Most of us have not thought of the Silk Road since history lessons at school. British composer Douglas Bostock has a reputation for assembling little-known music for his programmes, and with Coviello he has produced an interesting production which provides a lucid summary of the history of the ancient journey from eastern China to Venice. This network of trade routes was operative from 130 BCE, when the Han officially opened trade with the west, to 1453 CE, when the Ottoman Empire boycotted trade with the west and closed the routes.

As well as trade, religions and politics, the Silk Road was profoundly important as a medium of cultural exchange between East and West; not least in Music. Japanese composer Ikuma Dan (1924-2001) composed a Suite for Orchestra, with the eponymous title "The Silk Road". It was premièred by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra in 1955. Dan's four movements are not strictly programme music, but seek to give a musical impression of East-West communication initiated by the Silk Road.

He was a witness to the condemnation of Western Music during the Second World War, which is reflected by some military references in the fourth movement's march which recall film music of the period. The other movements comprise a capricious 'Prelude' which introduces Dan's belief in the creation of a new cultural identity by fusion, a soothing 'pastorale', imagining landscapes from both tropical and cooler locations; 'Dance' which brings in folk tunes and use of eastern scales. This is an inventive and delightful piece, beautifully played, with Dan's realisation of the Eastern origin of flute, lute, violin and trumpet and passing the idea of fusion culture very well. It is fun to hear how various eastern music characteristics are used.

Alexander Borodin (1833-1887), a Russian chemist, was also a member of the 'famous five' composers in Russia in the late nineteenth century. His only tone poem, 'Steppes of Central Asia' is well-known by Western listeners. It portrays the traversal of caravanserai's progression across the steppes (an essential part of the Silk Routes), first in the cool of the night, and then later in the blazing sun. Borodin left a lengthy text outlining the story, and rather than emphasising the collaboration between East and West, he refers to the annexation of Turkestan by the Russian Czar Alexander II. The Czar commissioned several composers in 1888, the 25th Anniversary of the conquest, and Borodin's is the only piece that has remained in public view. Bostock gets the orchestra to portray cool anticipation of the sunrise across the endless rolling steppes, then builds up plenty of tension to unleash the full orchestra for its central climax, notably with the Russian soldiers who guarded and protected the caravans in the name of the Russian Empire.

Ferruccio Busoni, a legend in his time, is now rarely performed, his orchestral works giving way to his piano pieces. Bostock and Coviello have excavated an orchestral suite from Busoni's play 'Turandot' Op.41 in six movements (1904-5). In 1917 he suddenly transformed the Turandot music into a two-act opera with spoken dialogue. The Turandot story is one of Scherazade's, from the Chinese saga 'One Thousand and One Nights'. Busoni's story is related to the Silk Road in a number of ways, which are clearly outlined by Kai Wessler's excellent booklet essay.

Frankly I was not greatly impressed by the Busoni; much of the music is slow and heavy, and Bostock and the orchestra have to expend a good deal of effort to hold attention. In the Turandot March, Bostock is almost overcome by Busoni's weightiness, the orchestra almost dragging, with stolid metric rhythms. There are some highlights though; take the English 'Greensleeves' played on the flutes, trumpets and harp, an Oriental dance with tambourine and Middle Eastern melismas on the winds. The winds, incidentally, seem to modify their timbres to suggest the older eastern forms of their origins.

The Argovia Philharmonic is scarcely a well-known orchestra. Its home is in Argovia, a town in one of the northern cantons of Switzerland. Launched in 1963, it is now a fully professional and nationally established orchestra, and Bostock has been its Principal Conductor since 2001. His rapport with the orchestra is evident. The strings have good, saturated tone, with first and second violins well-separated left and right. This recording was apparently made from two live performances ("live-recording" is printed at the bottom right of the jewel case). The audiences were apparently ordered to be completely silent, not a sound appears that I heard.

Cooviello's usual simple microphone arrays produce a detailed and well-integrated orchestral sound, with a good front to back perspective. Percussion isarrayed at the back, with a solid big bass drum well in the picture - but the cymbals are soggy, lacking the HF "hiss" which would have brightened several important crescendos. The concert hall's resonance dying can be heard when the music ends, but the presence of the audience seems to have reduced the overall ambience, leaving the acoustic somewhat dry and a little enclosed even with 5.0 multichannel.

Despite one or two minor issues, this is a thought-provoking and entertaining collation of orchestral pieces, united in a well-documented project,programme projects being a specialisation of the Argovia Philharmonic, more so than its Suisse Romande orchestral sister. Well worth considering for those who enjoy presentations off the usual track. And the track this time is a timeless one!

Copyright © 2014 John Miller and HRAudio.net

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