Tan Dun’s hypnotic three-movement Water Concerto is intoxicating, both visually and aurally. Using water as a musical instrument, this extraordinary piece uses innovative techniques to explore the musicality of the sounds of water. Virtuoso percussionist and soloist David Cossin displays remarkable genius as he deftly creates unique, sensuous, organic and sometimes celestial sounds using a range of water-based instruments. Conducted by the composer, the distinctive accompaniment of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, reflecting Dun’s personal combination of Chinese and Western musical traditions, is carefully interwoven and combined with the water percussion to produce a uniquely enchanting performance.
‘This work was one of the most astonishing pieces of music that I’ve ever heard.’ The Australian
‘Organic music concerns both matters of everyday life and matters of the heart. These ideas find their origin in the animistic notion that material objects have spirits residing in them, an idea everpresent in the old village where I grew up in China. Paper can talk to the violin, the violin to water. Water can communicate with trees, and trees with the moon, and so on. In other words, every little thing in the totality of things, the entire universe, has a life and a soul.’ Tan Dun
Bonus material:
Short Film – Water: The Tears of Nature
Tan Dun Teaches Water Instruments
PICTURE FORMAT: 16:9 / 4:3
LENGTH: 67 Mins
SOUND: 5.1 DOLBY SURROUND / DOLBY STEREO
SUBTITLES: EN/FR/DE/ES/IT
