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Rumi's Poetry in Motion
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Boston Globe, Rumi's Poetry in Motion >>
One of this year's saddest albums is also one of its most riveting - and an ode to 13th-century Sufi poet Rumi, marking his 800th birthday. Mourning Persian motifs are infused with a transcendent, symphonic beauty, carried aloft by the nuanced vocals of Tehran's Shahram Nazeri ("Iran's Pavarotti") and inspired compositions from his son Hafez Nazeri. Drawn to Rumi's themes - letting go of the self and material attachments to achieve peace and security - Shahram is renowned as the first to create new song forms adapting Rumi's poetry to Persian classical music, which is traditionally improvisational. For "The Passion of Rumi," Hafez employed Western orchestration techniques to arrange his father's songs for his young Rumi Ensemble. The results are exotic and often stunning, beginning with "Mystic" and its slow and purposeful melancholy. "Evan Madaen," a standout, introduces an arresting, yearning refrain that sounds as though it came straight from a Middle Eastern version of the "New World Symphony." The album then begins heaving and sinking through a mélange of emotions, bristling with passion and intrigue by the time it reaches its gripping finale, the nine-minute title track.
-by Tristram Lozaw 12/18/07 >> go there
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