Brooklyn Rider

       Last night I went to this River to River Festival event in Pace University to see this quartet called "Brooklyn Rider"---lo and behold, they were the best string quartet in terms of how much fun and creativity I had heard and seen.

      What attracted me in the first place was that they were part of the Yoyo Ma's Silk Road Project. Surely they blew me away with the quality of their show.

     They started with Mozart's "Quartet No.8 in F major, K. 168"---written when he was just 17. So that was classy and familiar.

    The next was of course Philip Glass' "Quarter No.2 "Company""---you could hardly miss Glass every time you listen to classical music in NYC.

    A teen boy sitting behind me complained to his mother about falling asleep listening to Glass.

   "Unidu" was their third piece. That's where the fun started. They had two additional performers joining in---one bass, another percussionist.

   If you know the Silk Road Project, it is tied to Asian music roots. This "Unidu" is  in Central Asian style. Written by Joao Gilberto, arranged by Colin Jacobsen.
 
   I love that mellow, winding, occasionally chanting sounds....

   Blue Grass was next, called "Sheriff's leid, Sheriff Freude".

   Kojiro Umezaki played solo Japanese pipe---a stunningly masculine instrument. The first pieced named "As if none of this ever happened..." It was written circa 1921 when Japan was devastated by an earth-quake, now re-dedicated to the latest one there. It was followed by two more separate pieces. One which he combined digitally synthesized sounds to his pipe called "Lullaby" by Itsuki. The third piece was a transitional back to the quartet, where everybody joined in.

   The funnest part of the show was the Gypsy pieces. I thoroughly enjoy Gypsy party string music!

   "Music of the Roma"
                  Doina Oltului (song of the river Olt)
  "Tchavolo Swing"
                 This one by Dorado Schimitt. Can you swing dance? The girl sitting in front of me was bobbing her head up and down...
  "Sirba in E-flat Major"
                       Moldavian traditional
                      Another excellent piece!! It was just so much fun.  The same girl sitting in front of me started to wag her head left and right....ok
   "Briu"
                   by Sapo Perapaskero --- it is a birds' chirping piece!!! The percussionist must used more than 10 different devices to mimic different birds' chirping, played to the string music.  
                       


      I was so delighted by the show, at the end I decided to take a walk from there to Chinatown---subway station was just too stuffy with its hot air.
     A beautiful, quiet summer Tuesday night, even Chinatown has all but silenced down. I felt like eating La-Mian, or Ra-Men, the wheat noodle; and I found one after a random scouting.  Still open at 10pm, it was very small but good enough for, because apparently the cook sounded very Northern Chinese---that's where Ramen came from---not from Japan!
     Oh yeah---it was delicious. I ate the beef, chewed the noodle, and yes, drunk all the soup. Salty and with MSG. It was worth it but next time I will tell them to be easy on MSG!
     After I went home and woke up in the morning my mouth was dry thanks to MSG!