Ten Shofars, a Green-haired Bagpiper and Yo-Yo Ma
The sexiest girl bagpiper ever, with her hair tinted green, a long gold skirt and a burnished maroon sleeveless top, holding a green bagpipe and gyrating to the music. Beside her, a short Chinese artist of the sheng, a small, pipe-style instrument that sounds part accordion, part kazoo, and he was also dancing. Another musician, stocking-footed, playing what looked to me like a small mandolin. Maybe it's traditional for his instrument to be played barefooted, and he put on socks for the more formal occasion? Yo-Yo Ma on the cello.
Truly amazing. The last piece performed by Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, kicking off two weeks at Symphony Center Thursday evening, was the premiere of Rose of the Winds, by this year's resident composer, Osvaldo Golijov. A mix of instruments, themes, and ideas from the marketplace, world religions, and protest songs, it's a sight to behold as well as to hear. And in the final movement, the horn section put aside their trombones and trumpets and French horns and each picked up a shofar. A shofar is a ram's horn; the first chair in the trumpet section had one about two feet long, that curved round and round itself. It's an instrument usually trotted out only for the High Holidays in Jewish synagogues. It's quite the honor to play the shofar, and when someone stands up to sound it, the congregation collectively holds its breath, hoping that the musician will be able to make a fairly pleasing sound in the absence of mouthpiece, reed, or any other part of a typical wind instrument. To hear ten shofars played at one time? It was hilarious and invigorating and a moment in which the mission of the Silk Road Ensemble worked perfectly.
If you are in Chicago, try to get tickets for Yo-Yo Ma and his Silk Road Ensemble's concert, repeated on Tuesday evening. Go here to see a review of the concert.
Truly amazing. The last piece performed by Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, kicking off two weeks at Symphony Center Thursday evening, was the premiere of Rose of the Winds, by this year's resident composer, Osvaldo Golijov. A mix of instruments, themes, and ideas from the marketplace, world religions, and protest songs, it's a sight to behold as well as to hear. And in the final movement, the horn section put aside their trombones and trumpets and French horns and each picked up a shofar. A shofar is a ram's horn; the first chair in the trumpet section had one about two feet long, that curved round and round itself. It's an instrument usually trotted out only for the High Holidays in Jewish synagogues. It's quite the honor to play the shofar, and when someone stands up to sound it, the congregation collectively holds its breath, hoping that the musician will be able to make a fairly pleasing sound in the absence of mouthpiece, reed, or any other part of a typical wind instrument. To hear ten shofars played at one time? It was hilarious and invigorating and a moment in which the mission of the Silk Road Ensemble worked perfectly.
If you are in Chicago, try to get tickets for Yo-Yo Ma and his Silk Road Ensemble's concert, repeated on Tuesday evening. Go here to see a review of the concert.
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