Bernstein anchors symphony’s Mideast tour

Considering that this weekend’s Symphony Classics program is being advertised as a musical tour of the Middle East, it may seem unusual that the whole thing centers on a famous Leonard Bernstein composition.

But Spokane Symphony conductor Eckart Preu says he built the program around the American composer’s 1965 choral piece “Chichester Psalms,” which was written in Hebrew, as a way of exploring the more abstract themes present in Middle Eastern culture and the compositions inspired by it.

“This is a very unusual program,” Preu said. “There’s very little orchestral music that has to do with the Middle East, and that was the starting point.”

One of the most curious elements of Bernstein’s “Psalms” is its featured vocal solo, which Bernstein insisted was never to be sung by a woman (boy soprano Amiel Elfort will be performing the solo with the symphony’s chorale).

“It’s a very legendary piece, especially for the use of the boy soprano, which is unique in symphonic literature,” Preu said. “It’s special in many ways, and I think that piece, since it’s based on the Psalms of David, rounds out the entire program.”

The two selections that originate directly from Middle Eastern roots are by Iranian composer Bahzad Ranjbaran and Egyptian composer Mohammed Fairouz. In keeping with Preu’s tendencies toward the unconventional, neither piece is quite what you’d expect.

Ranjbaran’s “Seven Passages,” which is the final entry in the composer’s “Persian Trilogy,” opens the program on a lush, evocative, occasionally bombastic note. Although the subject matter of Ranjbaran’s work is certainly inspired by his Middle Eastern upbringing, Preu likens his style to the work of Russian romantics like Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

“He has a very interesting language,” Preu said of Ranjbaran. “You have this exotic tone poem, and it’s a lot like Rimsky-Korsakov, but a little bit updated.”

Fairouz’s piece “Tahrir” was written after the young composer saw news broadcasts of the 2011 protests in Egypt’s Tahrir Square, a defining moment during the social and political upheaval known as the Arab Spring.

“It’s much more Arabic-sounding than, for instance, the Ranjbaran,” Preu said, noting that its featured clarinet solo (performed by the symphony’s Daniel Cotter) recalls traditional Islamic prayer. “You really feel like you’re right there in Tahrir Square. … There’s a lot of curiosity about the culture there and a lot of questions that are being asked, and this piece gives (Fairouz) the opportunity to open minds and explain what’s going on there.”

While all three of these pieces are connected by a common cultural thread, Mexican composer Ana Lara’s “Angels of Darkness and Dawn” seems more like a left-field choice. But Preu explains that its themes of life, death and the realms beyond (he says it either illustrates the birth or death of the universe – take your pick) fit in perfectly with the motifs of humanity, spirituality and cultural identity that are explored throughout the program.

“It’s a phenomenal, almost apocalyptic piece,” Preu said of Lara’s composition. “It intellectually fits into the whole concept of exploring a common culture. … I think all of these pieces go to the very depths of the human condition. Who are we? Where do we belong? Why do we fight? All of these are fundamental human questions. But they’re all about heroic or angelic, superhuman things and how they relate to them and why we need them.

“It’s a journey, but it’s more than just an Eastern journey.”