Mida oli 3/11/08

Next week is Holy Week in the Christian faith, beginning with Palm Sunday March 16 and ending with Easter March 23.
   The season is always the occasion for great music, especially by Johann Sebastian Bach.
   West meets East this year in Cincinnati with the regional premiere of Tan Dun’s “Water Passion after St. Matthew," commissioned by Helmuth Rilling for the International Bach Academy in Stuttgart in honor of the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death in 2000.

World premiere led by Tan Dun of his "Water Passion after St. Matthew" in Stuttgart in 2000

   As reverential and moving as the work that inspired it, Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion,” “Water Passion” will be performed by the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Chamber Choir, the Percussion Group Cincinnati and guest artists Elizabeth Keusch (soprano), Stephen Bryant (bass and Yuanlin Chen (electronic sampler) at 8 p.m. March 15 in CCM’s Corbett Auditorium.
   Joining them will be CCM instrumentalists Kuan Chang Tu, violin, and Amy Gillingham, cello.  Earl Rivers, director of choral studies and director of the division of ensembles and conducting at CCM, will conduct.  Members of the Percussion Group Cincinnati, ensemble-in-residence at CCM, are Allen Otte, James Culley and Russell Burge.
   Those who heard the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra’s May 2006 concert featuring Culley in Tan Dun’s Water Concerto will have some idea what “water percussion” means.  Culley and KSO percussionists Matt Hawkins and Taft Hall played using large water-filled basins, slapping and patting the water with their hands, dipping and striking gongs and salad bowls into it and beating the open end of plastic tubes sunk into it.  The sounds of water are universal and elemental, says Tan Dun, who grew up in rural China where rivers were central to people’s lives.
   “Water Passion” is a setting of the “Passion,” or final events of Jesus’ life as told in the Gospels.  The text is drawn from St. Matthew’s Gospel. The 90-minute work comprises “Baptism,” “Temptations,” “Last Supper” and “In the Garden of Gethsemane” (part I) and “Stone Song,” “Give Us Barabbas!” “Death and Earthquake,” “Water and Resurrection” (part II).
   Listeners will be greeted by a visual as well as aural experience.  On the stage for “Water Passion” will 17 bowls of water, elevated and lighted from beneath and arranged in the shape of a cross.  The choir will be seated within the arms of the cross.  Rivers will conduct at one end.  The percussionists will work at the other three.  The vocal soloists and instrumentalists will be aligned behind Rivers left to right.
   The music is guaranteed to mystify and enthrall.  Scoring is generally sparse, though there are “big” moments like “Death and Earthquake” where thunder sheets and timpani combine for a shattering effect.  The chorus employs monk chanting and overtone singing, and members play Tibetan finger bells and smooth stones struck together. In addition to singing and speaking, the soloists play the xun, an egg-shaped ancient Chinese wind instrumental made of clay.
   Percussion instruments specified include soda bottles, sieve, tubular bells, Tibetan double cymbals, water shakers (long tubes with water and plastic balls inside) and water phone (a hand-held device with water-filled steel prongs played with the edge of a bow).
   Bryant (Jesus, John the Baptist) and Keusch (Devil and other roles) are closely identified with “Water Passion,” having performed the world premiere in Stuttgart in 2000 and on the live recording by Sony Classical.  The vocal parts mix Chinese and European techniques, including extreme ranges, sliding between notes, piercing tone and Mongolian Tuvan, or overtone-rich “throat-singing” (Tan Dun spent several years performing in Peking Opera, China’s traditional music theater).
   The violinist and cellist also mix genres – Tan Dun refers to” Silk Road” fiddling -- for an exotic, ethnic sound.
   There is a further nod to Bach in Tan Dun’s use of a recurring melodic fragment as a kind of “passion chorale,” which is heard quite melodiously at the end, as the choruses echo Ecclesiastes: “A time to love, a time of peace, a time to dance, a time of silence.” 
   [Note: Former Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra assistant conductor Sarah Ioannides, assistant conductor to Tan Dun from 1997-2002, was choir director and production manager for the world premiere of “Water Passion” in Stuttgart in 2000.]
   Tickets for "Water Passion" are $10, $5 for non-UC students, UC students free.  Call (513) 556-4183 or visit www.ccm.uc.edu. The event is sponsored by CCM's Harmony Fund and Tangeman Sacred Music Center.