-
Vivien Schweitzer,
The New York Times
“One of the most exciting
voices in New Music, Lei Liang strips cultural identity of
nationalistic, and even hemispheric, agenda. Lei Liang is
an important musical philosopher, coming into mature
expression.”
-
Brian Morton,
The Wire
(UK)
“What raised the evening
[Shanghai Quartet and pipa master Wu Man at Freer Gallery]
out of the ordinary - far, far out of the ordinary - was
composer Lei Liang, who brought pipa and quartet together
in a work so brilliantly original and inarguably gorgeous
that the two may never be the same...Liang’s ‘Five
Seasons,’ a sonic tour de force from a composer not yet
40.”
-
Stephen Brookes,
The Washington Post
“A highlight [of New York
Philharmonic's Contact!] was Lei Liang's
Verge
for 18 strings.
With musicians divided into four sections arranged
spatially across the stage, Liang builds on the concept of
lines converging and diverging across several sections.”
-
Brian Wise,
The Strad
“Liang’s music is deeply
philosophical, yet sensual, evocative, yet abstract, and
disciplined, yet spontaneous.”
-
Yayoi Uno Everett, Liner Notes (Mode Records)
“Not only is Lei Liang one of
the important Chinese composers of the new generation, he
is also a fine example of something Chou Wen-chung calls
for: the rebirth of the venerable wenren
tradition – the
tradition of the artist/scholar.”
-
Edward Green,
Contemporary Music Review
“Lei Liang's
Yuan
is a 15-minute tour
de force: a dense example of profound cross-culturalism.”
-
James M. Keller,
Chamber Music
“Lei Liang is the most
interesting member of the Chinese new wave, of whom Tan Dun
is the best known. These pieces are theatrical, engaging
yet intensely thoughtful...A deeply personal art of
memory.”
-
Andy Hamilton,
The Wire
(UK)
“Lei Liang’s magnetism lies in
the ways in which traditional elements become more abstract
as they blend into western music without giving any hint of
exoticism but as one’s own personal language, which
produces a sublimated world of oriental sound.”
-
Yuki Kakiichi,
The Record Geijutsu
(Japan)
“[Verge] is extremely beautiful
music versus extremely fast music. The piece is also
unusual in the way that it's set up - it's for 18 string
players grouped in four quartets, and then, on the left and
right, double basses.”
-
Magnus Lindberg,
Time Out New York
“Liang’s masterly sense for
texture and shape, as well as a quirky rhythmic pattern,
give these pieces substance and quiet sinew. Resolutely
modern and original, there is little that is routine or
meek about the music of Lei Liang. It is a strong cup of
coffee, indeed. For those inclined to excitement and
stimulation in their music-making, his is an important
young voice.”
-
Peter Burwasser,
Fanfare Magazine
“Tremors of a Memory
Chord, scored for piano and grand
Chinese orchestra, is a revelation. The combination of
high-modern textural effects and the slightly alien (to
Western ears) sonorities of Chinese instruments is at times
unearthly, like tape music from one of Stockhausen’s
especially extra-terrestrial moods, and at times positively
uncanny, as if the Chinese musical tradition had been
melted down and poured into surreal new shapes, while yet
retaining familiar features of the original style. The
performances are, without exception, stellar. But they’d
have to be: Lei Liang’s scores seem to demand one
delicately constructed dramatic gesture after another.
Stephen Drury’s Callithumpian Consort scintillates in the
brilliantly colored Aural
Hypothesis for small ensemble, and
Five
Seasons stars Wu Man, rockstar of the
lute-like Chinese pipa, alongside the Shanghai Quartet.
Passionately, but precisely, these interpreters make a
powerful case for Lei Liang as a composer with the ears and
the ingenuity to construct a boundless, and boundlessly
thrilling, new music.”
-
Daniel Stephen Johnson,
New York Public Radio WQXR Q2 “Music Album of the
Week”
(Dec 24, 2012)
“Lei Liang’s music transcends
nationalism. This disc [Brush-Stroke] embraces a broad
vision of attributes that are quintessential to Asia,
encompassing those of Japan, China, and Mongolia.”
-
Kazushi Ishida,
The Record Geijutsu
(Japan)
“Gobi Gloria
is a work to be
reckoned with on many levels—perhaps the most intricate and
persuasive work [on Telarc Records album “Dim Sum”].”
-
Steve Ritter,
Audiophile Audition
“Liang brings an astonishing
range of influences and techniques to bear on a highly
individual but always arresting compositional style. His
pieces may be inspired by a dream of the Emperor Yang,
calligraphy or painting, but they all gently invite you
into an intriguing, endlessly fascinating place where you
won’t just encounter Liang - you’ll find out something
about yourself as well.”
-
James Chute,
San Diego Union-Tribune
“Mr. Liang offered painterly
evocations of motion and mood.”
-
Steve Smith,
The New York Times
"The music of Chinese composer
Lei Liang is immediately distinctive due to its lack of
cliché. He begins with the music of his roots, far from
cosmopolitan, and explores the netherworlds of these
sounds."
-
Dan Albertson,
La Folia
"Gobi
Gloria,
written by Lei Liang, was especially arresting for its
simplicity, soulfulness and sheer beauty.”
-
Harvey Steiman,
Aspen Times
“[The Meridian Arts Ensemble]
began with Lei Liang's Ascension,
a frenetic work that explores the sonic virility of each
instrument.”
-
Edward Ortiz,
The Sacramento Bee
“Alan Gilbert conducts the NY
Phil through some heart-stopping works by the exciting
young cast of Lei Liang, Marc-André Dalbavie...”
-
Q2, WQXR The Classical Music Station of NYC
“I do not know any other
Chinese composer capable of embracing his past from a
global and transcendental perspective, overcoming outdated
watertight compartments, understanding today’s music as a
free space where, with the aid of talent, everything can be
made fit.”
-
Ismael G. Cabral,
Chorro de luz
[Spain]
“Liang’s music is
sophisticated, complex at times, but never fails to be
immediate in expressive meaning. This accessibility,
together with the detailed craftsmanship makes his music
special.”
-
Bert Van Herck,
Zeitschichten
“Liang's compositions take
compellingly contrasting paths. Rooted in Chinese and
Western music, his stuff is prickly but has heart. We need
that, y'know?"
-
Mark Keresman,
ICON
“I was captivated by the Trio
of Lei Liang...”
-
Paul Hertelendy,
Arts San Francisco
"Gobi
Gloria is especially interesting in
that the instruments frequently do not accompany the
primary melodic line, but create rhythmic underpinning or
additional melodic layers, often with varying speeds and
textures."
-
Art Lange,
Fanfare
“In his 'Yuan for saxophone
quartet,' Lei Liang chillingly embodies the ghost with
unearthly-sounding saxophones, seemingly blowing just
behind a dark canopy of trees. The piece is a highlight
of Antiphony
[Innova Records].”
-
Doyle Armbrust,
Time Out Chicago
“Lei Liang’s
Gobi
Gloria…reveal a conscious blending of
sounds, techniques and ideas from traditional Chinese music
with the string quartet of the Western classical tradition.
This delightful and innovative music brings a fresh
perspective, suggesting intriguing possibilities for the
future of the string quartet.”
-
New Classics, Chamber Music (UK)
“[Mode Records MODE 210]
is a splendid
compilation which should delight, in part or whole,
everyone who comes across it. This disc is recommended not
to miss!”
-
Peter Grahame Woolf,
Musical Pointers
“Lei Liang presently enjoys a
growing reputation as one of the country’s most energizing
young composers.”
-
David Denton,
David’s Review Corner
“Serashi Fragments” featured
the Arditti Quartet and it is only 7 minutes, yet extremely
intense for its duration. From sparse moments to fractured
shards, this music is demanding to the musicians as well as
the listeners.”
-
Bruce Lee Gallanter,
Downtown Music Gallery
“[In Lei Liang’s
Five
Seasons,] the evocation of water dripping
and splashing was delightful...the falling leaves and the
drumming sounds were astonishingly vivid. Indeed, one could
count this the hit of the evening.”
-
Jan Narveson,
The Record
“[Milou] is a disc to play and
play again.”
-
Peter Grahame Woolf,
Musical Pointers
“Yuan,
for saxophone
quartet, and the Harp Concerto are especially convincing
works, both for the fascinating soundworlds they conjure up
and their intensely dramatic development. A broad
assortment of performers brings earnest commitment and
inventive musicality of Liang’s complex scores.”
-
Stephen Eddins,
All Music
“Lei Liang is a composer with a
remarkable poetic sensibility.”
-
ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and
Publishers)
Audio Portraits
“For a composer with
imagination and a sharp ear for synchronicities and
contrasts, personal roots can be very fertile ground as a
launching pad for startlingly fresh new music. Chinese-born
American composer Lei Liang serves as an excellent
example…In use of space and sound, calm and agitation, solo
and tutti, the two traditions [East and West] are not
nearly as far apart as one might think, at least in Liang’s
singular musical vision.”
-
Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review
“Lei Liang’s
Trio
was a compelling
piece…The ethereal, abstract sonorities it created on
piano, cello, and percussion at the beginning and end had
little to do with the modal middle section that not only
evoked dance rhythms, but itself
danced.”
-
Jonathan Wilkes,
San Francisco Classical Voice
“Lei Liang’s
Gobi
Gloria is remarkable for its
expressive range, creating a feeling of vastness of space
and timelessness that are appropriate to its subject, the
great desert of Mongolia.”
-
New Classik Reviews
(Atlanta Audio Society)
“Liang’s haunting Gobi Gloria
featured
spectacular, declamatory passages, which the Ying performed
with passion and grace.”
-
Tamara Bernstein,
The Globe and Mail
(Toronto)
“Underneath Liang’s exquisite and unadorned melodies, there
is a wealth of timbral nuances…During a time when most
contemporary music seems to alienate the audience, such
elegant and tranquil music surprises and refreshes the
listeners. ”
-
Ban Lixia,
Renmin Yinyue
[People’s Music]:
Review
“[Lei Liang’s
Memories of
Xiaoxiang] is emotional, dramatic,
easily understood and felt by the audience. The response
was overwhelming.”
-
David Raymond,
The
Saxophone Journal
“In his works, the audience savors the charm of the music
of the literati. His music is both audacious and delicate;
it is modern, yet a traditional spirit seeps through
tenaciously. It poses a true challenge to our ingrained
musical thinking.”
-
Xie Jia-xing,
Yinyue Zhoubao
[Music Weekly]
“Lei Liang rejects the habitual imitation of Chinese
musical features. Instead, there are ghostly weepings and
prolonged silences. The many technical clichés of modern
music are purged completely.”
-
Xia Yan-zhou,
Yinyue Shenghuo
[Musical Life]
“The
shock brought by Lei Liang to the Chinese musical scene was
expressed in elegance and modesty.”
-
Ming Yan,
Renmin Yinyue
[People’s Music]
“Having the greatest impact aurally and visually was the
premiere of Lei Liang’s Peking Opera
Soliloquy. ”
- Jackie Lamar, The Saxophone Symposium