Silk Road Ensemble. April 9, 2018.

Matthews Theatre, Princeton.  Balcony (Seat BB17, $67.50).

Program

Program for the Concert.

Artists

Kinan Azmeh, clarinet; Jeffrey Beecher, bass; Nicholas Cords, viola; Haruka Fujii, percussion; Johnny Gandelsman, violin; Karen Ouzounian, cello; Cristina Pato, Galician bagpipes, piano; Yousif Sheronick, percussion; Kojir Umezaki, shauhachi; Wu Man, pipa.

The Ensemble was started by Yo-Yo Ma about 20 years ago.  At the beginning it explored the music along the famed trade route, with the aim to contribute towards cultural collaboration and understanding.  Now these artists “seek and practice radical cultural collaboration in many forms …”  For the uninitiated, the most obvious deviations from the original concept were the inclusion of the Galician bagpipes and the Japanese flute shauhachi.

When I looked at the program when I was trying to decide if I wanted to buy a ticket, the cellist was TBA.  I have a nagging suspicion that it had been decided that Yo-Yo Ma wouldn’t be the cellist for tonight’s concert, but they kept that unknown so they could sell more tickets.  In fact the Program Notes talks very little about Ma, other than he was the founder.

Any art form can be impressive when played by a master, and tonight’s musicians were all good at their instruments.  The Galician bagpipes, shauhachi, and pipa are not instruments one hears with any regularity.  We did hear the bagpipes before, played by Pato, at the “Alan Gilbert farewell concert” by the New York Philharmonic.  The pipa is a well-known Chinese music instrument, many of my high school classmates took up the instrument.  This was my first encounter with the shauhachi, it sounds like a recorder most of the time, but can also produce a haunting breathing sound.  The percussionist has a large array of instruments in front of her; and she was having a lot of fun with them.  I wished I had brought my binoculars along so I could see the musicians at work more closely.

What I didn’t expect was the heavy use of electronic amplification by the musicians.  Perhaps the pipa and shauhachi are light-sounding instruments and need some sort of aid, but the bagpipes and the violin just sounded loud with the amplification.  And, instead of the musicians working among themselves to find a good balance – which to me is a big part of ensemble playing – we have the technician in the back controlling the balance.

Curtain call at the conclusion of the concert.  Notice the many loudspeakers on the stage.

The music was enjoyable enough.  Wu Man – the first pipa player to earn a Master’s degree in the instrument – played a well-known Chinese composition called “White Snow in Spring” that highlighted how the pipa could be played.  The audience gave the performances a hearty applause.  A young woman sitting a few rows in front of me keep swaying and moving up and down with the beat, which was a bit distracting, particularly for her immediate neighbors, no doubt.

During the performance of “Repayment of a Crane,” Umezaki narrated a Japanese folk tale. The inspiration came from his interactions with people in a Cheyenne reservation in Montana.

However, I thought the program didn’t quite achieve the “mission” of being a “cultural and diversity ambassador,” for lack of a better term.  That one can mix different instruments together to me is no big deal, especially with the aid of amplifiers.  If the sound is harmonious, one makes one statement; if the sounds clash, one can make another statement.  I venture to bet in the near future continents of Australia and Africa will be added to the mix; a bit doing something for the sake of doing something.

If I am not certain Yo-Yo Ma is on the program, I probably won’t be buying another ticket to a concert by the ensemble.  Yes, I am that shallow; or, to be charitable, that is how much hold the Ensemble has on this particular listener.

Anne had a class, so I drove down to Princeton by myself.