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Down the Silk road
On Monday night I saw the Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma at Symphony Hall. It was an amazing concert. The Silk Road Ensemble is a global group of Western European, Asian, Southeast Asian, Middle Eastern, and Latin American musicians. They perform both traditional music from around the world and pieces newly written for the ensemble.It was also fun to see Yo-Yo Ma playing as part of a larger ensemble rather than as a headlining soloist.
Ritmos Anchinos - Gabriela Lena Frank
This piece was probably the most modernistic on the program. It combined Peruvian material with Chinese instruments in a very natural way. Frank's use of rhythm was particularly appealing.
Sulvasutra - Evan Ziporyn
Yup, I still love Ziporyn's music. This piece was for tabla and ensemble, and it was really good. Ziporyn made use of the full range of what the tabla can do, without once making it sound cliched or like a laundry list of techniques.
Turceasca - Sapo Perapaskero, arr. Osvaldo Golijov/Ljova
This piece came very close to rocking out with its impassioned melodies and driving rhtyhms,
Layla and Majnun - Uzeyir Hajibeyov, arr. Jonathan Gandelsman
This Azerbaijani chamber opera for two singers and ensemble was written in 1908. It is based on a classic Arabian love story that has some similarity to Romeo and Juliet. The work incorporates mugham, a complex form of modal music for singers with accompaniment. At this performance, the roles were sung by Alim Qasimov and his daughter Fargana Qasimova, the pre-eminent performers of mugham today in Azerbaijan.
This piece blew me away. The singing was incredible - it sounded similar to Indian singing and Qawwali, with gorgeously intricate ornamentation. The instrumental accompaniment was lovely and never intrusive. I really felt like I was spirited away to another world while listening to this work. It was like having a wonderful and vivid dream from which you are reluctant to awake.
Ritmos Anchinos - Gabriela Lena Frank
This piece was probably the most modernistic on the program. It combined Peruvian material with Chinese instruments in a very natural way. Frank's use of rhythm was particularly appealing.
Sulvasutra - Evan Ziporyn
Yup, I still love Ziporyn's music. This piece was for tabla and ensemble, and it was really good. Ziporyn made use of the full range of what the tabla can do, without once making it sound cliched or like a laundry list of techniques.
Turceasca - Sapo Perapaskero, arr. Osvaldo Golijov/Ljova
This piece came very close to rocking out with its impassioned melodies and driving rhtyhms,
Layla and Majnun - Uzeyir Hajibeyov, arr. Jonathan Gandelsman
This Azerbaijani chamber opera for two singers and ensemble was written in 1908. It is based on a classic Arabian love story that has some similarity to Romeo and Juliet. The work incorporates mugham, a complex form of modal music for singers with accompaniment. At this performance, the roles were sung by Alim Qasimov and his daughter Fargana Qasimova, the pre-eminent performers of mugham today in Azerbaijan.
This piece blew me away. The singing was incredible - it sounded similar to Indian singing and Qawwali, with gorgeously intricate ornamentation. The instrumental accompaniment was lovely and never intrusive. I really felt like I was spirited away to another world while listening to this work. It was like having a wonderful and vivid dream from which you are reluctant to awake.
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