Uploaded February 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
Recorded at the Tianjin Juilliard School in China for the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art.
Hear the first string quartet by Tan Dun, who won an Academy Award for his soundtrack to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, newly revised for the Shanghai Quartet and performed online, with an introduction by the composer in honor of Lunar New Year. Tan Dun wrote the quartet in 1982, shortly after Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution but at a time when the government still shunned any art not officially sanctioned by the Communist Party. Labeled “spiritual pollution” during the regime’s crackdown on the arts, the piece nevertheless launched Tan Dun’s storied international career. It led to his Oscar in 2001 and to the 2006 premiere of his opera The First Emperor at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House, featuring Placido Domingo in the starring role and staged by film director Zhang Yimou. Now the composer has updated his early piece, titled Feng–Ya–Song (Ballad–Hymn–Ode), reminding audiences that music can serve as a bridge between two cultures, as he originally intended.
This program is part of Lunar New Year DC, organized by the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Recorded at the Tianjin Juilliard School in China for the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art.
Hear the first string quartet by Tan Dun, who won an Academy Award for his soundtrack to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, newly revised for the Shanghai Quartet and performed online, with an introduction by the composer in honor of Lunar New Year. Tan Dun wrote the quartet in 1982, shortly after Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution but at a time when the government still shunned any art not officially sanctioned by the Communist Party. Labeled “spiritual pollution” during the regime’s crackdown on the arts, the piece nevertheless launched Tan Dun’s storied international career. It led to his Oscar in 2001 and to the 2006 premiere of his opera The First Emperor at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House, featuring Placido Domingo in the starring role and staged by film director Zhang Yimou. Now the composer has updated his early piece, titled Feng–Ya–Song (Ballad–Hymn–Ode), reminding audiences that music can serve as a bridge between two cultures, as he originally intended.
This program is part of Lunar New Year DC, organized by the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
