Album Notes

SARANGI

For many followers of north Indian music, the sarangi is a treasured solo instrument all the more so for its relative rarity in this role. Demanding to play, it needs a fierce concentration and many years of practice to make the bow draw the necessary refined quality of tone. Yet played by the finest musicians it has a mysteriously physical, visceral character that makes it appear to sing straight from the heart. And indeed it is closely associated with singing. Until well into the 20th century, it was heard most often as shadow and support for vocalists, rarely taking the spotlight itself a haunting timbre in the background that cried out for the listener's full focus if only it had the chance. The efforts of contemporary musicians such as Sultan Khan and Ram Narayan have changed all that. They, andothers after them, have shown handsomely that the sarangi could match any of the more conventional solo instruments in its expressive force and scope for extended performance, once it was treated with the equivalent degree, not just of technical perfection, but of imaginative artistry.

Ustad* Sultan Khan is internationally renowned for the emotional depth of his playing, and his xtraordinary technical and melodic control. He is one of the representatives of the Indore Gharana, made famous by Amir Khan. From seven years old he learned from his father, Gulab Khan, who was both an accomplished sarangi player and a vocalist, and like his father he often contributes vocal 'Amir khani' nuances to his performances. Sultan Khan gave his first performance at the All-India Conference at the age of 11. He has won numerous musical awards, including being a recipient twice of the Sangeet Natya Academy Award (the President's Award). He performed along with Ravi Shankar on George Harrison's 1974 Dark Horse World Tour. In 1997 he had the honour of playing for Prince Charles' 50th birthday celebration. He has composed and recorded music for films such as In Custody and Gandhi. But his true devotion and love lie in playing the classical music of India.
(* Ustad is a term of respect used to denote a Muslim musician's achievements and contribution to their art.)

He is joined in duet by Ikram Khan, who was born in Jaipur to a family of Rajasthani musicians. Introduced to the sarangi in his youth, he became a pupil of Sultan Khan.

Ikram was employed for ten years by All India Radio and took part in many concerts and festivals of classical music within the ambit of television. Since 1994 he has regularly visited Europe as a soloist. This meeting with the West has made him aware of the potential for exchange which exists between these two cultures through music. As well as being an ambassador for the sarangi, Ikram shares his knowledge of Indian music as a member of the performing group Kabul Workshop, a vehicle for musical research and a bridge between cultures. It was formed by Francesco Russo from Italy and Khaled Arman from Afghanistan, who met in 1998, complemented by other musicians from Afghanistan and Morocco.

There are also two tabla players on this recording. Nandan Mehta belongs to the famed Benares gharana and is a pupil of Kishan Maharaj. He has worked and recorded with the great singer Pandit Jasraj and many other leading musicians. His immediate family is exceptionally musical: he is the husband of Manju Mehta, 'first lady of the sitar’, and their daughters are the sitarist Purvi Mehta and the tabla player Hetal Mehta. Manju and Nandan are driving forces behind the prestigious Saptak School of Music International Festival, which has now been running in January for more than 20 years. The second tabla player is Hanif Khan, son and disciple of the illustrious master of tabla Hidayat Khan. Since his teens he has toured extensively in India and around the world, in small and large ensembles. He also has an affinity for the light genres including lok geet, bhajans, folk, and Western fusion styles. Currently he is considered one of the top tabla players in the UK and is a sought-after accompanist at the Nehru Centre, London, for visiting Indian artists.

The performance here, recorded during the 2005 Saptak Festival, is essentially a duetfor sarangis of notable beauty, with alternating tabla accompaniment. It reaches a positively vocal degree of lyrical intensity, above all in the opening alap. Sultan Khan leads off while Ikram Khan shadows and then follows him, with a certain amount of overlap. As the notes of the raga are introduced, the music ranges widely around them, up and down in pitch, while the length of the phrases steadily extends. Just as gradually, the centre of the pitch range rises until it reaches a peak after some eight and a half minutes. For a while there is an animated focus around this peak, then an intense concentration on it which draws an audible response from the Saptak Festival audience. As track 2 begins, the tablas whose performers take it in turns to play - enter with their slow seven-beat cycle (2 + 2 + 3). The recurring melody of the gat is a haunting phrase that descends from the flattened sixth degree of the scale, usually played by the two sarangi performers in unison. After about 20 minutes the animation begins to increase, led by the sarangis and taken up with gusto by tabla.
Shortly before the end of this gat there is a quieter interlude, and then a varied melody descending the full octave links on to begin the second gat. The sarangi playing becomes more flamboyant, but towards the end it is the percussion that takes the lead in moving the pace on towards the third gat. Again linked directly, but with the tala changing to an eight-beat cycle, it features a melody that rises briefly and then falls back, and the virtuosity goes on with some frantic flights of imagination from the sarangis and a couple of steps up in pace. In the final few minutes, a gradual acceleration begins that continues right through and inspires an equally brilliant percussionist's response.