Using water as a musical instrument, this extraordinary piece uses innovative techniques to explore the musicality of the sounds of water. Soloist David Cossin displays remarkable genius as he deftly creates unique, sensuous, organic, and sometimes distinctive accompaniment of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the composer, reflecting his personal combination of Chinese and Western musical tradition.

REGIONS: All Regions
PICTURE FORMAT: 16:9
LENGTH: Approx 156 Mins
SOUND: 5.0 DTS SURROUND / PCM STEREO
SUBTITLES: ENGLISH/FRENCH/GERMAN/SPANISH/ITALIAN/DUTCH
NO OF DISCS: 1

In ‘Marco Polo, an opera within an opera’, composer Tan Dun portrays the Venetian explorer’s travels to the Far East as a journey of both inner and physical discovery, a voyage depicting spiritual experiences as well as a geographical expedition. At the same time the work, on a libretto by Paul Griffiths, can be seen as a compositional adventure of the composer himself, unifying the various cultural worlds he occupies: a blend of Western avant garde and Oriental traditions. Pierre Audi’s mythical staging and Jean Kalman’s fabulous set design complement the composer’s own musical direction, forging the dazzlingly versatile soloists, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and Capella Amsterdam to a stunning symbiosis of elements across time and space, a true testimony to cultures intertwined in globalisation.

Polo: Charles Workman
Marco: Sarah Castle
Kublai Khan: Stephen Richardson
Water: Nancy Allen Lundy
Shadow 1/Rustichello/Li Po: Zhang Jun
Shadow 2/Sheherazada/Mahler/Queen: Tania Kross
Shadow3/Dante/Shakespeare: Stephen Bryant
Chinese/Arabian dancer: Mu Na

Netherlands Chamber Orchestra
Cappella Amsterdam
Musical Director: Tan Dun
Stage Director: Pierre Audi

Recorded live at Het Muziektheater, Amsterdam, on 13th and 18th November 2008.

Plus
Illustrated synopsis.
Cast gallery.
Documentary: The Music of Tomorrow – including interviews with the creative team and principle cast members.

Reviews
‘Tan Dun’s Marco Polo was, for me, a multi-dimensional experience which went beyond my expectations and indeed overwhelmed my senses… Here was an opera of our generation: a fusion of elements across time and space, a true testimony to the way our worlds have become intertwined in the globalisation process.’ Anne Ku, Bonjournal.com

Tan Dun’s originality has been reflected in worldwide recognition of his music, which draws on both Chinese and Western musical languages. The Eight Memories in Watercolor are deft painterly reflections, while in Trace she balances sound with silence in this evocation of nature. The vibrant drama of Blue Orchid incorporates the opening motif of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations. In Film Music Sonata, which here receives its first recording on general release, Tan Dun draws on his score for the film The Banquet. The kaleidoscopic C-A-G-E-, strikingly Chinese in sound, is a tribute to his teacher and spiritual compass, John Cage. The Fire, written for Ralph van Raat, contains some of Tan Dun’s most virtuosic and dramatic piano writing.

Paper becomes a solo instrument in this ingenious fusing of of orchestral music and organic sounds to create accessible, even melodious, music. Tan Dun conducts the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra with soloist Haruka Fuji.

Charles Workman, Sarah Castle, Stephen Richardson, and Nancy Allen Lundy star in this production of the Tan Dun opera with the composer conducting the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and Cappella Amsterdam.

The multifaceted and multi-award winner Tan Dun has made an indelible mark on the world music scene with a creative repertoire that spans the boundaries of classical music. The Symphonic Poem on Three Notes describes an evolutionary arc from nature through industry and back to nature, the traditional orchestra augmented with a range of unorthodox sound sources such as wind, stones and car brake drums. The drama of Orchestral Theatre centres on memories of ritual from the composer’s childhood, linking folk music styles to Western atonality, while the Concerto for Orchestra describes the exoticism of Marco Polo’s geographical, musical and spiritual journeys.

A well thought-out concept album was to be their first recorded release, the musicians of Percussion Under Construction had already decided before Corona. The forced break in the first lockdown in March 2020 strengthened them in this decision: Newly created works in this exceptional situation were to enter into correspondence with previously known ones. Thus, Prelude I, composed by ensemble member Martin Hennicke during this time, reflects the situation of the soloist left entirely to his own devices, while he revised his work L.A., begun earlier, to represent the particular consternation of the mega-metropolis: The composition, consisting partly of field recordings of industrial plants, takes on a life of it's own and continues to exist even without the temporarily invisible people. Works of the last decades partly sound in new versions, new ones were created especially for the situation of the only virtually connected actors - an impressive demonstration of different worlds of experience.

This album presents a selection of early piano works by six of China's most internationally lauded composers. The pieces explore elements of Chinese and Western traditions though most are rooted in a traditional national style derived from Chinese opera or folk music. They evoke characteristic Chinese instrumental sonorities, especially percussion - gongs, drums, chimes and bells - from a variety of source material including Beijing Opera and ballads. Pianist Kiu Tung Poon has performed internationally and is admired for her 'lively and authoritative' playing (American Record Guide) and for her 'lyrical and emotionally nuanced' interpretations (Woodstock Times).

Includes 5 World Premiere Recordings

The ten pieces in this collection have been selected as being most representative of Chinese culture, combining compositions from the 1960s and 70s with contemporary piano works and arrangements of ancient folk songs. Appearing here in his Grand Piano debut is young pianist and composer Edward Han Jiang.

Stradivarius is pleased to present the new album by Aurora Avveduto, a young pianist who has enriched her training by participating, among other things, in various masterclasses and seminars with composers and performers of today's music. Entitled Stille, the CD invites you on a journey that intertwines music from different sources (Japan, China, the United States, Italy) brought together around the theme of the Far East and the images of permanence that derive from it, with pieces that investigate the theme of time and suggest moments of reflection in a delicate dimension of suspension. The CD, which opens with China Gates by John Adams, a composer of the second generation of minimal music, is configured as a concept album centered on a certain vision of music and the world that has roots in the Far East but which then also touches the cultures of other countries. After the songs by Toru Takemitsu Rain Tree Sketch and Rain Tree Sketch II, from 1982 and 1992 respectively, and after Eight Memories in Watercolor (1978-1979) by the Chinese composer Tan Dun, born in 1957, the album closes with two compositions by two Italian authors, Pioggia d'autunno by Federico Maria Sardelli, a multifaceted musician, painter and writer, and Stille by Giorgio Colombo Taccani, a song from 2022 that gives the title to the entire CD, for a singular listening path that creates bridges and links between the cultures of different countries.