East Meets West

Album Summary
Notes & Reviews
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Album Summary

Shankar, Ravi : Raga Piloo for sitar, violin & tabla

Ravel, Maurice : Tzigane

Falla, Manuel de : Suite Populaire Espagnole

Bartók, Béla : Romanian Folk Dances (7) for violin & piano, Sz. 56

Schnittke, Alfred : Sonata for violin & piano (1955)

Shankar, Ravi : Sawara Kakali for sitar, violin & tabla (based on Raga Tilang)

Performers

Asok Chakraborty (Tabla)
Gilda Sebastian (Tanpura)
Daniel Hope (Violin)
Gaurav Mazumdar (Sitar)
Sebastian Knauer (Piano)

Composers

Notes & Reviews:

"...technically brilliant, highly engaging performances. Daniel Hope gives the Bartok an exceptionally cinvincing and incisive reading and the Schnittke Sonata deserves the attention of these impressive interpreters for its world premiere recording. The Ragas were written for Menuhin and Shankar himself. Hope and Gaurav Mazumdar revive them in vibrant, exciting performances with marvellous support form the superb Asok Chakraborty." - Gramophone

Notes & Reviews:

This album was nominated for the 2005 Grammy Award for "Best Classical Crossover Album."

Personnel: Daniel Hope (violin); Gaurav Mazumdar (sitar).

Recording information: NDR, Rolf-Liebermann-Studio, Hamburg, Germany (11/05/2003-11/06/2003).

Daniel Hope's EAST MEETS WEST is an ambitious project that combines European classical music with the sounds of India. While many albums of this sort have been made before, few take such a delightfully bold approach. Breaking down all musical barriers, Hope shows, through his virtuosic violin playing, that music is universal, not just a catalog of genres and labels.

Maurice Ravel's "Tzigane for Violin and Piano" receives a particularly passionate--and irreverent--treatment here. A gypsy piece, this work is the perfect amalgamation of ethnic modalities from Hungary to Northern India. Moreover, Hope's freewheeling pizzicatos really enliven this work. Other pieces, namely Ravi Shankar's second movement of "Raga piloo," fall entirely into the Indian classical mold. Featuring sitar, tabla drums, and tanpura, this work shows Hope's chameleon-like ability to get inside the essence of Eastern music. Alfred Schnittke's "Sonata 1955 for Violin and Piano" is much more romantic and lush; however, it also uses exotic modalities informed by Schnittke's own Russian upbringing and impressionistic leanings. Hope brings all of this to bear on what is the world-premiere recording of this once-forgotten, but wholly beautiful, sonata.

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