Tan Dun’s hypnotic three-movement Water Concerto is intoxicating, both
visually and aurally. Using water as a musical instrument, this
extraordinary piece uses innovative techniques to explore the musicality
of the sounds of water. Virtuoso percussionist and soloist David Cossin
displays remarkable genius as he deftly creates unique, sensuous, organic
and sometimes celestial sounds using a range of water-based
instruments. Conducted by the composer, the distinctive accompaniment
of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, reflecting Dun’s
personal combination of Chinese and Western musical traditions, is
carefully interwoven and combined with the water percussion to
produce a uniquely enchanting performance.

‘This work was one of the most astonishing pieces of music that I’ve ever
heard.’ The Australian

‘Organic music concerns both matters of everyday life and matters
of the heart. These ideas find their origin in the animistic notion
that material objects have spirits residing in them, an idea everpresent
in the old village where I grew up in China. Paper can talk
to the violin, the violin to water. Water can communicate with
trees, and trees with the moon, and so on. In other words, every
little thing in the totality of things, the entire universe, has a life
and a soul.’ Tan Dun

Paper Percussionists:
Haruka Fujii (Solo)
Rika Fujii
Tamao Inano

Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Tan Dun

Bonus material:
Short Film - Paper: The Song of Nature
Tan Dun Demonstrates Paper Music *
Tan Dun Teaches Paper Instruments *
Recorded live at the Stockholm International Composer’s
Festival, Stockholm Concert Hall on 8th November 2007.