“Your piece “Reflection on a Tang Poem” is just lovely―a poetic and shapely masterpiece. It is beautifully paced and proportioned, yet sounds quite spontaneous in its expression―This is so hard to achieve! I find the climax especially stirring, and brilliantly written for the piano―almost like Gershwin at his best (I have always admired Gershwin’s dazzling piano writing). Better yet, the piece actually DOES what your program notes describe―and how rare that is, too. Finally, it’s so nice to listen to a piece by a composer who allows himself to write beautiful and emotionally expressive music, counting the impressionists as well as Chinese folk music in his ancestry; most composers nowadays keep trying to be clever, or complicated, or aggressively dissonant. But you’re a real poet.”
– Elinor Armer, Composer, Founder of San Francisco Conservatory of a Music composition department
” I highly recommend the excellent piano piece “Reflection on a Tang Poem” to everyone! It has made significant breakthroughs among works of the same type and theme! I warmly congratulate the author! 我向大家大力推荐“枫桥夜泊”这首优秀的钢琴作品！在同类型同题材的作品中，有了很大的突破！我向作者热烈的祝贺！”
– Wang Xilin 王西麟，Renowned Chinese Composer
“Chinese composer Young’s “Reflections on a Tang Poem” is an interesting, atmospheric piece. While one might think of Debussy and Chopin, the pentatonic scale-based modes and the Tang dynasty poem point to a Chinese influence.”
– American Record Guide
“Now sit down at a piano at midnight. Hit the soft pedal, use your cat’s paws and push-out enormous sustained chords with as many fingers as you can come up with. Sooner or later you’ll begin to think you are Debussy. That’s the spirit of romance we find in Phil Young’s Reflection on a Tang Poem. The poem itself evokes a still harbor at midnight. Indeed, La cathedrale engloutie sprang to mind, even before I read the notes. A very evocative dreamscape. But like Schumann, it also contains swirling fistfuls of notes–the very psychic storms which lead to the notion of the romantic era itself.”
– Steven Kruger New York Arts
“The beauty of Yang’s first post-intermission section suppressed any thoughts of nepotism in her choosing a work that her uncle composed for her. “Reflections on a Tang Poem” (2015) by Phil Young (Yang Zhihua, b.1952) was inspired by a classic Chinese poem “Night Mooring by Maple Bridge” written by renowned Tang Dynasty poet Zhang Ji. It evokes a nostalgic memory of quiet waters under a bridge in the moonlight and mixes Chinese folk themes using a pentatonic scale with suggestions of such traditional instruments as a pipa. Yang’s performance was scintillating as she brought out all the pointillistic effects in this shimmering tapestry in sound. (A recorded performance by this artist may be enjoyed on her fine recording “Folding Time” on Albany Records, Troy1572).”
– Cultural Voice of North Carolina
“Young’s lushly romantic score, in particular, is highly effective in giving the work a kind of filmic grandeur……..”
– San Jose Mercury News
“Young provides modern string textures with harmonics and considerable orchestral variety, in mildly dissonant surroundings. And he does so in dramatic fashion. When pentatonic passages occur, they are tastefully blended. Obviously he worked hard to be stylistically consistent. Bravo!”
– San Francisco Classical Voice
“CPAA resident composer Phil Young provided music that not only laid the platform upon which the dancers could emote, but could easily stand alone as an outstanding modern work. It’s an Epic!”
– Inside Bay Area
Interview with Andrew Celentano
PHIL YOUNG 杨智华 | composer 