shambala

shambala
alan hovanhess
slovak philharmonic orchestra
ratislav stur-conductor
christina fang-violin
gorav masmudar-sitar

thanks to my dear friends at blue lake(michigan) public radio for this. their superb local jazz and classical programming have been a big part of my life for many years.

this first recording of a gorgeous and unique orchestral music, a double concerto for sitar, classical violin, and symphony orchestra should be considered essential to lovers of beautiful classical music.

alan hovhaness wrote this for violinist yehudi meuhin and sitarist ravi shankar during the 1960s, but they didnt record it.
remarkable are the low pitched often droned background textures behind the soloists and the rich striking percussion colors. sound samples are available on the amazon web site.
amazon sells it for $45 or by download for $8.99. their download service has always been excellent for me.

At 45 minutes Shambala (1969) is the most substantial piece on the program. Hovhaness spent time in India studying its music and meeting with various Indian musicians. And it is from India where Hovhaness draws his inspiration in composing this concerto. There is a duality within this concerto: the writing for the violin and orchestra is primarily structured and is played in defined time, while the sitar part is often improvisatory, with much of the part left to the discretion of the performer. This piece will likely sound quite exotic to any Western ears. The exoticism is primarily added through the violin and sitar writing. Although the concerto takes the form of one long continuous movement, the work can be divided into several sub-movements, with the recurring appearance of a mysteriously ominous processional serving as a boundary, of sorts, around several extended solo passages. This processional and the presence of aleatoric pitched percussion / pizzicato passages (that is, several parts are played together in free time) is not completely different from that of Hovhaness' nineteenth symphony (the 'Vishnu' symphony). However, this mysitcal piece is unique among Hovhaness' compositions and is definitely worth checking out.