I. FROM â??CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGONâ? (CON YO YO MA)
1 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
2 The Eternal Vow
3 Silk Road
4 A Love Before Time
II. FROM â??THE BANQUETâ? (CON LANG LANG)
5 The Banquet
6 Waiting
7 In The Bamboo Forest
8 Sword Dance
9 Only For Love
III. FROM â??HEROâ? (CON ITZHAK PERLMAN)
10 Hero: Overture
11 For The World - Theme Music
12 Sorrow In Desert
13 Farewell, Hero

SOUNDTRACK EL TIGRE Y EL DRAGON

Tan Dun straddles the very different worlds of concert music and film scores, winning admirers in both. He's perhaps best known for his score to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which shares with Hero a visual poetry that transcends the sword-filled action film genre. In Crouching Tiger, Tan Dun's music was often striking. In Hero he often lapses into repetition and cliché, a failing compensated for by several appealing cues. The Overture, for example, begins with the mournful wail of ancient Chinese instruments set against pounding drums, a promising start that evokes ancient China and the struggles to come. There's a mournful soprano vocalise in "Gone With the Leaves," and the "Warriors" cue recalls Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky. The plucking of the ancient Chinese lute in "In the Chess Court" evokes a timeless, peaceful mood, contrasting with the thrilling kodo drummers showcased in "Swift Sword." Itzhak Perlman gets cover billing for violin solos any competent studio fiddler could have handled. Tan Dun's admirers will want this, and audiophiles will love those kodo drummers. --Dan Davis

Written by Chinese composer Tan Dun, this is a dramatic five-movement composition for string quartet and pipa (a relative of the lute), with vocalizations and percussive effects from water, metal, stone and paper, performed on this recording by Wu Man.
Genre: Classical Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 18-MAR-1997

Manchurian pianist Lang Lang is the featured soloist on this soundtrack to director Feng Xiagang's 2006 motion picture The Banquet. The score was written by famed avant-garde music composer Tan Dun. 19 tracks total.