What do you get when two sarod maestros of the country blend in our Indian ragas with the soulful sound of the violinIJ You get Soul Strings, a collection of symphonies that reaches the very core of your heart. It is for the first time that Amaan Ali Khan and Ayaan Ali Khan have collaborated with Grammy nominated violinist Elmira Darvarova for the unique project of bringing together two completely different classical forms of music.
At their debut performance at The Taj Mahal Hotel in Delhi, they seemed exhilarated because they had only performed at Symphony Space in New York last year. The evening started with a soulful rendition of one of Bach’s famous symphonies by Darvarova, who then invited Amaan Ali to join her. Together, they began with a composition on raga Yaman, and was later joined by Ayaan Ali. As the evening rolled into night, the atmosphere became more magical.
Soul Strings was conceived in a meeting that the two brothers had with Darvarova. There was an initial plan of compiling an album with a live recording of the performance, which did not materialised. “But sometimes on stage there are no retakes and there is a certain vibe on stage plus there are so many things that you have to keep in mind like the 1,000 people sitting to witness the performance,” Ayaan Ali explained. But since the concept was successful, they decides to get the music out for music lovers. So, Darvarova flew down to India and they recorded all the pieces.
Although she has performed in the Capital before, it was Darvarova’s first time collaborating with an Indian artist and we could sense the enthusiasm in her voice. “It is an honour to perform with two of India’s finest sarod payers. For me it is very new because I knew very little about Indian classical music before I was introduced to it by Ayaan and Amaan. And since then, I have fallen in live with Indian ragas,” said Darvarova, who started to play the violin when she was three years old. “But there is a lot to learn as it is a very complex system rhythmically, musically and melodically. It’s bewitching and totally magical,” she added.
The Khan brothers, too, are excited about the collaboration. They are happy with the way the entire thing shaped up. “We have performed together a few times and we understood our music and our minds more. I feel that it is extremely important to interact with the person whom you are performing with because their nature eventually reflects in your music,” said Amaan.
The collaboration, the little that we heard, was quite exceptional. Ayaan told us that today, a lot of noise is being produced in the name of collaboration. Although he was quick to add, “But then again, every artiste gives his or her best in a collaboration project.” However, he personally feels that when one is collaborating for this kind of a project then there has to be a journey and a destination. “You need to know where you are going or which way you want to go. As far as Soul Strings is concerned, the idea was to show the world of Western Classical music in complete sync with the world of Indian classical music. The concert is not about her doing her thing and we doing ours but we are collectively doing it together and collectively trying to create a bouquet of flowers so that the entire bouquet looks nice and not individual just the flower. That’s very important. You see the unique aspect is that sarod is a pluck instrument and violin is a bow instrument so this kind of equation is challenging but I think it has flowed very well and has fallen very beautifully in place. And Elmira has great feeling for the music that she is playing. In their tradition, they read music. The project is an amalgamation of a tradition that has a written score and our tradition which is completely oral,” he pointed out.
Amaan explained that it is not in the Indian system to plan things out systematically. He elaborated, “If you ask us to perform for 10 minutes, it will not happen. It will either be that we will get up in six minutes or will play for 20 minutes. It is not bound. So it is extremely challenging for her and for us, too, because we have come out of out of our comfort zones and have created one of our own. By performing together we have understood each other better and the equation kind of flowed.”
Darvarova added that they have brought together and amalgamated the styles and world that each one of then come from. She echoed Ayaan’s thoughts, “We come from different upbringing, systems and ecosystem. Everything is different about us. We, as artistes, represent different branches of different musical styles. But the amalgamation that we have achieved brings something new. Nobody had to reject their heritage because we amalgamated through the prism of what we have and what we do. At the end it still carries the individual quality if each ones’ style and tradition. It provides a bridge between the cultures from where a new entity is born.”
Soul Strings was released by a prominent music company and they have together also recorded another album with Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. “The album is a journey forward,” said Ayaan Ali. “They are magnificent masters of the sarod and it was an enriching experience for me,” Darvarova gushed.
Excerpts from an interview with the artistes:
How did you guys meet herIJ
Ayaan Ali: She was taking part in the very unique project called Sheherazade which was basically a project about the upliftment of women all around the world. She was presenting this project in Carnegie Hall and we met through a common conductor friend. We were talking to him about presenting our father’s concerto Samagam, and Elmira just happened to be there. Then we got talking and she was quite taken into my ideas of Indian classic music. Perhaps it was because of the way I was projecting it because it is a very unique art form and for us it is liked to spirituality. For us it is nath brahma.
How did these two classical forms come togetherIJ
Darvarova: Everything is different different systems and different notations but we believe that many many years go these two forms must have shared the same DNA and we come from that platform. The typical motifs that they bring in the collaboration and the typical mood that I bring in the project just fits in a magical way. They beautifully and seamlessly flow into each other. And there we find a common ground.
So we partake in each other’s traditions to bring out the beauty of each and still still present one new thing.
photos Sanjeev Kumar