Seiji Ozawa & Boston Symphony Orchestra – Wu Tsu-Chiang: Little Sisters of the Grassland / Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1 / Sousa: Stars and Stripes Forever (UHQCD)

With the end of Mao’s regime, the overthrow of his wife Jiang Qing and the so-called ‘Gang of Four’ in 1976, a ‘cautious artistic thaw’ began in China, and music, literature, film and theatre, which had been largely suppressed in the decade following the Cultural Revolution, made a cautious comeback. In 1977, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Seiji Ozawa, gave two performances of Wu Tsu-Chiang’s Little Sisters of the Grassland, with Liu Teh-hai as soloist, at Beijing’s Red Tower Theatre and the Capital Stadium. Ozawa also conducted the work with the Beijing Central Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom he worked for a week in June 1978.

Here’s a little tip from us: Only the first 1,000 copies of this limited edition, manufactured in Japan, feature a sequential serial number and are therefore extremely sought after by collectors. So don’t wait too long to place your order!

UHQCD stands for Ultimate High Quality Compact Disc and is a joint development of the Japanese CD replication company Memory-Tech and the Audio Quality CD Company from Hong Kong. Unlike conventional CDs, UHQCDs are not pressed from polycarbonate, but cast from a photopolymer and cured with UV light. Another layer of high-purity polycarbonate is applied to the softer photopolymer for scratch protection. The combination results in significantly reduced reflection of laser light inside the CD and an unmatched precise edge transition between pits and lands of the CD. UHQCDs are 100% compatible with standard CD players. Musically, the result is a sound image strongly reminiscent of analog master tapes.

Lista pieselor

Wu Tsu-Chiang

1. Little Sisters of the Grassland – Concerto for pipa and orchestra

John Philip Sousa

2. Stars and Stripes Forever

Franz Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major

3. I. Allegro maestoso

4. II. Quasi adagio – Allegretto vivace – Allegro animato

5. III. Allegro marziale animato