The Silk Road Ensemble

It’s easy to peg the CSO Resound’s most recent offering as a public radio–ready move: Affable celeb Yo-Yo Ma lovingly unites Eastern and Western cultures for a feel-good musical celebration. Yet Traditions and Transformations: Sounds of Silk Road Chicago, the fourth release for the Chicago Symphony’s in-house label, melds far-flung civilizations while avoiding a certain coffeehouse brand of easy-listening. As the disc blurs borders between the Occident and the Orient, much of this music jolts, challenges and even mesmerizes.

In Sharav’s Legend of Herlen, Ma’s hazy sliding on the morin khuur (a Mongolian two-stringed instrument) evokes a fog-steeped Appalachian fiddle; then, out of nowhere, Khongorzul Ganbaatar’s exotically piercing calls emerge with pristine clarity. Yet Western brass, percussion and even a few Romantic piano riffs complement its Eastern flavor. Similarly, composer Lou Harrison merges competing cultural elements in his Pipa Concerto when the lutelike instrument’s distinct Oriental tone hovers above standard string coloration; pipa extraordinaire Wu Man dazzles as soloist.

Ma plays ravishingly in Ernest Bloch’s Schelomo, a somber Hebrew-inspired concert piece for cello and orchestra; the CSO’s cool accompaniment never swallows Ma’s singing lyricism. And future NY Phil conductor Alan Gilbert takes the CSO up and away with an invigorating run through Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite, Op. 20. Here’s an infant label—still less than a year old—dedicated to the major works of Western music yet able to turn an ear to cosmopolitan voices, too.