Currency Is Music in East-West Exchange (original) (raw)

Arts|Currency Is Music in East-West Exchange

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/12/arts/music/currency-is-music-in-eastwest-exchange.html

You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.

MUSIC REVIEW

April 12, 2005

Much of Yo-Yo Ma's musical effort and imagination since 1998 has been put at the service of his Silk Road Project, a series of concerts and discs meant to revive and update the kind of cultural interchange that occurred on the ancient trade route between Asia and Europe. As a way to prevent his career from devolving into a routine of touring with the same crowd-pleasing cello works over and over -- however sublimely Mr. Ma would have played them -- it has been a brilliant move.

The Silk Road, after all, is a perfect metaphor for the exchange he is seeking, not only between Eastern and Western musicians, but also between traditional and contemporary styles -- and, judging from the copious materials in the program book, between Western and Asian archaeologists and historians. Even if the venue for this exchange is now the recording studio and the concert stage rather than the Silk Road itself, it was clear from the sheer joy of the music making on Sunday evening at Carnegie Hall that the polystylistic dialogue Mr. Ma is overseeing is as enlivening for the players as for the listeners.

The stage arrangement, at the start of the concert, emphasized the East-meets-West aspect of the project. Mr. Ma sat to one side of the stage with the makings of a string quartet, plus a double bass and a pipa (a Chinese lute). Across the way were three percussionists who played Asian and African drums, and a performer on the duduk (an Armenian reed instrument). Between them were performers playing a kamancheh (an Iranian spike fiddle), a tar (an Azerbaijani lute) and a tabla (an Indian drum).

The concert was at its best when the music was presented on its own terms. That happened mainly in a set of pieces from Azerbaijan, sung with passion and dramatic flair by Alim Qasimov, and accompanied by Malik Mansurov on the tar and Rauf Islamov on the kamancheh.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT