Fingers quivering, elbows swinging and head rocking, Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble made a memorable first appearance at Dartmouth in front of a standing-room only audience last night in Spaulding auditorium.
The Silk Road Ensemble features a collection of musicians, who, through their Eastern and Western instruments, highlight the contemporary culture of the legendary trading route and make Eastern and Western cross-cultural musical connections.
The evening began with a Mongolian song about the Herlen River. Ma played the morin khuur, a Mongolian horse head fiddle that he admitted was his first time using in concert.
The world's premier cellist appeared to have no trouble adjusting to the new instrument, as he characteristically swayed his body (sometimes furiously) and united himself with the music.
Dressed in an ornamented pink robe, a female Mongolian "long song" singer accompanied the piano, three trombones and percussion that were also playing. The singer chanted impressively long breathless shrills that warbled and switched octaves, as might be heard in the Gobi Desert. As the sole woman performer and the only one in native costume, the singer had as much of a stage presence as Ma did.
She later performed solo in a brief encore. The "long song" singer took center stage while the ensemble, clad in black suits, stood in a semicircle behind her and provided a marked contrast to her and her mystifying voice.
The Ensemble's use of unfamiliar instruments was especially evident in the next featured work, entitled "Moon Over Guan Mountains" that describes a Silk Road caravan route through a Chinese mountain range. In addition to Ma on the cello, a 3,000 year-old Chinese bamboo and bronze wind instrument (the sheng), a Chinese short-necked lute (the pipa) and small floor drums (the tabla) were used.
While each carried a distinctive tone, the four instruments seemed to communicate with one another in their own musical dialogue. Of all of them, the pipa was the most fascinating to hear because it had the most intriguing sound -- an Asian twag that you have heard before but have never seen created before your eyes.
Ma and Joel Fan, the pianist, were featured in the third piece, called "In Habil's Style." Ma described this music from Azerbaijan as "improvised, meditative and contemplative."
Yet again, the audience was treated to an innovative musical presentation when the piano was "prepared" by inserting glass beads and mallets to evoke traditional Azerbaijani sounds from a nontraditional source and in a nontraditional manner.
Hunching over into the strings, Fan looked more like he was repairing the piano. While he did not use the keys, Fan did tap the wooden parts of the piano like percussion, and greatly surprised the audience when he did so.
Five Finnish folk songs by a Japanese composer emphasized the cross-cultural theme of the evening.
The final piece was a French piano trio in A minor. The "Passacaille" section was beautifully smooth while being loud and strong. The "Finale" was more slow-paced, but was nonetheless sparkling, thus clinching an evening of tremendous cultural exchange.
