Paulus Hook Music Foundation presents Shiqi Zhong in Review
Shiqi Zhong, Percussion
Misha Piatigorsky, Piano
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY
December 27, 2019
Well, here’s something I never thought would happen during that strange week between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day: I attend a percussion recital and am moved to tears by its sheer beauty and excellence.
The prodigious young Chinese multi-percussionist Shiqi Zhong displayed not only sovereign technical mastery on a dizzying array of instruments, but he created a total performance environment through the use of visual light projections on the rear wall of the recital hall, pre-recorded sounds (many specified by their respective composers), and moody low lighting. All these conspired to immerse the listener in a world as concentrated as the performer was. I often felt as though I was witnessing a high priest summoning a realm inaccessible to mere mortals. The whole event was given in a very stylish way.
As if to defy expectation, the very first piece on the program, a world premiere commissioned by Mr. Zhong from Lu Wang called Up Kind as Water involved no playing of any percussion instrument. Mr. Zhong simply moved his hands in choreographed shapes and rhythms, and haunting patterns of light and sound were generated by the movements. This set the tone for the inventive evening.
Mr. Zhong’s technical resources appear limitless, ranging from furious energy, when required, to ethereal delicacy. His independence of hands is unbelievable; and he has a certain meditative humility, often facing upstage when not playing, seeming to contemplate something within.
He then gave a blistering account of a percussion “classic,” if one may use that word: John Psathas’ One Study One Summary. The etude portion, with its motoric textures was mesmerizing, dissolving into the more lyrical “summary.” By the way, if you’ve never attended a percussion recital, you don’t know that it is in fact possible to phrase and sing on these instruments in the way countless generations of piano teachers have strived to instill in their students while de-emphasizing the percussive nature of the piano. It’s quite ironic.
The second world premiere, another commission by Mr. Zhong, was Heng Liu’s When the Sun Goes Down, a beautiful meditation on sunset, on light passing into darkness. The “mere” catalog of instruments played was: bass drum, djembe, congas, bongos, doumbek, shaker, windchimes, bells, and splash cymbals.
Next came a more “user-friendly” set, involving Zhong’s assisting artist, pianist Misha Piatigorsky, who is the grand-nephew of that Piatigorsky, famed cellist Gregor. Blues, tango, and a unique fusion of the sonorities of the various percussion instruments with the sound of a concert grand piano made for an exciting romp, especially with the ferocious energy summoned by Mr. Piatigorsky in the attraction/repulsion of the Milonga, with its references to Piazzolla. The two players were in perfect synchronization, to say the least, and their blend was unreal.
After intermission came the largest work, again another “classic”: Per Nørgård’s I-Ching, which refers to the thousands of years old “Book of Changes,” a repertoire of sixty-four archetypal combinations of three solid or dashed lines that represent “everything” real, metaphorical, spiritual, and universal. The book was highly valued by Carl Jung in his therapeutic system. There are four sections in the work, which begins with the elemental fury of universal energies and takes us on a journey to calmer material before returning to cataclysm. The stage was absolutely full, with every type of percussion instrument, some that I had never seen before. Mr. Zhong changed into a gorgeous Chinese long garment for this performance. He finished the work, and the evening, with a final blow on the large gong, which was saved for this one moment only. It was a truly hypnotic evening.
