Review: Rachel Barton Pine - and Tuvan throat-singing - at Summermusik

August 4, 2025, 4:35 PM · CINCINNATI - While visiting my dad last weekend in Cincinnati, Ohio, I realized that I was in town at the same time as violinist Rachel Barton Pine, who would be performing the live world premiere of a new violin concerto by Malek Jandali. I had to go!

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine and Violinist.com Publisher Laurie Niles. Photo by Philip Groshong.

But I didn't realize that I was about to see such an imaginative concert and discover such a wildly interesting series: Summermusik, a 50+-year-old festival featuring the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and its Music Director Eckart Preu (under whom I have played in the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, where he is also music director).

Rachel was featured in a program called "Adventures on the Silk Road" on Saturday at Corbett Theater, at Cincinnati's School for Creative and Performing Arts. It was a concert unified by the idea of traveling along the ancient network of Asian trade routes: starting and ending in Venice, with stops in Jerusalem, Syria, Turkey, Mongolia and China. With this in mind, the concert also included Tuvan throat singer SoRIAH (very cool, he used "overtone singing" to create three simultaneous pitches with his one voice), several novel stringed instruments including the Middle Eastern oud and the Tuvan igil, actor Jared Joplin reading the words of Marco Polo between selections, and the occasional slide-show picture or map behind the musicians. This is not to mention the global craft show and Asian tea samples out in the lobby.

This was a lot of novelty - but none of it felt gimmicky to me. I was caught up in the curiosity of the moment and the cheerful attitude of what appeared to be a committed and longstanding audience. This was actually the kickoff week for Summermusik, a monthlong festival which runs through August 24 with an intense schedule of more than a dozen concerts, also including the Kronos Quartet, a "Let's Dance" concert that includes dance instruction, a Speakeasy-themed concert, a concert that includes a composition lesson, an Irish music concert (complete with Irish dancing) and more. (Check out their schedule here.)

But let's start with Saturday, and the violin concerto by Jandali, which was receiving its premiere before a live audience, after being recorded in 2023 with Pine and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra with conductor Marin Alsop. (Find that recording here.)

Jandali dedicated the concerto "to Rachel Barton Pine and to all women who thrive with courage.” For the purposes of this concert, "this concerto has a flavor of Syria," Pine said in a pre-concert talk. Syria is homeland to Jandali, whose violin concerto incorporates Middle Eastern features such as intervals of augmented seconds, as well as the Middle Eastern "oud," a multi-stringed instrument with a pear-shaped soundbox, played in the orchestra by Christopher Wilke.

Pine is an expert interpreter of ideas both new and old, and of many different genres - Baroque, Heavy Metal, Maude Powell, new music for students, Handel and Dvorak...the list goes on. Her rich musical experience and willingness to just "go there" helped bring to life Jandali's concerto, with its catchy melodies, many moods and Arabic colors.

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine, performing at Summermusik in Cincinnati. Photo by Philip Groshong.

Jandali's concerto began with soft syncopation in the orchestra and slide-y strings. This is accessible music, decorated in a Middle-Eastern way, punctuated with the deep plucks of the oud. There was a passage with beautiful interplay between flute and violin. The first-movement cadenza started from quiet stillness, Pine playing what sounded like a telegraph signal on one note, then another, off the string and soft, with some blast-chords in between.

The second movement featured a solo melody that Pine played very fluidly, and a series of slow, chromatic descents starting very high on the violin. A drumbeat became almost march-like and majestic. Violin pizzicato with oud and marimba made for a compelling combination - there was a crescendo of activity into near-chaos, then cut with the strike of a gong. The movement ended quietly.

The third movement was slightly sunnier, with spinning, dancing melodies. There were passages way up on the G string and emphatic double-stop octaves for the soloist. The end of the concerto was quite vivid - a slow trace of an idea in the solo violin, which slid up to a high note, the orchestra slowly joining in a sunny chord, sounding like many rays joining, until it burst with light.

Jandali (and his family) were in the audience for the performance - what a happy celebration on stage afterwards! For an encore, Rachel performed Rounds by Mohammed Fairouz.

All the pieces were quite interesting in Saturday's concert, but the "throat-singing" performance by Enrique Ugalde (aka SoRIAH) certainly stood out for its sheer skill and unusual nature. Costumed in a black rimmed hat, with a shawl over his head and an ornate metal breastplate, SoRIAH sang while playing a two-stringed instrument with a horsehead scroll, called an "igil."

The singing technique - "khöömei" - evolved in Tuva, a isolated mountain region bordering Mongolia. The singer creates a sort of deep, rumbling sound (a fundamental pitch), oscillating the sound in his vocal track to create overtone pitches. In fact, in the pre-talk before the performance, SoRIAH gave us a short lesson - describing his four-step process to "go from zero to 'khöömei.'" In this video (from the pre-concert talk - SoRIAH is sitting with Music Director Eckart Preu) you can hear how the overtones emerge when he demonstrates at about 3:00:

SoRIAH is a rare Westerner who has been singing in this Asian style since 1998. (SoRIAH offers lessons and workshops in throat singing - here is his website.)

On Saturday he performed his own piece, called "The Realm of Tengri & the Chedi Khan." Sometimes growling, sometimes breathy, this created a fascinating and very different sound that brought to mind elements like wind and thunder, with those high overtones eerily floating over the top.

Throat singer Enrique Ugalde (aka SoRIAH). Photo by Philip Groshong.

The piece settled into a brisk seven-beat pattern, and the end was particularly memorable: the orchestra played a majestic melody, after which SoRIAH created that same melody all in overtones, produced by super-low notes vibrating against each other in his throat. Whoa!

And this was not even everything - as my dad said, "There was something interesting about every single piece on that program!" The Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra performed one movement from Ahmet Adnan Saygun's Symphony No. 1 - swirling music that featured a kind of fugue on bumpy and asymmetric subject - I wanted to hear the rest of this symphony! There was also another violin piece "YangKo" from Chen Yi's "Chinese Folk Dance Suite," which had Pine on a musical roller coaster, trilling and warbling over the orchestra, which was vocalizing (not playing, but singing and saying...) a series of rhythmic and syncopated syllables and whispery "ch-ch" sounds. (How was this notated? I wondered!)

Overall, if you live in Cincinnati, lucky you. Check out Summermusik and enjoy the adventure!

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Replies

Elisabeth Matesky

August 6, 2025 at 07:16 PM · As from ~ 'Apostle' of Jascha Heifetz & Nathan Milstein ~ Weird yet Intriguing Far Off Eastern Chic or is it Armenian Bach w/Oud Sort Of!??

After decades learning/sight reading and Impromptu performing a new work at a Last Moment Request or Demand if competing in International Violin Solo Competitions Well Known to the Public, I can music veteran candidly say it Is a bit of a 'Thrill' to never have seen before Interpret a 'New' Work for Violin either Solo or Duo or "Other World" Or 'Out There' music and on a Lone Violin or with an already knowing the Piece yet You Don't!!! This can occur anywhere in the Past Tense or 'All Over' meaning Right Now!!

I favour having Time to Explore exotic Works now coming from Far Away Lands which have and Forever Fascinated me since my Love Affair begin with Aram Khachaturian's Violin Concerto which still Stands Tall and as One of The mightiest Violin Concerto's ever composed 'Then' by an Armenian Composer who also composed the Ballet Score for "Spartacus" and winning Maestro Khachaturian The Coveted French Legion de' Honeur, Grand Croix, highest level of this only given to non citizens of France Award which most GOAT Musicians from prior US Twentieth Century received and for Artistry plus Extra Humanitarian Services during WWII ... This does include my mentor's, Jascha Heifetz & Nathan Milstein + also Artur Rubinstein, Grand Pianist and more recently Conductor former Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Pianist Daniel Barenboim, for both his globally known Artistry as a Pianist and Conductor not only of the CSO but a Co-Founder with Mr. Said, of the East-West Divan Youth Symphony Orchestra which brings both Arab and Israeli born young musicians Together playing Great Music yet not knowing others' Birth Heritage yet learning to Blend Together as Musicians All in a Group for The Overall Good of The Final Outcome Musically!! This Is So Good there is a Committee now formed to foster Their Daniel Barenboim 'Quest' for a Deserved Nobel Peace Prize!!

I am not keen on too 'Far Out There' works & by those from foreign Lands wishing to make a Splash on American and European Audiences and Only for Splash?? Not Good yet such Occupants Still Do this hoping for that Proverbial "Break", aka, making of a Name in Music ... Not having heard Rachel Barton Pine's Offering of this new Violin Concerto, one can not really Comment on what one has Not Heard but I commend RBP for her Adventurism and Moxy in taking this on!!! I've known Rachel since a top violinist in The Civic Symphony of Chicago under the Tutelege of many CSO String Players current and Former of which I was a Part and as Chair of The International Strings Programme at coveted over 100 Year plus Old American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, following renowned Predecessor, Mischa Mischakoff, late Concertmaster of Reiner's Chicago Symphony Orchestra and do know of CSO many associated with The Civic & by now a very refined Symphony Orchestra Finally Guest Conducted by Real Music Director/Conductor's of The Chicago Symphony Orchestra which until yours truly appeared on the Scene, most former Music Director's of the CSO or Solti/CSO altho' it happened just prior to Maestro Solti's 5th of September, 1997 Passing when The Maestro did Conduct 'The Civic' in a Sold Out Twice Concert in Orchestra Hall/Chicago!!!

Not really addressing Laurie's Invite to Comment on a New Violin Concerto and/or Violin Concerto Repertoire from far Away Lands, I can mention a fascination since childhood about the exotic (word used prior) appeal of an Arabian Casbah and the enchantment with Hollywood Scores of Fabled Composers 'Then' in the '50s w/60s i.e. "Quo Vadis"; & from Other faraway Exotic places Filmed and a Composer like Bernard Herrmann scoring a Movie featuring Hollywood Then Golden Age Stars, aka, Charlton Heston, (Wow, I'm going way back!) and closer to our Time, "The King and I" Star, Yul Brenner with his rather appealing romantic touches of Exoticism with the Ward Robe of the Movie & Foreign Accent to Go With!! Yikes!! If Bernard Herrmann had composed an Exotic Violin Concerto yours truly would have been Standing In the Queue for a Dibs on It Score!!! Then and Now are fusing Together re A Youth Symphony Orchestra/ Orchestras and those here in the United States and a Movement my late Father, Music ED Ralph Matesky, inspired with his glorious US Youth Symphony Orchestra Movement throughout All North America ... I would hope a younger Arab, cum possibly instructed here in the US fabled composer produces a "Winner" for our Summer Olympics 2028 which would be The Top Billing for any Violin Soloist starting Out or continuing on with an already established Concert Performing/Recording Career!! Now All it will take /require is Finding Such a Composer and Not Copy-cating Any other Foreign Composer's trying to Do The Same Thing!! "One More Thing"{Quoting Columbo, The Mystery Detective!} It will Require a musician also superb Solo Violinist who Knows The Full Orchestral Score or it will Not Succeed using Music on a Music Stand due not truly absorbing the Violin Soloist Part of an Entire Score for over 80 - 100 or More Musicians loving New Sounds from Far Away Lands ...

This Reply may not be Complete but I am enjoying typing Whatever and then traversing it like a Camp Fire Girl following a Dorm Musician Counselor at Summer Camp hoping to roast some Brownies at A Night Outdoor Barbeque!!

Wishing Rachel Barton Pine true Success with her New Violin Concerto I hope it is Welcomed in major and minor Venues across No. America revving up for Our Two Hundred Fiftieth US Birthday come 2026!!

~ ~ ~ ~ Elisabeth Matesky/ Chicago, Summer 2025 ~ ~ ~ ~

................... Thanking Laurie as Always! ...................

Fwd ~ dmg {Reply #1}

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