Pictured: Tan Dun, image via Sydney Opera House.
Chinese-American composer and conductor Tan Dun is best known for his film scores. His work on Ang Lee’s hit film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon earned him a BAFTA, an Oscar, and a Grammy Award. He also scored Hero and The Banquet and later brought all three compositions together into The Martial Arts Cycle.
Tan Dun was in fine form on Saturday night at the Opera House in his role of conductor, leading the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in a program featuring works by three composers: his own Nu Shu: The Secret Songs of Women; Bartok’s Miraculous Mandarin Suite; and 100 Birds Flying Towards the Phoenix by Guan Xia. Only the rousing encore waved the baton to those popular movie soundtracks.
The program opened with the Guan Xia composition, a beautiful work that celebrates and re-imagines a traditional Chinese folk song. It also celebrates the suona, a woodwind instrument that has been a musical staple for two thousand years in China but is little known outside central Asia. This is a magnificent instrument that sounds at times like an oboe, a trumpet, or even a cornet. Guest soloist Liu Wenwen gave a faultless performance, superbly demonstrating the instrument’s range and versatility. Tan Dun was almost dancing on the podium, such was his obvious enjoyment of the piece. And the audience loved it, breaking into spontaneous applause for Liu Wenwen’s amazing ability to hold a note during the climax. One enraptured fan even sprinted the full length of the Concert Hall to present her with a generous bouquet of flowers.
This delightful Chinese composition was followed by The Miraculous Mandarin Suite, a short ballet by Hungarian composer Bela Bartok. At first it seemed like a peculiar programming choice, until Tan Dun admitted that Bartok ‘is my hero’.
The SSO played with all the vigour and precision demanded by this chaotic composition. And there was a clear rapport between players and conductor as they made sense of the dramatic orchestral cacophony. It was a special treat to see the Concert Hall organ called into service under the impressive touch of David Drury. There is something suitably gothic about the organ being perched so high above the stage.
After the interval, it was time for Tan Dun’s keynote work, Nu Shu: The Secret Songs of Women. This is a musical and ethnographic study of a little-known woman’s language that flourished for generations in feudal China but was in danger of being lost forever. Tan Dun made over 200 hours of video recordings with the women of the Hunan Province. (‘You now know two people from Hunan, Mao Tse Tung and me,’ he told the audience).
Nu Shu features 13 micro-films, each with its own musical accompaniment. The films were projected on three screens hung above the seated orchestra. The score is fascinating, a creative and colourful exploration of the possibilities of classical music, although parts of it do still sound like mood music. And the films are fascinating glimpses of another world and other lives. Individually each medium is good and they form a valuable and dramatic artwork, but I did feel something of a discord, with mixed-messages between the music and the video. Ultimately the music overwhelmed the images in passages where perhaps a slightly softer hand was required.
Overall, this was a fascinating night of music from across the globe, conducted with élan and played with flair by the SSO. This program relied heavily on the percussive elements, calling for strumming, thumping, slapping, and splashing, and the players handled it all without missing a beat. And a very special mention of the masterful work by principal harpist Louise Johnson whose solo playing was magnificent.
Rating: 4 1/2 stars out of 5
Music Under the Moon
Tan Dun with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Program
GUAN XIA A Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix
BARTÓK The Miraculous Mandarin: Suite
TAN DUN Nu Shu – The Secret Songs of Women
Artists
Tan Dun conductor
Liu Wenwen suona
Louise Johnson harp
One performance only: 11 January 2017
Sydney Opera House
