The UK premiere of Tan Dun's Choral Concerto: Nine took place at the Royal Festival Hall, performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) and conducted by the composer himself. The work, commissioned for Beethoven's 250th anniversary, employs the same orchestral and choral forces as Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, augmented by extensive percussion.
The concerto features a range of choral effects, including hisses, pitch slides, dramatic inhalations, and hints of Mongolian throat singing. The texts, by Chinese poets Qu Yuan and Li Bai, were sung in English translation. The orchestra provided bass pedal drones and a mix of diatonic and pentatonic harmony, with brief quotations from Beethoven's Ninth. Percussionists used pebbles and other objects to create special effects.
The concert also included a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, conducted by Tan. Tempos were fast and rhythms crisp, but the performance lacked a sense of large-scale direction. The quartet of vocal soloists—Elizabeth Watts, Hongni Wu, John Findon, and Matthew Rose—were well matched, with Rose delivering a stentorian solo entry. However, the chorus's powerful singing could not overcome the workaday moderation of the interpretation.
