Orient Express
I spent last night again in the delightful company of the Nashville Symphony, in their performance of an evening of Asian themed pieces. It was a good performance and I returned home in a very pleasant dreamlike state.
The Asian theme aspect is perhaps a bit overstated: two of the works were by European white men, Nielsen’s “Aladdin Suite” and Busoni’s “Turandot Suite” — I suppose these must be the musical equivalents of Memoirs of a Geisha. But they were both beautiful pieces for what they were. The Busoni piece got especially interesting towards the end: he breaks into some variations on the Greensleeves melody, apparently as the Princess Turandot is getting dressed. This is followed by the scene where her suitor is to be executed until she decides to spare him — some very moving music there as the somber breaks into the joyous.
The middle piece of the evening was the more truly Asian portion, though still a blend: Tan Dun is a Chinese composer who came to America to study, so he is learned in traditions from both cultures and his music attempts to fuse the two, I would say with mixed success. The concerto that was performed to me seemd to lack an overall direction, it felt like an improv without a destination. But I will say that along the journey were some inspired moments and unusual turns.
A woman named Wu Man (no joke) played a traditional Chinese lute-like instrument called a “pipa”. She was obviously a master of the instrument, but the instrument itself left me uninspired: it’s a stringed instrument against a solid, chamber-less board, so it had a flat, tinny sound, like an electric guitarist playing without an amplifier. Actually, as I’m listening to her performing another piece right now, I’m thinking it maybe sounds more like a banjo than anything [further update: now she's playing an actual bluegrass banjo piece on the pipa... crazy synchronicity]. It does sound very nice on leads/melodies, just not so much on chords. Of course it is entirely possible that my personal prejudice against guitarists is coming into play : )
After the Tan Dun piece she came back for a short solo rendition of a traditional Chinese folk song, and I did find that quite enjoyable.
Anyway, it wasn’t like the Shostakovich, but it was another enjoyable evening of very good music. I do believe I’m going to make a point to do this more often. I haven’t decided yet if I will see them performing Mozart at the end of this month, I’m thinking the next show on my agenda is probably the Nashville Opera performing Gilbert & Sullivan’s Iolanthe in February (does the NSO provide their music? I would imagine so…). I’m looking forard to that one, I’ve long enjoyed Gilbert & Sullivan, though I don’t think I’m familiar with this piece.
Sounds like a beautiful evening at the Symphony