“The most individual work was Vivian Fung’s Chanted Rituals, heard in its Midwestern premiere. East really does meet West in the Canadian composer’s chant-based work for trumpeter and two percussionists, and Burns displayed impressive chops as soloist in the jazz-inflected opening Dance, switching to flugelhorn for the atmospheric central Prayer.”
-- Chicago Classical Review, May 20, 2009 – Review of Fulcrum Point’s concert in Chicago, IL“The most memorable part of the ensemble’s concert on Friday evening was an encore from that disc: Vivian Fung’s ‘Pizzicato for String Quartet.’ Ms. Fung’s evocative work, inspired by Chinese and Asian instruments like the pipa and gamelan, features percussive gestures and a medley of plucked sounds, including strumming. At one point the musicians rapped their knuckles against the wood of their instruments.”
-- New York Times, April 22, 2009—Review of the Ying Quartet’s Performance at Weill Recital Hall“I was particularly struck…by the rhythmically buoyant creations of composer – Vivian Fung.”
-- San Francisco Chronicle, January 20, 2008 – Review of the Ying Quartet’s Recent CD release on the Telarc Label.“The Yings also offered a taste of “Dim Sum” as an encore: the spiky, syncopated Pizzicato for String Quartet by Vivian Fung.”
-- Los Angeles Times, January 15, 2008“Next on the program was ‘Pizzicato for Strings,’ the third movement of a string quartet by Vivian Fung (b.1975), a recent graduate of Juilliard. The movement, played entirely without the bow, requires a whole new glossary of pizzicato sub-techniques: the strings as well as the instrument body are struck, plucked, banged and slapped. The movement is delightfully witty, making us curious to hear the complete quartet.”
-- Classical Voice of North Carolina, January 21, 2007“Pizzicato for String Quartet (2001) by Vivian Fung featured fetching passages of pizzicato, brilliantly played by the Yings. At moments when the plucked strings were gentle and unified, Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings came to mind.”
-- Kalamazoo Gazette, October 25, 2007“Vivian Fung’s Miniatures for Clarinet and String Quartet take advantage of her Chinese heritage to produce some non-traditional (in the Western sense) harmony and melody that’s quite compelling.”
-- David Hurwitz of Classicstoday.com“The last work on the [Composers In The Loft] CD, Vivian Fung’s Miniatures, brings the sound of the clarinet to an otherwise piano-and-strings program. Miniatures is a set of variations on an Uighur folksong — the Uighur people being of Western China, along the Silk Road. The string quartet is almost always an accompaniment to the clarinet, though with ingenious rhythmic patterns and piquant harmonies, while the clarinet part is extremely virtuosic — splendidly played by John Bruce Yeh of the CSO. Here too ‘bent’ notes are used, though now to imitate the sound of a folk instrument. (The piece also calls for glissandos that suggest Gershwin as much as the Silk Road.) The four short movements are titled ‘Floating’ (slow and serene), ‘Light and Playful’ (staccato syncopations in the clarinet, against a steady string pulse), ‘Improvisation-like’ (with cadenza-like passages for the clarinet), and a longer finale, ‘A Piacere,’ which means ‘at pleasure,’ i.e., allowing ad libs — although the program notes don’t specify whether this refers to the performance or to the composer’s own improvisations on the folksong. In any case, the movement opens with the clarinet unaccompanied except for a few plucked-string interjections, then a final variation. Miniatures would be a fabulous piece to open a program featuring the Brahms Clarinet Quintet — here’s wishing it a long life on the concert stage.”
“Although I found the Jalbert and Fung works the most musically rewarding — the ones I want most to hear repeatedly — the entire CD, a generous 78-and-a-half minutes, is a fitting tribute to an important organization for new chamber music.”
-- Joe Milica of Enjoythemusic.com
