Silk Baroque, an intriguing meeting of East and West from Holland Baroque in Malta

Holland Baroque has been working with acclaimed sheng player Wu Wei, exploring the approaches to both cultures, embracing the Eastern pentatonic scale while expanding freedom and improvisation. The result is Silk Baroque, a sweep of music curated and arranged by ensemble directors Judith and Tineke Steenbrink ranging from Chinese music to Bach and Leclair, Judith Steenbrink’s pieces adding modern twists to the traditional at the Valletta Baroque Festival.

The sheng needs a little explanation, because to call it a mere mouth organ is underselling its capabilities. Shengs inspired the invention of the accordion, concertina and harmonium and go back some 3000 years, a bundle of bamboo pipes with reeds in a metal bowl, their shape represents the phoenix in Chinese folklore. The player blows through a mouthpiece, notes sounding singly, or in polyphony, so a melody can be played over chords, the tone varying from percussive to whispering silky soft. Wu Wei’s sheng has been modified to play chromatically where needed allowing him to tackle Telemann with as much gusto as a Chinese dragon song.

Chaos for Wu Wei adapted from Jean-Fery Rebel began a sequence of pieces, the ensemble setting up a chaotic shimmer with Matteo Rabolini adding drama from a large percussion collection. Wu Wei emerged from behind the audience, his sheng calling to the players on stage, Baroque strings, theorbo and harpsichord changing into a mellow folky idiom which became a melismatic base for Wu Wei’s expressive playing. Steenbrink’s Rigaudon for Wu Wei danced along to an infectious catchy rhythm, Michał Bąk's double bass taking a short solo spot that would not have been out of place in a jazz club. An improvisation for sheng gave a tour of the instrument’s possibilities, Wu Wei bending notes as the tempo picked up to a fierce beat, percussion brushes going like an express train.

A lively Harlequinade from Telemann was followed by a traditional Silk Song arranged by Steenbrink, Wu Wei’s sheng plaintively sighing in a pentatonic scale, the music folky with bells in a sound reminding me of a traditional Hebridean air.  A lively dancing song of the Yao Tribe by Mao Yuan bristled with an urgent beat with a jazzy rhythm section, the reedy sheng bursting enthusiastically through the ensemble. What about some bells? was a Purcellian improvisation around the Westminster clock chimes, full of surprises, before the ensemble tore into Leclair’s lively Gavotte en rondeau which had Chloe Prendergast setting down her violin to perform a superb spot of fiercely energetic Irish dancing.

A Bach sequence allowed Wu Wei to demonstrate the versatility of his chromatic sheng, lively, evenly toned and expressive. For the Chinese traditional Abendmusik, Wu Wei picked up a two stringed erhu, a fretless spike fiddle ending in a small resonator, the bow intertwined between the strings. The sound almost resembling the human voice, Wu Wei brought tenderness, sombre tones in the lower register, but a higher reedy insistence breaking through, woodblock percussion helping the piece flow. For Steenbrink’s noisy Dragon Dance, Rabolini was joined by harpsichordist, cellist and theorbo player who set up a clanging rhythm, the driven music peppered with whooping shouts. Finally, La Follia from Vivaldi/Bach took us on a spectacular journey, Tomasz Pokrzywinski’s cello a veritable blur with the ensemble really swinging, allowing a respite as the music slowed, but picking up to a fierce gallop with castanets and Christoph Sommer switching from theorbo to Baroque guitar.

David's press trip was funded by Visit Malta