Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble gave a large and enthusiastic audience a 2½-hour multicultural hootenanny in Symphony Hall last night. An ensemble of 14 virtuoso musicians from many lands joined the cellist for a program that presented four kinds of music: authentic folk music from countries along the Silk Road; modern arrangements of folk music for mixtures of Eastern and Western instruments; contemporary composed music with deep roots in national and folk cultures; and cheerful crosscultural improvisations.
Although Ma founded the Silk Road Project, it has grown and developed in surprising ways because he has never made it all about himself. For most of the evening, he was an ensemble player, emerging for only one solo, ''Habil-Sayagy," a substantial piece for cello and prepared piano by Franghiz Ali-Zadeh. This is an amazing piece to have been composed by a woman in Baku in 1979. The innards of the piano were atmospherically plucked and struck by Joel Fan, while Ma used his instrument in an improvisational recitative-and-aria style based on the sound and traditional repertory of the kamancheh, an instrument from Azberaijan.
