Tan Dun: Symphony 1997 (Heaven Earth Mankind)
Yo-Yo Ma, cello; Imperial Bells Ensemble of China; Yip’s Children’s Choir; Hong Kong Philharmonic, Tan Dun, conductor (Sony Classical)
Tan Dun: Ghost Opera, for string quartet and pipa
Kronos Quartet; Wu Man, pipa (Nonesuch)
Now a resident of New York City, Tan Dun is the resident composer/conductor of the BBC Scottish Orchestra, a prolific composer whose music has been widely performed throughout Europe, Asia and America. He and Bright Sheng represent the leading voices among the new generation of Chinese-born composers, trained in Western classical techniques, who hit their creative stride following the infamous Cultural Revolution.
“Symphony 1997” and “Ghost Opera” attempt to fuse Western modernist musical elements with Chinese culture, philosophy and native instrumental and non-instrumental color.
The Symphony was written for and performed at the ceremony in Hong Kong on July 1 marking the reunification of that city with China. The hour-long work is sprawling and grandiosely scored for solo cello, children’s chorus, orchestra and bianzhong, a set of 65 tuned bronze bells that are 2,500 years old. Don’t be put off by the banal populism of the music for children’s chorus or the sections that sound like movie music. Much of the Symphony radiates an otherworldly beauty — notably the central movement, “Earth,” in which bianzhong, cello and orchestra engage in a delicately nuanced conversation about nature visible and invisible.
At 36 minutes, “Ghost Opera” is more succinct, more coherent and more successful. A five-movement work for string quartet and pipa, a Chinese lute, it evokes ancient folk traditions and weaves them together with quotations from Bach and Shakespeare. Eastern and western cultures are starkly juxtaposed and the work’s theatricality derives from their opposition. Besides playing, the Kronos Quartet members sing, chant and create subtle atmospheric effects using water bowls, bowed gongs, lutes, cymbals and stones.
Performances and recording are splendid in both cases. This is not music for everyone, but those listeners who are curious to explore Tan Dun’s haunting and mystical world of sound should be fascinated by these two releases.
