Yue Qi: First Meeting

The Strad Issue: January 2025

Description: An enterprising release looks East for inspiration

Musicians: Yue Qi (viola) Yue Li (piano)

Works: Music by Bao, Beethoven, Coates, Fauré, Gershwin, Guan, Liszt, Liu and Yang

Catalogue number: NCPA CLASSICS 81650192-1

Among the presenters at the 2023 International Viola Congress, held in Thailand, was Yue Qi, viola professor at Renmin University of China in Beijing (see my Postcard from Bangkok in the September 2023 issue). This recording, issued on the National Centre for the Performing Arts’ label, reprises some of the music he presented on that occasion.

Most appropriately, Eric Coates’s First Meeting introduces the listener to a player with a keen ear for colour and a vivid imagination. Qi is alert to the drama in Liszt’s Romance oubliée while finding delicate tones for Beethoven’s song Zärtliche Liebe (‘Tender Love’). Fauré’s Après un rêve brings forth some beautiful sostenuto playing. The arrangement of It ain’t necessarily so, credited to a Beijing Conservatory professor, turns out to be the Heifetz transcription with a few octave transpositions: Qi dispatches it with facility and a sense of humour.

The second half of the programme constitutes a fascinating introduction to Chinese viola repertoire. Violist–composer Qingwu Guan’s The Sound of the Prairie Land is an effective showpiece partly inspired by the Mongolian horsehead fiddle, which Qi intriguingly impersonates. Baozhi Yang’s Pieces from Song Dynasty Poetry have been beautifully arranged by Shanghai Conservatory professor Xidi Shen and receive a soulful reading from Qi and his beautifully attuned piano partner Yue Li. Charming vignettes with poetic titles such as Summer Night or Fishing Boat Song at Dusk complete this most recommendable recital by a player of refined musicality.

CARLOS MARÍA SOLARE