Far East to Fargo

Music | November 5th, 2014

Variety is the spice of life and also of the symphony. For its second concert of its Masterworks Series, the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra is continuing its trek across the globe with “Along the Silk Road.”

After a South American-styled opener to its 84th season this September, the F-M Symphony’s next stop with its “Embrace the World” theme is the Far East. “Along the Silk Road” rounds up contemporary composers as well as some older works for a specially styled concert.

“Sometimes it’s more intriguing for the audience if there is some sort of theme that ties the pieces together or gives some kind of context to the pieces,” said Linda Boyd, the F-M Symphony’s executive director.

Selected for this concert are arrangements all flavored with the Far East. From Charles T. Griffes’ “The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan” to Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” to some contemporary compositions, “Along the Silk Road” is a trek through the ages of eastern-styled music too.

While there are no guest artists popping in for this performance like in previous ones, some guest instruments do drop in. For Tan Dun’s “Dragon and Phoenix Overture,” the F-M Symphony is renting three Chinese tom-toms that will be shipped in for the concert.

“It also calls for some temple bells, so we’re actually inviting a local church handbell choir to come in and bring the bells that are required to play [the compositions],” Boyd said of the outside instruments. “They’ll be hanging on a bell tree and played with mallets, so visually the percussion is set up to be pretty cool.”

With the range of music presented by these instruments and musicians, one arrangement may stick out to many people as familiar: “Scheherazade,” the story of an evil sultan who takes and kills a woman every night until he meets the title character.

“She tells him a story, but she ends it with a cliffhanger so that he has to have her come back the next night,” Boyd said. “And it’s the tale of the 1,001 nights, so she tells a different story every night, and by the end, he has fallen in love with her and marries her.”

Embodied by music, this story of stories is woven throughout the performance, and is just one of the Far East flavors available at this latest stop in “Embrace the World.”

Boyd has had fun marketing this concert as its advertising has found its way into custom-made fortune cookies with six different fortunes. In the two weeks before the concert, the symphony’s cookies will be dispersed at locations around town, so keep an eye out at area stores and restaurants.

Further fun with “Along the Silk Road” is found at Urban Overture at The Radisson on Wednesday, Nov. 12. Free to anyone under 40 (with wine tasting for those over 21) Urban Overture is an excellent pre-concert event.

“This is where we talk about the music, there’s time to just chitchat with your friends,” Boyd said. “We’re going to have some of those percussion instruments there, and people are going to play little excerpts … so this will be a real fun Urban Overture.”

From here, the Masterworks Series takes a two-month nap before “All-Beethoven” on the last weekend of January 2015. In conjunction with the community-wide Beethoven Fest, the F-M Symphony is teaming up with Theatre B, the Fargo Public Library, Fargo Brewing Company and more to celebrate the composer come February.

IF YOU GO

“Along the Silk Road”

NDSU’s Festival Concert Hall

7:30 p.m. Sat., Nov. 15 and 2 p.m. Sun., Nov. 16

701-478-3676

IF YOU GO

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