From Damascus, Some Oud Couplings

The exotic textures of Middle East music are familiar, if not by name, then surely by the uniqueness of their sounds: the infectious rhythms of the darabouka drum and the riq tambourine, the plangent melodies of the lute-like oud, the ney flute and multi-stringed quanun. It is music that drifts across borders from Syria and Lebanon to Iraq, Iran and the nations of the Persian Gulf, music whose character and nature have represented a sophisticated cultural expression for thousands of years.

Yet, on certain evenings in Damascus, it is possible to experience the sounds of a very different culture by joining jampacked crowds of 2,500 or so to hear a full symphony orchestra perform the music of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. The ensemble is mostly filled with young people, ranging in age from 18 to 25, performing the works with expertise and enthusiasm for an audience that greets each selection with animated applause.

“We have called it the Syrian National Symphony Orchestra,” says its 63-year-old founder and music director, Solhi Al Wadi, “because it is the only symphony orchestra in Syria.”

In fact, the ensemble is associated with Al Wadi’s Damascus conservatory, the Higher Institute of Music, and includes graduates of the institute, some foreign artists and current students. Formed in 1993, it evolved out of a chamber string orchestra that had been in existence since the ‘70s.

“We’re also fortunate to have been aided by some of the expatriate Soviet musicians,” notes Al Wadi. “Their economic situation is very bad, of course, and they are willing to come and work for the not very high salaries that we have to offer. Currently we have about 18 former Soviets--very fine players, some who were students of Rostropovich and Oistrakh--from places such as Baku, Azerbaijan and the Ukraine.”

On Friday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, and next Sunday at UCLA’s Royce Hall, the orchestra makes its U.S. debut with a program that includes premieres of works by Arabic composers, as well as more traditional Western repertoire, drawing strongly on Mozart and Beethoven.

Soloists include violinist Bassam Nashawati, currently a member of Michael Tilson Thomas’ New World Symphony in Miami, performing the Beethoven Violin Concerto; pianist Hamsa Al Wadi (the music director’s daughter) playing the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20; and soprano Lubana Quntar, a graduate of the Higher Institute of Music, singing an aria from Verdi’s “La Traviata.” The orchestra’s program also includes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 and the Overture to “Fidelio,” and Mozart’s Symphony No. 31 (“Paris”).

With its skills as a Western classical ensemble still growing, it may be that the orchestra’s most unusual aspect is its addition of Arabic music to the repertory. The premieres of Adel Jeray’s Maquam Shannaz for Lute and Strings, and two works by Suleiman Ali Akbar--Movement for Three Lutes and Strings and “Poem for Quanun and Orchestra”--will showcase instruments and musical styles rarely heard in association with a symphony orchestra.

“Shannaz,” explains Al Wadi, “is actually the description of an Arabic mode”--a particular relationship among notes, such as Western major and minor modes--”so Maquam Shannaz is the name of a specific mode. And all of these works have been orchestrated for our ensemble from the original compositions. In the case of the Movement for Three Lutes, for example, I have orchestrated it as a kind of Oriental moto perpetuo.”

The lute featured in the first two works is, in fact, the oud (from the Arabic al-’ud, with a literal meaning of “branch of wood”). A vital voice in Arabic music since the 8th century, the oud, with its half-pear shape and short, fretted neck, came to Spain with the entry of Islam in 713, eventually emerging in England as the lute.

The quanun is similar to the instrument known in the West as the zither or dulcimer--all descendants of the Greek kithara and the Egyptian harp. It consists of a trapezoidal flat board supporting a set of strings--as few as 42 in Turkey, as many as 100 in Greece--organized in courses of three strings for each note, and is played via picks, or plectrums, attached to the performer’s fingers.

“The quanun is heard all over the Middle East, in Turkey, in Iran, in all the Arabic countries, as well,” says Al Wadi. “It has a beautiful sound, and is very versatile, since its strings can be retuned during the performance without the player having to stop. It’s a lot like a harp, in that sense, and the pitch can be raised or lowered by a semitone, a full tone, or even a microtone, which, of course, is necessary for Arabic music.”

Despite his interest in mixing Arabic and Western sounds, Al Wadi’s real goal with the orchestra remains the establishment of a first-rate symphonic ensemble in Damascus.

“Since I was a child in the ‘40s,” he explains, “I have listened to recordings of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the greatest symphonies in the world. And we certainly don’t feel we can yet compare with these orchestras.

“But the truth is that there is a very big following for serious music in Syria. We give about 10 to 12 concerts every season, which runs from October to June, in a big hall seating 2,500 people, which is filled every time we perform. And it’s not peculiar to Syria. [Western] classical music is appreciated and understood in many parts of the Middle East--even modern music such as Bartok and Stravinsky. So there is every reason for the existence of a first-rate symphony in this part of the world.”

The performances in Southern California aim to introduce the orchestra to Western audiences and to begin to rally support among the international Syrian community. The programs are being organized and produced by Dr. Hazen Chehabi, the honorary consul general for Syria in California.

Chehabi, who is essentially producing the programs with his own funds, timed the performances to coincide with the annual convention of the Arab American Medical Assn., which takes place in September in Newport Beach.

“I decided,” he explains, “that the event’s cultural component provided a perfect opportunity to introduce the orchestra to influential Arab American physicians. And, at the same time, [I thought] that we could also provide an opportunity for American audiences to hear them, and help promote the cultural exchange between the United States and Syria.

“My hope is that they will be reviewed well enough so that someone who does this kind of production for a living will be able to bring them back in two or three years. But at the very least, I hope that they will receive a response that will encourage them to continue with what they’re doing, or perhaps to correct the things they’re not doing right.”

Chehabi says that the Syrian population of Southern California is “in the 30,000 to 50,000 range,” and he anticipates a significant turnout for what he believes is the first Syrian production of this size and scope.

But he is also eager to emphasize the human aspects of the orchestra’s maiden trip to America.

“There is something very special about this ensemble,” he says. “Classical music is not indigenous to Syria. It’s not the typical music one hears in the Middle East. Yet here are these young men and women who have gone against the mainstream, picking up classical instruments and learning the music from a very young age, and working very hard. Last year I attended a graduation performance at the Higher Institute of Music that included a fine pianist who was also graduating from medical school at the same time.”

And he intends to respect and indulge the excitement that the young musicians are experiencing.

“I’m told that they’re already having trouble sleeping in anticipation of the trip,” Chehabi says with a chuckle. “I had already planned to take them to Universal Studios for an outing. But when I asked if there was anything in particular they would like to do in Los Angeles, they said they would like to have their picture taken under the Hollywood sign. You can be sure we’ll do that, as well.”

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SYRIAN NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Date: Friday, 8 p.m. Phone: (714) 740-7878. Also at Royce Hall, UCLA, next Sunday, 7 p.m. Phone: (310) 825-2101. Prices: $15-$75, both venues.

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Don Heckman’s world music column appears in Calendar the first Friday of each month.