‘Keys to India is a spontaneous sharing and interaction of two creative minds” conceptualised by Anil Srinivasan and Sharik Hasan, the Hyderabad Concert was the duo's last leg of a five city tour of India.
Though they come from different places musically - Anil Srinivasan, Chennai-based classical-contemporary pianist, has been trained, just as Sharik Hasan has been, in Western Classical piano, but went on to find his unique place as a musician playing Indian music, Indian contemporary and Indian classical music. And Sharik Hasan, New York-based Jazz pianist, found his metier in jazz.
On the stage were two pianos with the two pianists facing each other. And during the concert,
what was noteworthy, was that though the pianists represented different genres
of music, they shared a great empathy and enjoyed the process of creating music and
playing with each other.
The pianists had divided the concert into
four parts which they called 'Nature', 'Romance', 'The Human condition', or 'Triumph
of the human spirit' and 'Seasons'.
In the first part,
‘Nature’, Sharik started solo with the haunting and lustrous song Nature
Boy. Anil then did his solo of a Schubert composition which recalled the
season of Spring, he then carried on by interpreting a Carnatic classical piece
that was made famous by M.S. Subbulakshmi the renowned Carnatic vocalist. To
end this part called 'Seasons', the two pianists dueted on Autumn Leaves.
The second part, ‘Romance’, was
interpreted with Sharik starting with Gershwin’s I Loves you Porgy, he was joined by Anil who played on his keys, some
striking, Indian classical, sitar-strum like
glissandos on this tune. They went on to do Cindy Lauper’s Time after Time, after which, Anil took the lead in playing a dance-worthy, rhythmic Tillana.
The third part, ‘The Human Condition’ was
started by Anil playing Beethoven’s Moonlight
Sonata, selected to represent the ‘Triumph of the Human Spirit’ as Anil
announced, because Beethoven wrote this piece when he was deaf and had to
resort to unorthodox methods to try and hear the piano. Sharik followed up on
this with his own composition called Hymn,
and this was followed by Anil and Sharik collaborating on a piece called Everybody Hurts written by the Alternate
Rock group, R. E. M. This piece, exposed as the duo did, brought out many melodic aspects of this song
imaginatively and creatively, giving it a completely new outlook.
The next part was called ‘Seasons’. In this
part of the programme, the duo played Sharik’s composition Jack ‘O’ Lantern, which had a very Indian feel to it. And then Anil
played a couple of Indian Classical compositions based on Raga Basant usually
sung in Spring. The two then collaborated on My Favourite Things, from The
Sound of Music, which turned out to be a fun outing, with both the pianists
enjoying themselves, bringing out the mischief and humour in them, and making music
that sounded at times like carousel
music that we hear at a carnival.
The concert ended with a sombre though
uplifting rendition by both the pianists in a unique collaboration, of Vande Mataram, the Hymn to the Motherland,
by Bankim Chandra Chatterji, which played an inspiring part in India’s struggle
for freedom from British Imperialism.
Both pianists displayed a refinement of touch and technique that brought polish and
elegance to the music throughout the evening. And though they often played
independent solos, whenever they played together, their musical interactions
were seamless and smooth, they dovetailed and segued rhythms, chords and runs
artfully, without ever colliding or competing; producing inventions that were at
times sublime and sometimes poetic and always charming.
The audience enjoyed the performance and
particularly got a sense of participation when they recognised Anil Srinivasan’s
pianistic quotes and references to popular Indian film tunes that he incorporated in
his piano outings.
This was indeed an enjoyable
collaboration that was gifted to the audience with the wonderful Idea of
bringing about communal harmony through music.
As Anil and Sharik said, the duo, find through their music, “a common ground to bring people together in harmony… in these times of polarisation and divisiveness… of communities, and of different religions, classes and backgrounds. Music is used to transcend distinctions between peoples, and place the arts in the service of the community and not place the community in the service of the arts’.
For hydmusic.com August 2014
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