Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

Last Night in LA--Paper

When we walked into Disney Hall for the Los Angeles Philharmonic concert, it was immediately clear that we were in for something different. Hanging from the ceiling were three large, long unrolled scrolls of paper. The front of the stage was occupied by a somewhat stacked set of cardboard boxes and some wire frames holding sheets of paper. The percussion stands, spread along the back of the orchestra, included some unusual accessories. And there were no first violins. While the orchestra was tuning, careful glances around the auditorium revealed music stands along the side seats (and presumably in back of the hall), indicating that we would be surrounded with sound.

The concerto began with the sounds of a percussionist on stage right slowly tearing a sheet of paper. A percussionist on stage left joined in, slowly tearing another sheet of paper. Then the soloist carefully lifted a square sheet of paper up to his lips and began using it as a whistle, producing a strange, keening series of tones. The work? Tan Dun�s �Paper Concerto� for orchestra and paper percussion. The instrumentation list included: �large paper screens, paper cymbals, thick paper sheets, cardboard thundersheets, thin waxed-paper bags, paper strips, tracing paper, paper spinphones, paper head drums, paper cardboard tube drum, paper thunder tube, paper umbrella, paper box drums, and Chinese folding paper fan�. Not included in this list were the members of the orchestra who were at times called upon to audibly change the pages of their music, back and forth. David Cossin was the solo percussionist, and he was admirable.

The concerto was first performed in Los Angeles 18 months ago, as part of the series of concerts for the opening of Disney Hall. At that time, people enjoyed the work, listening to the clarity of all of the unusual sounds in the Disney Hall acoustics, but it was viewed as a work that wasn�t fully serious. Dun himself said that he really didn�t know how an orchestra would sound with paper. Since then, Dun has re-worked the concerto; the first two movements were completely rewritten. The result--while it remains great fun to experience--is a fully-serious musical composition in four movements. Thirty minutes seemed very short. (Later, leaving the concert near us, were two women who appeared to be in their 80s. One said to the other �Wasn�t that a great concert! I even enjoyed the Paper Concerto!� The other couldn�t go quite that far. �Maybe I�m just too resistant to change. I�m not sure I could say I enjoyed it, [pause] but at least I could keep still and listen to it.�)

The concerto is the latest of Dun�s compositions using elements he remembers from his childhood--ceramics, water, paper. New York had the review of his Water Concerto six years ago, with Masur conducting; since the New York Philharmonic�s programs are so much more conservative than we have out West, it would have been fun to see the audience reactions; Dun�s �Water Passion� was performed in the looser surroundings of Brooklyn.

Miguel Harth-Bedoya returned for his first assignment as Guest Conductor after having served notably as Associate Conductor for the Philharmonic. It was a very good concert. After intermission, returning back to earth after Dun, the orchestra played Stravinsky�s �Song of the Nightingale� (1917), and Harth-Bedoya evoked the romantic lines as well as the color and astringency of the work. The conclusion was Tschaikovsky�s Violin Concerto with Vadim Repin as the soloist. I don�t know who�s the best violinist in the world today, but it�s hard to imagine anyone better than Repin was yesterday. It�s undoubtedly a personal flaw, but I find most of Tschaikovsky�s orchestral music to be incomplete without ballerinas; while listening to those long melodies, images of dancers on stage keep coming to mind. It�s a personal compliment to say that when hearing Repin with the Philharmonic I only twice visualized ballet dancers.

posted by Jerry Zinser 5/02/2005