piece based on the life of a realm-protecting dragon—and lends a familiar tone to the music’s exoticism. It is an evocative, heroic musical tale that I predict will appeal to a large audience.

(photo by Robert Schryer)
(photo by Robert Schryer)

Christian describes his pipa concerto as blending East Asian, cinematic, and middle eastern influences. While he has never been to China, he became deeply acquainted with the structure of Eastern music and with Liu’s musical repertory.

I asked Christian, who doesn’t play the pipa, how he was able to communicate to Liu what he wanted her instrument to do. “Liu made me understand the different registers of the pipa, and how she tunes the instrument,” he said. “I didn’t tell her how to play, but I learned how the pipa is played so we could work together and share ideas. I knew how I wanted the movements to sound. The final result exceeded my expectations.”

(photo by Robert Schryer)

In 2024, the concerto caught the attention of Lily Luo, who agreed to release the music on her record label, Forté Art and Music. She also enlisted the services of GFN Productions to produce the concerto’s live performances. Performing the orchestral parts is an 18-piece orchestra conducted by Francis Choinière, a young, rising star who also fell under the dragon’s spell. For the album, the concerto was recorded at Montreal’s Maison Symphonique on September 27th, 2024.

The concerto is available on CD, and will soon be released as a special vinyl edition, mastered by audiophile sound engineer René Laflamme. The music celebrates the Chinese Year of the Dragon, while paying tribute to Liu and the pipa. Christian explained that after he’d seen that first performance that started it all, he felt compelled to elevate both Liu and the pipa’s presence in the Western world. He achieved this by composing his first pipa concerto—a groundbreaking fusion of Eastern tradition and Western orchestration. Dragon, Concerto for Pipa stands as a historic meeting of two musical worlds.

You can be part of that history by attending the concerto’s premiere at Maison Symphonique, Place des Arts, on January 30th 2025 (Chinese New Year). For tickets, click here (includes the Butterfly Lovers violin concerto featuring violinist Guillaume Villeneuve).

More information:

CD: https://forteartmusic.com/…/dragons-pipa-concerto-cd/

Vinyl pre-order: https://forteartmusic.com/…/dragons-pipa-concerto-lp/

Special edition vinyl, mastered by René Laflamme.
Lacquers cut by Bernie Grundman.

Produced by Philippe Bouvrette & Francis Choinière
Producers Gabriel Felcarek, Francis Choinière & Nicholas Choinière
Executive Producer Lily Luo
Sound recording, editing  and mixing Philippe Bouvrette
Stereo and Atmos Mixing Carl Talbot (Musicom Production)
Mastering Marc Thériault (Le Lab Mastering)
Album cover artwork Yuxuan Kong
Graphic design and production Marc LaTulippe
Creative director Nicholas Choinière

Recorded in Dolby Atmos at Maison Symphonique, Montreal, in September 2024.

2024 PMA Magazine. All rights reserved.


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