This is the third disc of concerts recorded live from the year-long
Silk Road Festival that took place in Chicago in 2007. Following
on the heels of When Strangers Meet and Beyond the Horizons,
this disc records some of the highlights of concerts that took
place in April of that year. The celebrations were instigated
and master-minded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma and involved more than
seventy organisations and groups in two hundred and fifty odd
performances and events - including lectures, workshops and educational
activities. The idea was to explore the Silk Road musical traditions
in one great fusion of East and West. The whole project was a
phenomenal success, leading to greater understanding between
musicians of many different cultures, and increased learning
and skills on all sides.
The disc includes some exciting music, and is well worth a listen.
It opens with an Arabian Waltz by Lebanese composer Rabih Abou-Khalil
- a spirited work with tremendous rhythmic drive and verve. This
is followed by Argentinean-American composer Osvaldo Golijov’s
Night of the Flying Horses. This is a splendid work, with an
air of mystery that lends an exotic and intriguing sense until,
just before its conclusion, the work goes into manic hyperactivity
- wonderfully wild and exhilarating. Galloping Horses ensues,
based on the eponymous traditional Chinese melody - said horses
are graphically portrayed in the music, composed by Yang Wei
on the pipa (a type of Chinese lute) and DaXun Zhang, bass, who
met through the Project. The Song of the Eight Unruly Tipsy Poets
by Chinese-born Zhou Long is suitably chaotic music, and is followed
by Indian Sandeep Das’s Shristi, inspired by a statue of
a dancing Shiva, with its vocal effects and virtuosic part for
percussion. The Silent City, a lament for a destroyed valley
in Kurdistan, is the longest work on the disc at over 20 minutes
- a slow, quiet, reflective piece by the wandering Iranian composer
Kayhan Kalhor. Ambush from Ten Sides, a traditional Chinese melody
arranged for the Project, is almost apocalyptic - a highly dramatic
and pictorial piece of music. Gripping and quite terrifying,
it must surely be overwhelmingly exciting heard live. The disc
concludes with Vocussion, which, as its title might imply, is
vocal percussion. It is a highly impressive and unusual work,
and appears to have been well appreciated by the audience - an
excellent conclusion to a fascinating disc!
Em Marshall
Ensemble members
Nicholas Cords (viola)
Sandeep Das (tabla, vocals)
Jonathan
Gandelsman (violin)
Joseph Gramley (snare drum, vocals, caxixi,
Pakistani dumbek, tom-toms, bamboo wind chimes)
Colin Jacobsen
(violin)
Eric Jacobsen (cello)
Kayhan Kalhor (kamancheh)
Dong-Won
Kim (vocals, jang-go)
Liu Lin Yo (guitar)
Yo-Yo Ma (cello)
Wu
Man (fipa vocals, dumbek, caxixi, conch shell)
Shane Shanahan
(rattle)
Mark Suter (bodhran, ghavel, cajon, vocals, riq, bongo,
pod shakers)
Wutong Kojiroumezaki (sheng, xun shakuhachi)
Yang
Wei (pipa)
Daxun Zhang (bass)
The Silk Road Ensemble 
