Muslim-inspired Esoterics show moving

By R.M. CAMPBELL
P-I MUSIC CRITIC

Until this weekend the Olympic Sculpture Park Pavilion had never been tried as a classical performance space. It was, and will probably remain so, a modernist venue, with sweeping views of Elliott Bay, for wedding receptions.

The lack of a precedent has never stopped the Esoterics from doing anything in its 15-year-existence, and it didn't stop the a cappella group from inaugurating the pavilion Saturday night. With its high glass walls and square lines, the place suited the wish of Eric Banks, founding artistic director of the ensemble, to present "RU'IA," the program's title, in a secular setting. That the Olympic Sculpture Park Pavilion is, as well as possessing transparent acoustics.

Not content to rest on the conventional, Banks has long ranged beyond Western tradition in programming music for the Esoterics. Never more so than in "RU'IA," which is his attempt to bridge Judeo-Christian and Islamic worlds. The word means "vision" in Arabic.

The program was not long, but it was often intriguing in its engagement of a non-Western culture and true in its expressive intent. Because there is little tradition for ensemble singing in Muslim culture, Banks had to turn to composers who would use Western techniques to construct their individual worlds, including himself, whose "Twelve Qur'anic Visions" took up the second half of the concert.

All the works date to only the past couple of years, except Ton de Leeuw's "Priere" ("Prayer"), from 1954. They have a direct link to Muslim culture, be it in Africa or Tatarstan or simply the Quran itself.

Hussein Janmohamed, co-founder of the Vancouver Ismaili Muslim Youth Choir, has long been active in the music scene in Vancouver, B.C. "Mombasa Matatu Meditation" was directly inspired from his time in Mombasa, Kenya, while teaching at the Aga Khan Academy, hearing simultaneously the sounds of "matatus," passenger vans, weaving in and out of traffic, and the call to prayer. It is a work that couples cacophony with serenity in unexpected ways.

De Leeuw is a Dutch composer who has spent a lifetime involved in non-Western cultures. Inspired by the Quran, his "Priere" was probably the most moving piece on the program: compositional skill allied carefully with emotional resonance. Bern Herbolsheimer's "Kader kic" (The Night of Destiny") is a setting of a 1912 poem by the national poet of Tatarstan, Gabdulla Tukai, that celebrates the holiest night of the Islamic month of Ramadan. It is evocative and mysterious in feeling, particularly with the able voices of the Esoterics. Although long, Banks' "Vision" is a complex work with surprising twists and turns.

All night the ensemble grappled with the myriad difficulties presented to them by this quartet of composers, most often deftly and always with commitment.