Tan Dun: Bitter Love

Dun Tan (Composer), Tan Dun (Conductor), Ying Huang (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Ying Huang
• Conductor: Tan Dun
• Composer: Dun Tan
• Audio CD (August 17, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B00000JWBU
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #281,497 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #77 in Music > World Music > Far East & Asia > China

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beyond creative, January 21, 2002

By 

Moses Alexander (Alabama, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Tan Dun: Bitter Love (Audio CD)

I've been a fan of Tan Dun's music since his "Ghost Opera" with Wu Man & the Kronos Quartet. Now, he's most famous for his ethereal score to the film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." "Bitter Love" (from Peony Pavillion) finds him stretching himself and his listeners in another direction. This piece (or collection of songs) is scored for pipa (this time by the impressive Min Xiao-Fen), soprano (a stellar performace by Ying Huang), baritone chorus, and assorted percussion and electronic devices.

The range of this is staggering. Some moments sound very traditional and Chinese ("Gentle Showers"), some quite modern and western . Most of it though is some combination of the two. As disturbing and bizarre as that may sound, its actually works quite well. Tan Dun incorporates the best of both worlds (and as many will recognize, some of this served as source material for the "Crouching Tiger..." score, as one will notice in the "I Once Dreamed" section.)

Amazing voices (how such a big sound comes out of such a little woman is beyond me), quirky rhythms, great use of modern technology and liberal sampling from Chinese operas makes this a must have hodge-podge! This is where modern "opera" (if you can call it that) should be. I didn't quite give this five stars because I've heard better works by him, but this is still a high recommendation especially when compared to most music these days.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Breathtaking, September 7, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tan Dun: Bitter Love (Audio CD)

I saw the Peter Sellers opera "Peony Pavilion" at UC Berkeley several months ago -- though in some ways it was difficult for Western audiences to really enjoy, the staging and Tan Dun's music were outstanding, and I kept looking for the CD on Amazon. Once it was released, I ordered it right away, and I must say, the melding of East and West, classical and modern, is beautifully achieved in a very accessible and memorable fashion. I definitely recommend this album for everyone -- the first listening may be a little difficult, but subsequent listenings allow one to get past the strangeness and really appreciate the beauty and poetry of the music. My favorite tracks are "Against Time of Desire", "I Once Dreamed", "To Come", "Stir My Belt Ornaments", and "Secrecy Departing" (it looks like I'm most fond of the tracks with singing monks in the background!).

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A flower plucked from the void, June 26, 2000

By 

Andrew Albin (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tan Dun: Bitter Love (Audio CD)

Contemporary classical music has made for itself a reputation of bizarre inaccessibility, breaking every rule in earshot that touches on harmony or lyricism. Tan Dun, in his Peony Pavilion, has taken a slightly altered approach -- in melding the superficially disparate sounds of ancient East and modern West, he creates a piece that is, for lack of any other classification, contemporary classical. And he does it with considerable skill. Though a bit foreign at first, the music grows on you, and you discover (primarily rhythmic) novelties at each hearing.

Ying Huang steals Dun's thunder, however. Her pure, clean tone, crystal clear, fills the CD with astounding energy and vitality. Her unconventional diction and phrasing haunt the ear, and her coloratura training shines true at the extreme highs and lows Dun has written in his score. If the first minutes of the track "Against Time of Desire," Huang singing a recurring motive unaccompanied, do not entrance you, you are missing out on a gem of a voice.

Critics may see in the blending of pop (synth instruments and ocean/wind sounds, the recently "re-discovered" sound of chant, vocal percussion, and voice-overs, to name a few) with traditional Chinese music (some wonderful pipa music is buried in there) as a gratuitous attempt to appeal to a larger audience and de-mystify the modern state of classical music, with classical music duly suffering. Though I believe these claims are unfounded to a degree, there are points when I could do without a man barking like a dog, and I feel that the East is a bit betrayed and overwhelmed by the West at points.

Nonetheless, after the first two or three listenings, I completely disavowed any urges to return the CD and listen to it quite contentedly and frequently now.