Bion Tsang and Tan Dun
Tonight I went to a concert at the UT School of Music featuring concert cellist Bion Tsang who is in residence there as a teacher. I heard about the show at the last minute and what drew me to it was a piece by Tan Dun, the composer of the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon soundtrack. Tan does some really interesting things with percussion and this was the first time the piece, Snow in June, was to be performed in Austin. Tsang performed four very different works during the concert but the first half of the performance was much better than the second.
The first piece was breathtaking: Chaconne in D minor for two celli by Bach. Tsang played it with his wife, Amy Levine-Tsang, who is also a concert cellist. It was gorgeous and gave me goosebumps. It was also strange and moving to see a couple play it together. They gave each other sly glaces and nods, as if they were discussing nookie in front of the kids.
The second piece was Snow in June, which was performed with four percussionists, 65 odd instruments, a fair amount of newspaper and several sets of rocks. The instrumentation was awesome - I’ve never seen a marimba, vibes or xylophone played with wire brushes and the sound was incredible. The mallet texture kept changing from soft to thin-hard to thick-hard to metallic to hand-beaten. It was amazing how all these different sounds were drawn out of the instruments. The piece definately felt like a thematic forerunner to the CTHD score, lots of sliding notes and constantly playing with Asian scales but always with one foot firmly in a Western understanding of tonality. Tsang is a wonderful cellist and played beautifully. The percussion ensemble was hard working and having fun with the piece and I’ve now discovered a great marimba player in town, Thomas Burritt. The percussion ensemble at UT will be performing this piece again on Tuesday February 20th. I enjoyed it so much I may go again and try to bring some friends.