Azerbaijani and American cultures will meet onstage when Kronos Quartet and the Alim Qasimov Ensemble perform together this Friday at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Each group will showcase their own set, then join together to perform love songs drawn from ashiqs – the bardic singer-songwriters of Azerbaijan. News of the concert has spread rapidly among local Kronos fans, and word at this writing is only a limited number of tickets are still available.
Kronos opens the first half with some of its own repertoire: “Clouded Yellow” by Michael Gordon, “Aheym (Homeward)” by Bryce Dessner, and Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” arranged by Philip Glass. Qasimov follows with mugham, the traditional high-art Islamic religious music of Azerbaijan.
“I think of our opening set as a counterpoint to their opening set, and their opening set is a counterpoint to the songs that we do together,” Kronos founder and violinist David Harrington said in a phone interview. “The songs we will do together are a combination of love songs and mugham. They’re intertwined. The mugham is surrounding and embedded within the song. When you hear it, you’ll get it right away.”
Kronos and Qasimov first got together in 2008 as the initial project in a collaboration with the Aga Khan Music Initiative, which supports Central Asian musicians to sustain and develop their musical traditions.
Ismailimail 