Born in Shanghai in 1955, Bright Sheng has lived much of his mature life in the United States, the final part of his education taken up in private study with Leonard Bernstein. Though banished to a distant rural location during China’s Cultural Revolution, Sheng was able to continue playing the piano and could assimilate folk music and the use of traditional Chinese instruments. The two cultures have now combined in an impressive catalogue of compositions, North American orchestras providing high profile premieres. Commissioned by New York’s Carnegie Hall, Spring Dreams dates from 1997 and was originally written for solo cello and Chinese Instruments. A new commission from the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra two years later saw the work reshaped with the solo line taken up into the violin range and dedicated to the soloist on this disc, Cho-Liang Lin. In two movements—Midnight Bells and Spring Opera—the first reflects its title in a rather obvious and predictable Chinese fashion, the second taking its theme from the famous Peking Operas. As a personal reaction, I find myself enjoying Sheng when his Eastern influences colour rather than dominate, the Tibetan Dance, for violin, clarinet and piano, using the instruments resourcefully, the finale a most engaging fast and raucous dance. The Three Fantasies completed in 2006, dedicated to Lin, and for violin/piano duo, is equally likeable, with the soulful final Kazakhstan Love Song, a gently lilting piece of considerable beauty. I will take the Singapore Chinese Orchestra at face value, but would add that Lin’s playing throughout is excellent, his colleagues—Bright Sheng as the pianist in the Tibetan Dance—being off outstanding quality.