A `PASSION' OF THE FIRST WATER.

Byline: David Mermelstein Correspondent

NOT SINCE Mozart's time have exotic instruments made themselves felt as today. Electronic intrusions - from synthesizers to tape loops - compete for our attention with previously unknown percussion and string objects from faraway folk cultures. Yet the most radical instrumental innovation of our time may also be the most prosaic: water.

In 2000, Chinese composer Tan Dun gave the premiere of his ``Water Passion After St. Matthew,'' commissioned with three others similar works to honor the 250th anniversary of Bach's death. On Sunday night at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, this alternatingly contrived and brilliant musical evocation of Christ's Passion, modeled after the form perfected by Bach some 280 years ago, received its local premiere, in a performance of deep integrity and commitment by Grant Gershon and Los Angeles Master Chorale.

Those familiar with the Chorale under Gershon may be surprised by the gravity surrounding this performance (to be repeated tonight), for the usually loquacious Gershon was silent during the roughly 90-minute performance, given without intermission.

Moreover, though Tan composed a text-based work - the words are mostly St. Matthew's - no light was available for those in the audience interested in reading along, despite the inclusion of the words in the program.

Instead, concertgoers were expected to look as well as listen, watching as Gershon, the first to conduct this work after the composer, led what was doubtless the most beautiful event yet at Disney Hall - a performance characterized as much by graceful movement and atmospheric lighting, courtesy of Terry Klein and Keiran Illes, as by sound.

And it was hardly an accident that the 17 water bowls variously manipulated by three percussionists - David Cossin, Theresa Dimond and Thomas Raney - that form the heart and soul of this work were dramatically (and symmetrically) laid out on the stage and illuminated from below. The effect, amplified by shifting overhead lighting, was mesmerizing.

So, too, was much of the choral writing, in which minimalist droning was punctuated by shouts of joy and dread. A bass and a soprano - Stephen Bryant and Elizabeth Keusch - handled the solo duties with great versatility, he impersonating Jesus, Peter, John and Judas, and she the devil. Touching instrumental interludes came from violinist Jennifer Koh, cellist Kristina Reiko Cooper and Yuanlin Chen, playing a digital sampler.

Yet the real star was humble H2O, more versatile than most would realize. True, sometimes the sound was reminiscent of washing a pair of socks in a kitchen sink, but more often the drips and splashes conveyed an almost holy mood. And when, at the work's conclusion, several members of the chorus, the various soloists and Gershon left their posts to touch the water as the lights dimmed, something very special occurred, the all-too-rare feeling that this experience would not end when one walked into the night.

THE LOS ANGELES MASTER CHORALE PERFORMS TAN DUN'S `WATER PASSION' - Four stars

What: Grant Gershon leads 63 choristers, two vocal soloists and six instrumentalists in the L.A. premiere of a major work.

Where: Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.

When: 7:30 tonight.

Tickets: $19 to $79. [phone] or www.lamc.org.

In a nutshell: In a 21st-century spin on a centuries-old musical tradition, Chinese composer Tan Dun crafts a new version of the Passion in which water plays a central musical role.