Masterpieces For Sarod And Violin – Amjad Ali Khan, Sarod and Elmira Darvarova, Violin

This double-CD album presents Amjad Ali Khan’s compositions for Sarod and Violin as a collection comprising the works previously premiered in three separate albums. The recordings included in this collection represent the culmination of a collaboration that came about through a serendipitous meeting of the artists in 2014 – Amjad Ali Khan, the Titan of the sarod, straddling two centuries, universally venerated as one of the greatest living Indian musicians in any genre; his sons, disciples and widely acclaimed sarod virtuosi in their own right, Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash; and the distinguished American violinist Elmira Darvarova, herself a historical figure as the first ever (and so far only) woman-concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York. The first fruit of these artists’ unique joining of forces was their album, SOUL STRINGS, a bridge across which their respective traditions, coming from Indian Classical and Western Art Music genres, were generously shared, each with its expressive and technical integrity intact, rather than squeezed into that oft-used and abused notion of “fusion.” What that first album suggested subtly, about this daring, supercharged, yet profoundly respectful and even affectionate meeting of musical minds, was later brilliantly confirmed by their second CD album AMALGAM, which included the inimitable sound of the universally beloved and venerated elder statesman of Indian Classical Music today – Amjad Ali Khan. Drawing on the North and South Indian classical music idioms, AMALGAM not only featured new works but also explored new aesthetic and rhetorical terrain both in terms of the intimate level of phrase and note, as well as at the larger architectonic and structural aspects of the music. The artists offered their third CD album PEACE WORSHIPERS as a final volume of their trilogy, again with new compositions for Sarod and Violin by Amjad Ali Khan. The album PEACE WORSHIPERS climbed atop world music charts and won Gold Medal at the 2017 Global Music Awards. This recognition affirmed the enthusiastic critical acclaim and widely spread adulation with which audiences across India and the United States have been receiving not only these artists’ live concert performances of Amjad Ali Khan’s compositions for Sarod and Violin, but also their recorded legacy. All three albums were released worldwide – by Affetto/Naxos and, also, by the Times Music label (owned by The Times of India publication, which has the largest circulation of any English-language newspaper in the world). The Times Music label released the albums SOUL STRINGS, AMALGAM and PEACE WORSHIPERS for distribution throughout the countries of the Indian subcontinent and South Asia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Afghanistan), a region comprising almost 2 billion people, about one quarter of the world’s population – the most populous and densely populated area in the world.

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