Seattle-Russian partnership brings Silk Road rhythms to town

Big, vital and almost ferociously listenable, Vladimir Martynov's "Night in Galicia" (1996) is the opening-night highlight of "Silk Road Modern!" — a pair of concerts being presented by Joshua Roman's TownMusic Series on Saturday and Sunday.

But it's in good company with the other pieces on the bill, including "Ulari Udila" by Vladimir Nikolayev and "Voices of a Frozen Land" by Alexander Raskatov. The titles alone suggest the tribal-chant energy that informs all three works on this invigorating program.

The Seattle Chamber Players, an adventurous local ensemble, is bringing the pieces to town with the help of members of Russia's Opus Posth, featuring violinist Tatiana Grindenko, and the Dmitri Prokrovsky Ensemble, a choral group formed in 1973 that specializes in traditional Russian song and contemporary "avant-folk" work.

In an interview last week, Seattle Chamber Players violinist Mikhail Shmidt described "Night in Galicia" as "really primal — very old Russian melodies and rhythms put in a very new minimalist context."

Martynov was inspired by Russian avant-garde poet Velimir Khlebnikov, whose verse he set to music. For Khlebnikov, Shmidt says, "meaning was very much secondary to sound. If you start to read the text, it doesn't really make a lot of sense. At the same time, it makes complete sense — because of the energy of the language."

Saturday's concert is being paired with a more intimate Sunday recital, "A Journey Down Today's Silk Road," featuring smaller ensembles: flute and string quartet in Georgian composer Giya Kancheli's "Ninna Nanna" and the SCP's usual lineup — violin, cello, clarinet, flute — in most of the others. All but one of the seven pieces were commissioned by SCP.

Among Sunday's offerings are two by Iranian composers: Ramin Heydarbeygi's "Dar Sineye Xaak" consists of seven short movements — or not even "movements" but moods ("almost like aphorisms," Shmidt quipped).

Alireza Mashayeki's "Rose Garden," on the other hand, is a thing of mournful beauty, drawing on traditional Persian melody, yet repeatedly disintegrating, only to reassemble itself, a little more ghostly every time.

Shmidt sees all the pieces in the two-night festival as engaged in a "love-hate relationship with their own tradition — embracing it and fighting it at the same time. It's interesting how each composer deals with that."

Some, he says, try to steer clear of an "Oriental" sound. Others embrace it.

"Quite a few of the composers live in exile," Shmidt adds, so there's always "this kind of longing" in their work.

There's also a political dimension to the intense folk flavor of these compositions. Shmidt, who grew up in Russia, points out that the Soviet Union engaged in "very strong cultural politics," establishing conservatories and opera companies and spurring Russian composers to create a "nationalist" classical repertoire. For musicians in places like Azerbaijan, Armenia and other regions of the Caucasus, exploring their folk tradition was in some ways a protest against the Soviet school of musical education.

"For them," Shmidt says, "their folk music was always a refuge from totalitarian cultural politics. A source of strength and inspiration."

That strength should be on fine display this weekend.

Michael Upchurch: mupchurch@seattletimes.com