Maître du Qin

This album is a masterpiece of elegance. After her passing, Tsar Teh-yun left only numerous cassette tape recordings, made to guide her students. These recordings are of good quality, albeit with an audible hiss that easily vanishes into unhearing: such is the power of her playing. One can occasionally hear squeals of distant streetcar wheels and birds chirping in the courtyard: the world passes by; beauty is eternal. Tsar's use of silk strings gives the music a deep, rich harmonic, unlike the sharp, biting twang of the metal strings used by many players. Her approach is not shyly dainty; it is that of the consummate master. The music is pensive, never rushed.

To start at the beginning might be to start with Disc 2. The first track is a demonstration of finger technique. Then follow a number of pretty melodies of relative simplicity for the student to learn. Difficulty increases as we continue to Sorrow in Changmen Palace, a piece that highlights the scraping technique to stunning and deeply moving effect. We continue on to three of the great classic works, Thinking of an Old Friend, Drunken Fisherman Sings in the Evening and Dialogue between a Fisherman and a Woodcutter, before finishing off with three tracks by Shen Caonong, Tsar's teacher.

Disc 1 is Tsar at her most sublime. Sunny Spring is a bright and sunny piece. Then follows a curious little work that sounds oddly contorted: to follow must be to be steadfastly loyal. We are subsequently treated to one masterful rendition after another of the most famous works in the repertoire: Waters and Mists of the Rivers Xiao and Xiang, two strikingly different versions of Wild Geese Landing on Sand, Incantation of the Buddhist Priest Pu'an, Three Variations on the Tune 'Plum Blossom' and others, before the longest and final track of the album, Eighteen Variations on the Tune 'Barbarian Horn', a rarely heard gem of prodigious emotion that expresses the sadness felt by a woman, who had been abducted by barbarian horsemen, upon hearing the sound of the barbarian horn.