This live recording is the latest in a series of projects versatile cellist Yo-Yo Ma has carried out with his Silk Road Ensemble. The general idea has been a mixture of Eastern and Western musical cultures using both traditional music and specially-composed new works – all inspired by the splendors of the historic Silk Road, which connected Europe with the Far East from 500 B.C. to about 1500 A.D.
This time The Silk Road musicians spent a yearlong residency in Chicago which included a series of exhibitions, concerts, workshops, readings, films, dance performances and education events. They worked in partnership with the Chicago Symphony, The Art Institute of Chicago and other local institutions. This April the ensemble joined with the Chicago Symphony for the world premiere of a new arrangement for the pipa, sheng, guitar, cello and orchestra of the classic Chinese traditional pipa solo Ambush From Ten Sides (sometimes translated as Ambush From All Sides). The piece – on this CD – is actually an early example of program music, a battle piece illustrating a fierce encounter between two ancient Chinese kingdoms which resulted in the founding of the Han dynasty.
Other varied selections on the concert include Vocussion, which is a compendium of percussionists creating drumming sounds using only their voices. Usually heard in East Indian music, this one cuts across several ethnic traditions. Night of the Flying Horses is a new three-movement suite created especially for The Silk Road Ensemble by the acclaimed Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov. The horses theme is continued in Galloping Horses, a pipe and doublebass duet based on an ancient Chinese melody for the erhu. Another example of cultural crosscutting is Arabian Waltz, which features a strong jazz influence with the Japanese shakuhachi as the main solo instrument. The CD title of New Impossibilities comes from Mark Twain’s writings referring to the innovative culture found in Chicago.
TrackList: Arabian Waltz, Night of the Flying Horses, Galloping Horses, Song of Eight Unruly Tipsy Poets, Shristi, The Silent City, Ambush From Ten Sides, Vocussion
– John Sunier
