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 the Mao regime, the overthrow of his wife Jiang Qing, and the so-called "Gang of Four" in 1976, China experienced a "cautious artistic thaw," and music, literature, film, and theater, 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, performed Wu Tsu-Chiang's "Little Sisters of the Grassland" twice with Liu Teh-hai as soloist at Beijing's Red Tower Theatre and Capital Stadium. Ozawa also conducted the work with the Beijing Central Philharmonic, with whom he collaborated for a week in June 1978.
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. UHQCDs, unlike conventional CDs, are not pressed from polycarbonate, but cast from a photopolymer and cured with UV light. To protect the softer photopolymer from scratching, another layer of high-purity polycarbonate is applied. The combination results in a significantly reduced reflection of the laser light inside the CD and an unrivalled precise edge transition between pits and lands of the CD. UHQCDs are 100% compatible with normal CD players. Musically, the result is a sound that is strongly reminiscent of analog master tapes.

Musicians:

• Boston Symphony Orchestra
• Seiji Ozawa, conductor

Selections:

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