Cellist Abel Selaocoe.
Imaginary journeys are best. The Cape Symphony Orchestra’s Passport series—a musical journey each January—has been a reliable source of travelogue fantasies.
Since Africa is a continent with many countries, the CSO’s Passport to Africa this Saturday at the Barnstable High School featured many musics, many musicians, and many artists.
Characteristically enthusiastic, CSO music director Jung-Ho Pak built an extravaganza program with three premieres, half-a-dozen guest performers and a host of collaborators.
Composers Barak Schmool, Bradley Williams and Bongani Ndodana-Breen were all in attendance, to hear their own premieres. Cellist/vocalist Abel Selaocoe, pianist William Chapman Nyaho, poets, visual artists and speakers came together.
The orchestra played like soloists, like an orchestra, and like a band-mate—as required by the shape-changing program. Representatives from artistic partner Zion Union Heritage Museum—just a mile away on North Street—recapped their long association with Cape communities. A lot happened.
Schmool composed a kind of quadruple-concerto—the orchestra on one side, with cello, vocals, percussion and bass on the other. In Ndodana-Breen’s “African Kaddish,” a treacherous polyrhythm clashed with a heart-rending chorale, to huge success. A bold performance from William Grant Still’s “Africa” might have gotten lost. Williams composed a narrative orchestral work, with a probing libretto taken from prison writings of Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela.
The supercharged Selaocoe mixed passionate cello playing with arresting vocals, including throat singing. His trio electrified the audience after intermission, performing Schmool’s condensed and clever concerto.
“20th Meridian” was jazzy in format—solos for all, with everyone else mostly laying down ostinatos—but rigidly constructed. The movements came with country descriptors: “Congo” induced a riot in the winds and horns, over a foursquare beat; “Mali” lifted Selaocoe—cello and voice—above the ensemble.
A lullaby, lots of improvisation, some Afro-pop, a rugged trio cadenza—each movement flew by with brisk innovations. The soloists soloed; the orchestra soloed; rhythms went everywhere, long sections were mesmerizing.
The program was too diverse to appreciate briefly. Chapman Nyaho’s crazy-hot take of Saint-Saëns’ piano tone poem; orchestral challenges throughout, especially percussion and horns; Carl Lopes’s striking visuals onstage; informed sentiments and artists.
At the end, Selaocoe kissed everyone goodnight with a Bach improvisation.
The next Cape Symphony Orchestra performance will spotlight music from the Tonys, Feb. 22 and 23. Visit capesymphony.org or 508-362-1111.