A concerto for a woman, played on a famous violin named for a woman, with an orchestra conducted by a woman – what better way to honor “all women who thrive with courage” Malek Jandali (MalekJandali.com) began composing his Violin Concerto in New York City in 2013, completing it in January 2014, originally with violinist Gidon Kremer in mind as the dedicatee. As the project took shape, however, with its emphasis on women who have transcended great obstacles, here dedicated it “To Rachel Barton Pine and to all women who thrive with courage.” Pine recorded it on the 1742 Giuseppe Guarneri “del Gesù” violin, previously known as the “ex-Bazzin'” but now as the “ex-Soldat” after violin virtuoso Marie Soldat of Johannes Brahms’s circle. On Brahms’s recommendation she had studied with Joseph Joachim and for a time was the only woman to play the Brahms Violin Concerto. To conduct, Jandali sought out Marin Alsop, one of today’s most successful women in the field, who has recorded most of his symphonic works. Here are just some of the women Jandali sought to honor in this music:

• Talal-Mallohi, who expressed her feelings through poetry, which led to her arrest in 2009 and sentencing during the first year of the Syrian revolution
• Razan Zaitoneh, human rights lawyer, who went into hiding after being accused of being a foreign agent during the Syrian Revolution, now thought ot have been killed
• Rania Al-Abbasi, dentist and chess champion, who was arrested in 2013 for unknown reasons and has not been heard of since along with her husband and their six children
• Lina Droubi, Jandali’s mother, who with his father, Dr. Mamoun Jandali, was brutally beaten in Syria after Malek performed at a 2011 peaceful protest in front of the White House

In honor of these women and continuing his aim to preserve the cultural heritage of his homeland, Malek Jandali adds his Violin Concerto to his large body of work that incorporatesSyrian melodies and idioms into Western-inspired harmonies and forms. Jandali incorporates the oud (Arabic lute) in his symphonic scoring to infuse the work with the authentic sound and feeling of his beautiful but ravaged Syrian homeland. Says Rachel Barton Pine, “Just hearing that sound as I’m playing my music on this Western instrument in this Western symphony context was really very inspiring and helped me capture the flavor of what I was doing that much better.”

The first movement’s restless introduction, culminating in a shimmering cascade, sets the scene for the violin’s sentence, which draws on a lovely sama’i (instrumental piece) in the Zunkalah maqam (its specific mode) by Aleppo musician and scholar Ali al-Darwish (1884-1952). This and all the other sama’i Jandali uses in the work are in 10/8 meter, providing a unifying feature. When the violin heads up into the stratosphere on a high, held harmonic – with the oud making its first appearance- the horn enters with the second main theme, soon taken over by the violin. Jandali calls this his “Women’s Theme,” inspired by traditional Syrian folk music from the area along the Silk Road, which reached Palmyra and Aleppo. The “Women’s Theme” and others in both the Violin Concerto and the Clarinet Concerto were a source of comfort and healing for unjustly detained, peaceful Syrian activists and other women/mothers living in fear. Jandali’s use of them poignantly draws attention to the devastating loss of Syria’s ancient culture.

Jandali’s next integration, from an old Arabic bashraf, an instrumental form that would often precede a sama’i, provides metric/rhythmic contrast. One of the most dramatic include an extremely virtuosic and extended cadenza for the violin and the return of the oud in dialogue with the violin “remembering my homeland,” says Jandali, preparing us for the melancholic slow movement.

The Andante begins with an old Syrian sama’i characterized by an expressive leap then winding gracefully along its way. The solo violin reintroduces the theme, soon soaring to astral heights a sits lament becomes more and more ethereal. Jandali introduces four other sama’i in succession: an atmospheric oboe theme that stems from an old sama’i in the Hijaz maqam by Yousef Basha; another old sama’i as the solo violin’s response; yet another sama’i for the full orchestra; and finally a sama’i that forms the basis of a passage for violin with oud accompaniment. A grand climax leads to the return of the opening theme, and the elegiac movement concludes with mournful violin utterances joined by the elegant oud.

The solo violin launches the final movement in a livelier dance vein with another sama’i, after which the oud takes up a sama’i in the Kar Jghar maqam by Tatyos longa being a dance usually performed by women at the end of a muwashshah (poetic and musical form). After the violin soars high above the texture, the violas signal the entrance of the final folk tune, which the solo violin quietly presents. Jandali isa master at organically and seamlessly developing and varying his melodic materials immediately in ways that involve his entire orchestral palette- a case in point here has the flute in dialogue with the violin – but always with the overarching shape in mind. Thus, after a huge climax, a dramatic pause, and an orchestral “glimmer of hope,” the mood darkens, out of which the violin, with eerie poignancy, closes with a slow, expanded version of the movement’s opening theme.