Malek Jandali: Concertos
Cedille Records

Benefits accrue to everyone participating in this album of world premiere recordings—Syrian-American composer Malek Jandali (b. 1972) for the heightened profile and appreciation this recording will bring; violinist Rachel Barton Pine and clarinetist Anthony McGill for being gifted with such splendid material to perform; and the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra (Vienna RSO) and its Chief Conductor Marin Alsop for the stellar, reputation-enhancing performances they contribute. It's Jandali, however, who's the greatest beneficiary: in having Pine and McGill as the soloists and the Vienna RSO as their partners, the composer's music is presented in a most compelling manner. Both bring long-running associations with Cedille Records to the project, Pine having appeared on more than twenty albums for the Chicago-based label and McGill six.

A fertile cross-cultural pollination occurs in Jandali's music when he blends ancient Syrian themes and Arabic folk melodies with Western-inspired harmonies. His is no clumsy pastiche but rather a fluid, seamlessly effected fusion. In the concertos, melodies evoking the composer's homeland emerge within compositional structures influenced by Western forms. That's particularly evident in the core theme that makes the violin concerto so memorable, a motif rendered all the more stirring when Pine's the soloist giving voice to it. Middle-Eastern music is referenced directly when the oud is woven into the arrangement, but it's also omnipresent in the underlying tone of the material. As Alsop notes, “Malek composes in some ways very traditionally because he uses notation and techniques that the instrumentalists are familiar with; but like Bartók did, like Dvorák did, he uses his cultural folk music as a real underpinning for developing these themes, developing these ideas.”

In both works, recorded in May 2022 at the Funkhaus Wien Großer Sendesaal in Vienna, a political undercurrent is present, as it is in other works by the composer. The Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (2014) is dedicated to Syrian women who have endured hardship and oppression, including figures such as Tal al-Mallohi (imprisoned for speaking out), Razan Zaitoneh (a human rights lawyer now thought to have been killed), and Jandali's own mother, Lina Droubi, who, with her husband, was beaten in Syria after their son performed at a 2011 peaceful protest in front of the White House. Written in 2021, the Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra was similarly conceived “in memory of all victims of injustice.”

The violin concerto begins with a majestic, seventeen-minute movement that establishes its character early with Pine's arresting entrance. Celebrated for her lustrous tone and unerring attack, she's in top form (see her virtuosic cadenza during the opening movement's second half) and makes the most of the magnificent material the composer has given to her. The movement's second major theme, a Syrian folk figure that Jandali calls the “Women's Theme,” emerges soon after, voiced first by horn and then taken up by Pine. The lamenting melody emerges throughout the movement, passed like a baton from her to oud (Bassam Halaka), clarinet, and others. Tension eases midway through for a gentle, even dreamlike episode, but the urgency that characterizes the movement is never far away. Infused with drama and mystery, it offers the album's most compelling argument on the composer's behalf. Following the intensity of the “Allegro Moderato,” the soothing tone and slow pace of the elegiac central movement aren't unwelcome. As much as it showcases Pine at her most expressive, it's also distinguished by a memorable oboe theme and a mournful episode featuring violin and oud. The final movement's animated, naturally, and advances in a series of spirited, dance rhythm-inflected gestures. At times jaunty and mischievous, the music concludes the concerto on a note of jubilation, its celebratory quality conveyed vividly through the inspired performances of the soloist and orchestra.

Written specifically for McGill, Jandali's Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra opens as if gradually emerging from mist and with elements slowly cohering into patterns of structure and order. With the clarinet's entrance, the movement asserts its Syrian character, with traditional melodies also bringing into the mix echoes of Jewish folk music. Subdued passages alternate with boisterous ones, the music in moments exuding an ancient character. Mystery pervades the central movement, its “Nocturne: Andante” designation suggesting as much. Tremolo strings and vibraphone create a striking ground for the darting movements of the clarinet, which weaves its way in amongst the orchestral parts with serpentine motion. Again, the concerto follows a relatively peaceful central movement with an urgent, energized finale. Multiple Syrian themes surface alongside dance rhythms, with McGill advancing lithely through the movement and impressing with a dazzlingly acrobatic cadenza.

July 2023