The Sound of Silk

Li Xiangting is without doubt one of the few bona fide guqin (Chinese zither) masters of his generation. Not only a consummate musician, Li is also a poet, calligrapher and painter - in other words, a true gentleman-scholar in the Confucian tradition. His pupil, Cheng Yu, has been active in the London Chinese music scene for well-nigh two decades and has acquired an enviable reputation as a guqin and pipa performer. Last year's inaugural London International Guqin Festival 2018 brought teacher and pupil together again, reuniting a music-making partnership that spans decades and continents apart, and the results are enchanting.

The guqin, a seven-stringed fretless zither that is one of the oldest and most important of Chinese musical instruments, has experienced an off-the-scale rebirth in popularity in its homeland during the last couple of decades, which has even translated to a new level of appreciation in the West. On the other hand, the pipa, a Chinese pear-shaped lute with Central Asian links, has enjoyed constant popularity as a virtuoso instrument.

Now almost 80, Li has been known and respected throughout his long career for authoritative interpretations of standard guqin repertoire, including pieces such as ‘Moon Over the Mountain Pass’ and ‘Memory of an Old Friend’. However, it is in the improvisational solo and duet pieces where the instruments and musicians come alive. For instance, ‘Silk London’, a guqin and pipa improvisation inspired by the aforementioned festival, displays an endearing dialogue between the ethereal sliding notes of the guqin and the more earthly sounds of the pipa. Although historically guqin music is often improvised, there are precious few high-profile guqin players today aside from Li who has the skill, confidence and musicianship to do so. A slight niggle is that the producers did not have the same confidence to programme a whole album of all improvised pieces (as Li has done in one of his earlier recordings).