Kronos Quartet is Playing Tonight at Shanghai Concert Hall
I almost couldn’t make it, because the booking office told me yesterday that all the tickets had already sold out. Today, I rang the office again and I found that there are plenty of tickets still available. They have only sold all of the 100 RMB tickets. How many times have people tried to book tickets, only to be given wrong or misleading information?
At least we can go and I am really looking forward to the show, having heards bits and pieces of the Kronos Quartet over the years. I like their album of Ornette Coleman covers and the soundtrack to Requiem for a Dream is crazy, dramatic and emotional. To the uninitiated, The Kronos Quartet is a modern German avant garde classical ensemble who draw on influences from jazz and popular culture.
The show tonight will feature a mixture of music composed by Terry Riley, Sigur Ros and Tan Dun’s Ghost Opera when they will be joined by the pipa player, Wu Man. Here is an extract from the Shanghai Cultural Information website.
For Tan Dun’s Ghost Opera, the Kronos Quartet had their instrumental abilities stretched to include various percussion, wind instruments, and vocals and were joined by pipa virtuoso Wu Man. The first sound one hears is a hand being drawn through a bowl of water. Soon, strains of Bach appear, accompanied by the pipa, an ancient Chinese lute, and the voiced prayer of a monk. Bach figures into much of the work. The music is generally soft in nature with, aside from the Bach, frequent references to Chinese folk songs of a pastoral quality. It’s almost lulling at times, though there’s enough subtlety of detail to keep the attentive listener engaged. Those who only cottoned to Tan Dun after his success several years after this recording, with the soundtrack to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, should enjoy this carefully considered, meditative piece.
Source: Shanghai Culture Website, accessed 18/03/2007
If you want to go to this show, there will be tickets at the venue for 180 RMB, 280 RMB, 380 RMB, 480 RMB and 800 RMB. The show starts at 7.30pm at Shanghai Concert Hall, 523 Yan’an Dong Lu (near Xizang Lu) Shanghai, (Tel: 6386 2836). The closest metro is People’s Square.
Links:
culture.sh.cn,
upcoming.org
Posted: March 18th, 2007 under Shanghai, culture, music.
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