S R Ramakrishna reviews a landmark collaboration between Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra
S R Ramakrishna reviews a landmark collaboration between Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra
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HAPPY CONFLUENCE: Ustad Amjad Ali and David Murphy at Samaagam |
The concert had another significance: it marked a landmark collaboration between a highly regarded Indian classical musician and a chamber orchestra playing European music. It was, as its title suggested, a confluence of two great traditions.
As they tuned up, the Scottish musicians flooded Chowdaiah Memorial Hall with gentle waves of acoustic sound, magically rejuvenating ears fatigued by the digital clamour of popular music.
David Murphy arrived soon after, and conducted the orchestra as they played Mozart and Beethoven for the first 45 minutes of the evening. The team was in its elements in this segment, and played with flair and energy.
The second segment began after a five-minute break when Amjad Ali came on stage and played solo. He began with raga Zila Kafi in the 14-beat Chachar tala (The Gulf-based label Thomson label has on its catalogue a fine recording of this composition). His mastery was well in evidence, but if you have heard him before, it's possible you might have thought he was a bit low on inspiration on Monday. He was accompanied on the tabla by Tanmoy Bose, who was contented with some muted playing.
The Samaagam (confluence) happened when the Indian and the Western teams came together for the last session. The opening composition in raga Yaman showed how the Scottish musicians had practised and perfected some difficult graces (meends). They then played to Amjad Ali's melodies, creating harmonies of gentle beauty.
In tone and texture, the combined music evoked the glorious background scores of vintage Indian films, where huge string ensembles and Indian instruments played themes set to our ragas. If you closed your eyes, the violins, cellos and double basses could have transported you to the early celluloid world of costume dramas, grand emotions, and bashful actors.
This section also reminded listeners of the advanced thinking that characterises the work of some of India's film music composers, and their anonymous conductors. Overall, the Scottish orchestra seemed very comfortable in ragas derived from the Western major scale (or what we call Sankarabharam or Bilawal). Thus, they played superbly in ragas such as Bhinna Shadaj and Bhoop, and seemed a wee bit out of their depths in Megh and Malkauns, and such other ragas not derived from the major scale.
In recent years, Dr L Subramaniam has attempted some collaboration on these lines. Another violinist, Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan, has recorded an album called Colours with a Western-style orchestra. Yet, the most famous attempt at fusing the two ancient music traditions remains the East Meets West project featuring Pandit Ravi Shankar on the sitar and Yehudi Menuhin on the violin. And if you're inclined towards such experiments, you may have heard The Madras String Quartet, led by V S Narasimhan, which produces music of great emotional intensity. The quartet fuses south Indian classical compositions, such as Tyagaraja's Mokshamu galada, with Western classicism.
David Murphy, who conducted his team brilliantly at the Monday event, has notated his score with sensitivity and understanding, taking care not to sacrifice the purity of the ragas for orchestral colour. "I can follow ragas to an extent, but each raga is an infinite world," he told MiD DAY on the morning of the concert. His team responded with spirited musicianship to the challenges of this experiment. The amplification was so subtle and superlative you couldn't make out they were using mics.
And the larger picture... If there is one reason this experiment won't beat Ravi Shankar and Mehuhin, it could be that this hugely talented orchestra did not have virtuosos who could hold a sustained dialogue with Amjad Ali.
An Indian and Western sawal-jawab that embraces both the vilambit (slow tempo) and the dhrut (fast tempo), would perhaps add to the beauty of this ambitious, undeniably happy confluence.
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