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Ivana Reviews Wu Man at Carnegie Hall

No one can deny that there is something charming about foreign musical instruments and their players. Although Wu Man, a reputable pipa player, has lived in the United States for fifteen years now, she still captured the audience's attention Thursday, April 6th. Accompanied by four friends with equally intriguing instruments, Wu Man's silver-tipped fingers danced across the pear-shaped Chinese lute with elegant dexterity throughout the whole program, which included traditional Chinese, East African, Ukrainian and Appalachian folk songs.

The evening began with a solo performance by Wu Man. She broke the silence with one striking chord and then she was off. In "Shi Mian Mai Fu (Ambush from Ten Sides)," her fingers ran across the flat wooden panel of the pipa intuitively, portraying in a stunningly visual manner the epic battle that led to the founding of the Han Dynasty in ancient China. The song, which was composed in the form of a narrative, felt chaotic and formless; with every soft sprinkling of notes, it felt like the moment just before an angry bull charges at a bullfighter's dangling red cape. Gripping the audience with anticipation and excitement, the first tune sets up high expectations.

In the ten pieces that followed, Wu Man's colleagues took turns playing duets with her. First up, James Makubuya sauntered out in African dress with the endongo, an East African lyre. The duo played "Nandere," a subtle Ugandan folk song in which Makubuya's coarse tenor voice suited the somber mood of the song. Yet, while the endongo was indeed a fascinating spectacle, its muted sound was not stimulating. Conversely, In "Raining," an urban Cantonese folk song, Makubuya accompanied Wu Man with the much more appealing adungu, whose harp-like chords blended quite well with the pipa's languorously plucked notes. And when Wu Man began to sing softly midway through the melody, the inherent beauty of the Mandarin language was revealed in her lilting articulation.

Then, Julian Kytasty lent his vocals to "Cossack Lament," an intense requiem with a remarkable history. Traditionally sung by the Kobzari, a group of blind Ukrainian bards, Kytasty's voice evoked a poignant anguish that could only be enhanced by his playing of the bandura and Wu Man's pipa. Of all the plucked-string instruments featured in this performance, it was Kytasty's mastery of the bandura that stood out most. His hand undulated soulfully across the Ukrainian lute, and the instrument's acoustical versatility, which combined the sounds of the guitar and harpsichord, complemented the pipa vividly in "Xiang Mei Mei" and "Night Rider" as well.

All the while, in the midst of this fusion of world music, Lee Knight had a foothold on American folk. Contributing his vocals as well as his talents as a banjoist and dulcimer and mouth-bow player, Knight's performances in "I'm going back to North Carolina" and "Old Joe Clark" were distinctly Appalachian folk songs. In the latter, the concluding piece before intermission, Knight loosened up and played jocularly. Even Wu Man could not resist singing along. The rest of her friends also joined in, and the audience clapped to the beat as if it were a foot-tapping hoedown. This vibrant song brought together the dynamics of the entire group and could have easily capped off a lovely evening of world music. After intermission though, Wu Man and percussionist Robert Schulz treated the audience to one more duet of lengthy proportion.

Consisting of three ancient poems written by Li Bai, "Ancient Dances" was skillfully assembled lyrically and visually. In the background, a film screen reeled off a series of images of dancing lines of calligraphy and Chinese paintings. As Wu Man pointed out in the program, the pipa's movements were remarkably in synch with those of the calligraphy, bringing the lexis of the three poems to life. Furthermore, Schulz's meticulous management of the percussion instruments, which included a small Beijing Opera gong, a bongo and maracas, heightened the delicacy of the amorphous tempo.

Unwilling to leave it on such an earnest note, Wu Man closed by performing an encore of the first piece of the night, "Shi Mian Mai Fu." Beginning and ending the concert with her best performance of the night left the audience with immense satisfaction. Delivering a repertoire of traditional folk music, Wu Man and her contemporaries introduced an exotic diversity of plucked-string instruments. Though the concert was housed in Carnegie Hall, the audience was taken all across the world by a musically apt ensemble of internationally renowned virtuosos.