Tan Dun – Out of Peking Opera – Death & Fire – Orchestral Theatre II (1998)

This album doesn’t seem to be anywhere at the moment. I remember I posted “On Taoism” once, on which the composition Orchestral Theatre I; here’s Orchestral Theatre no. II, among other works.
I’m not enough of a musical theorist to know why the first composition should be named “Out of Peking Opera”. For me, it has nothing Chinese. Yet, according to the booklet, in this composition traditional Chinese tunes have been used and transformed. We Westerners will hardly recognize it as Chinese… anything traditional becomes apparent only in track 12, “Orchestral Theatre II”. In the first piece, we will just notice Tan Dun has obviously listened quite well to Bartok, Stravinsky and the second Viennese School. The Chinese, however, seem to be all too familiar with particular aspects of the composition.
Fact is that all compositions are well worth listening to. There’s a master at work here.

Tracks:

01. Out Of Peking Opera, for violin & orchestra [0:17:51.63]
02. Death And Fire (Dialogue with Paul Klee) - 1 Portrait [0:02:53.43]
03. Death And Fire (Dialogue with Paul Klee) - Insert 1 - Animals at Full Moon [0:03:17.21]
04. Death And Fire (Dialogue with Paul Klee) - Insert 2 - Senicio [0:01:55.49]
05. Death And Fire (Dialogue with Paul Klee) - Insert 3 - Ad Parnassum [0:02:26.42]
06. Death And Fire (Dialogue with Paul Klee) - 2 Self Portrait [0:07:16.61]
07. Death And Fire (Dialogue with Paul Klee) - Insert 4 - Twittering Machine [0:01:06.61]
08. Death And Fire (Dialogue with Paul Klee) - Insert 5 - Earth Witches [0:01:01.62]
09. Death And Fire (Dialogue with Paul Klee) - Insert 6 - Intoxication [0:02:17.23]
10. Death And Fire (Dialogue with Paul Klee) - Insert 7 - J. S. Bach [0:01:43.21]
11. Death And Fire (Dialogue with Paul Klee) - 3 Death and Fire [0:03:45.08]
12. Orchestral Theatre 2 'Re' [0:18:55.38]

Performers:

Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra – Muhai Tang
Cho-Liang Lin – violin
Kalevi Olli – bass (voice)
Kari Kropsu – 2nd conductor on track 12