Radio: Gharana, 29 May 2009 / Ravikiran: brilliant slider on the chitravina

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ravikiran

On Friday 29 May -from 21.00 to 22.30 PM, dutch time- there’ll be a broadcast of a new episode of Gharana, my programme on Indian classical music for Holland’s finest musicstation, the Concertzender. This time the programme focuses on Chitravina N. Ravikiran (b.1967), a celebrated musician in South Indian carnatic music. He has been labeled ‘the Mozart of India’ by critics. He’s a virtuoso on a lute called the chitravina. It’s the world’s oldest fretless slide instrument still being played. Ravikiran was a prodigy and he became famous already at the age of two Continue reading →

23/5 BBC Radio 3 – Darbar Festival 2009: Rahul Sharma and Ashwini Bhide

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rahul-sharma

In April 2009 I visited the Darbar Festival in London. Among the great concerts were those featured on Saturday, 23 May 2009, 15:00 on BBC Radio 3. The BBC Radio 3 programme World Routes brings highlights from Continue reading →

Persian Surgery Dervishes: great minimal music-oldie by Terry Riley

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My copy of Terry Riley’s “Persian Surgery Dervishes”

On the brink of Thursday 14 May (dutch time 00:00-01:00 AM) to Friday 15 May my edition of ‘OpgeHoesd‘ –dutch radiostation Concertzender‘s great weekly LP record programme- features a great minimal music ‘cult-classic’ by Terry Riley from 1972: Persian Surgery Dervishes. Fantastic mesmerising music, especially the A-side of the album. More info and a possibillity to listen ‘on demand’ after broadcast you’ll find here (after broadcast a speaker icon there will enable ‘on demand’-listening). Since the music’s hypnotic mood and cyclic repetitive structure clearly refers to the process of breathing and the way of reciting names of God (and the divine) in islamic zikr-ceremonies, I’ve added a recording of a zikr-ceremony of a Naqshbandi Sufi Order from Turkmenistan. Give it a listen and maybe this music will get you tuned into a different mindset, one that will make you wonder and exclaim ‘Thank God it’s friday!’ 🙂

Valentina Lisitsa’s highly addictive piano magic: a playlist

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valentina_playing-chopin Valentina Lisitsa

A while ago I made a playlist on my Youtube-channel of some electrifying video’s of the incomparable, one and only Valentina Lisitsa. Highly recommended, but with a warning: this ‘piano magic’ is highly addictive stuff, before you know it you can’t get enough of it! Can you take it? Find out here 🙂

Facebook profile ragamusic-programme ‘Gharana’

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A segment of the Facebook profile-page of ‘Gharana’

Yesterday I’ve created a Facebook profile on my Concertzender radioprogramme Gharana. The profile-page is named ‘Gharana – in depth radio on raga performers’. For an impression of the programme watch the Gharana-promo-video on Youtube.

If you like raga music and like to know more about my programme, feel free to join the Gharana Facebook-profile as a member. I’d love to welcome you there!

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– A wonderful encounter with Valentina Lisitsa

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valentina and me in London, 2 April 2009
A few weeks ago I spent a great couple of days in London. I arrived there in the early afternoon of thursday 2 April 2009, a bright and sunny day. On top of this beautiful weather there was the promising prospect of visiting the Darbar Festival 2009 the next three days. The Darbar Festival is a fantastic festival of Indian classical music where I was going to visit concerts by some of the best raga artists and where I was gonna gather material for my ragamusic radioprogramme Gharana. But I also had planned another very special ‘event’ before the start of this festival. I was going to meet and interview Valentina Lisitsa, a fantastic musician and person in the world of Western classical music.

Valentina Lisitsa in London, 2 April 2009

She’s Ukrainian from birth -from Kiev- but has been living in the United States since 1991. I’m an enormous admirer of her playing, both from a technical and an artistic point of view. Valentina belongs to this veeery rare category of musicians that really breathe and embody music as soon as they start performing, always leaving the audience mesmerized and electrified after a flawless and breathtaking performance.

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(Valentina at the start of the interview)

I daresay a performer like Valentina Lisitsa on piano is a once in a generation-phenomenon, she’s certainly one of the very best classical pianists the world has ever witnessed. Many music lovers worldwide have recognized and acknowledged Valentina’s stature already, but -unfortunately- soo many others still haven’t even heard of her. The reason for this is no doubt the lack of media exposure and promotion. She really should have been world famous for many years! Nothing to worry though, she’s really making her mark now, for instance, her worldwide cult following on Youtube -check out her video’s!- is growing by the numbers day by day and more and more prestigious concert venues from all over the world are eager to get her on stage. In 2010 Valentina will come to The Netherlands again, to play Rachmaninoff’s ‘new’ 5th piano concerto with the Rotterdam Philharmonic. This piano concerto is based on Rachmaninoff’s 2nd symphony and arranged by Soviet émigré Alexander Warenberg.
If you still haven’t got a clue about Valentina Lisitsa, then have a look for instance on her Youtube-channel at her fabulous interpretations of the Chopin Etudes. They are really unique and unprecedented! Here’s a link to just one of them, the Chopin Etude Op.10, no.10, well, for this kind of approach and playing I can only think of the number 10+, wouldn’t you? And she always plays like this, totally dedicated and with full commitment, always daring and capable to push the boundaries of what seems possible with the music, whether it’s from Chopin, Beethoven, Liszt or Rachmaninoff.

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(Valentina plays while I’m checking the levels for recording)

On 2 April Valentina was in between performances of her tour with world famous violinist Hilary Hahn. Valentina had done a performance with Hilary at the Barbican on Wednesday 1 April and it was my luck that she was still in London on 2 April where she had agreed to do an interview in the late afternoon. I met her in the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, next to the Barbican, where she was rehearsing all day in a piano room on a Steinway grand. It was fantastic to meet her and I really immensely enjoyed interviewing her. I filmed the complete session and was not only pleasantly surprised by her kindness and great spontaneity but also by her readiness to play some beautiful music. Valentina played four Rachmaninoff preludes and Schumann’s Träumerei (from ‘Kinderszenen’). For the recording of the audio I used my Zoom H4.

dsc00019dsc00023dsc00074(Valentina playing)

Valentina played on a Steinway & Sons grand from this music school in London, an instrument that evryone plays on and that nowhere comes near the sophisticated sound of her own magical Bösendorfer. When you take this into account one can only admire Valentina even more for what she achieves in Schumann’s Träumerei and -as you will see on Youtube later on- in the Rachmaninoff preludes. Brilliant performances. I bet you can imagine I really had a splendid and unforgettable afternoon with Valentina. In the course of this year I will publish the Rachmaninoff-preludes and I will also present my interview material of Valentina on Youtube in a video-portrait. I’m also planning a music programme on her for dutch radio later on this year. Don’t miss it. Finally, here’s three more pictures of the interview.

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Night of the Overtones 6-hour Concertzender-night special 7 March 2009

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Saturday 7 March, at 24.00hrs, another great 6-hour night programme is broadcast on De Concertzender, produced by me, Pieter de Rooij, and by Charlie Crooijmans. You can listen to a great selection of overtone music from all over the world in all its manifestations. From 00.00hrs till 03.00AM a 3-hour special on overtone singing is presented, a rebroadcast of a special I made in 2003. Recently I was listening again to some excerpts of this programme and I thought a rebroadcast would be a great service to our listeners, because radiospecials on overtone singing are nowhere to be found, and my programme really offers a great selection of music of a high artistic level and some of the recordings can’t be found in any musicstore. The great thing is that after this rebroadcast you can listen to these recordings permanently online ‘on demand’, whenever you want.
I decided to make this 3-hour special in 2003 after finishing one of the most interesting books on music I’ve ever come across, “Overtone Singing: Physics and Metaphysics of Harmonics in East and West”, written by dutch overtone singer and musicologist Mark van Tongeren. Overtone singing is a technique by which a single human voice can simultaneously produce two or more clearly audible tones, usually a low drone with seemingly independant tones high above it.

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I was so impressed by this book that I decided to make a radio programme on overtone singing, using Mark as ‘tour guide’. He explains the physics and metaphysics of overtone singing and demonstrates several techniques of overtone singing. The book covers its physical and metaphysical aspects and its practice in both East and West. Mark studied throat singing in Tuva, Southern Siberia, and today, Mark is still performing and continuing his research.

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Mark van Tongeren

The interview with Mark is in dutch, but for people who don’t understand dutch, I’m sure the programme will nevertheless be a worthwhile listen. Have a look at the playlist below and you can already figure out why I can say this.

One more detail on the 3-hour special: the first hour is presented by great colleague and friend Bart Vonk (1964-2006). I’m sure many people will love to hear Bart once more. It was pure coincidence that Bart was presenting here the first hour of the programme. Since it was a live-broadcast and the regular presenter Paulo Folkertsma didn’t show up in time -he got stuck in the traffic and was delayed- Bart took over and courageously presented my script, while I was answering phonecalls in the studio (I received some nice calls from listeners that evening). In this way Bart really saved my programme’s first hour. The second and third hour Paulo Folkertsma is ‘taking over’. So, in retrospect, here’s my “Well done, Bart!”

After my special The Night of the Overtones continues at 03.00 AM with Charlie Crooijmans’ programming of a fascinating two hours of overtone music by dutch Mouthharptrio Aubergine (03.00-04.00 AM) and by Swiss gong player Verena Jenny (04.00-05.00 AM).

Then, the night finishes with my programming of a unique and very special recording and certainly one of my alltime top favourite recordings. From 05.00 to 06.00 AM I’ve scheduled a fantastic 60-minute recording of singer Okna Tsagan Zam from the Republic of Kalmykia. He gives a spellbinding, mesmerising performance of the Dzjangar epic. It’s a great, never commercially released ‘must-hear’-recording. Nowhere for sale! Don’t miss it!

Cheers!

Night of the Overtones – Playlist of my special from 00.00-03.00 AM

titel: Khöömei, Sygyt, Kargyraa ; tijdsduur: 2’49 ; uitvoerende: Gennadi Tumat ; componist: trad. ; album: ‘Overtone singing from Tuva’ ; label en jaar : PAN Records PAN 2090 ; P en C 2000

titel: ‘Khöömei, sygyt, kargyraa, borbannadir’, tijdsduur: 3’44 ; uitvoerende : Tumat Kara-Ool (uit Tuva) ; album: Overtone Singing ; label en jaar: Fusica Fus 001 CD , P en C 2002

titel: Khöömei kak basla men ; uitvoerende : Andryan Öpei (uit Tuva) ; tijdsduur 1’19 ; componist: trad. ; album: Overtone Singing ; label en jaar: Fusica Fus 001 CD , P en C 2002

titel: Kargyraa ; tijdsduur: 1’24 ; tijdsduur 8’02 ; uitvoerende: Kaigal-ool Khovalyg (uit Tuva) componist: trad. ; album: Overtone Singing ; label en jaar: Fusica Fus 001 CD , P en C 2002

titel: Khöömei ; tijdsduur: 3’28 ; uitvoerende: Ganzorig Nergui (uit Mongolië) ; componist: trad. ; album: Overtone Singing ; label en jaar: Fusica Fus 001 CD , P en C 2002

titel: Artii Saayir (sygyt) tijdsduur: 3’00 ; uitvoerende: Andrei Chuldum-ool (uit Tuva); componist: trad. ; album: Overtone Singing ; label en jaar: Fusica Fus 001 CD , P en C 2002]

Overtone singing from Altai ; tijdsduur: 4’03 ; titel: fragment of epic sung with kai technique ; uitvoerende: Tanyspai Shinzhin ; componist: trad. ; album: Overtone Singing ; label en jaar: Fusica Fus 001 CD , P en C 2002

Overtone singing from Bashkiria ; tijdsduur: 1’30 ; titel: uzlyau (guttural technique) ; uitvoerende: Robert Zagritdinov ; componist: trad. ; album: Overtone Singing ; label en jaar: Fusica Fus 001 CD , P en C 2002

Overtone singing from Tibet by the Drukpa Order ; tijdsduur: 1’55 ; titel: Rituals of the Drukpa Order ; uitvoerende: leden Drukpa Orde ; componist: trad. ; album: Tibet Vol.1 – Rituals of the Drukpa Order; label en jaar: Lyrichord LYRCD 7255 ; P 1971

Overtone singing from Kalmykia ; tijdsduur: 1’27 ; titel: Khöömii / The Djangar Palace ; uitvoerende: Okna Tsagan Zam ; componist: trad. ; album: Chants Epiques et Diphoniques – Vol.1 ; label en jaar: Auvidis ; W 260067 ; P 1996

Overtone singing from Sardinia ; tijdsduur: 1’58 ; titel: Cante a boche note – S’incontru Fortunadu ; uitvoerende: Tenores di bittti remunnu e’locu ; componist: trad. ; album: Romanzesu ; label en jaar: Amori AM002 , P en C 1993

Overtone singing from South-Africa ; tijdsduur: 1’00 ; titel: iRhobane ; uitvoerende: Nowayilethi Mbizweni ; componist: trad. ; album: Overtone Singing ; label en jaar: Fusica Fus 001 CD , P en C 2002

titel: Ominous ground ; tijdsduur: 8’16 ; uitvoerende : Rollin Rachelle, album: ‘Harmonic Divergence’ ; label en jaar: Cryptic Voices CV 50003 ; C 1997

titel: The Fall ; tijdsduur: 4’58 ; uitvoerende: David Hykes & The Harmonic Choir ; componist: David Hykes ; Album: Hearing Solar Winds ; label: Ocora C 558607 , P 1982 C 1989

titel: Paraphony ; tijdsduur: 2’44 ; uitvoerende: Mark van Tongeren ; componist: Mark van Tongeren ; album: Overtone Singing ; label en jaar: Fusica Fus 001 CD , P en C 2002

titel: Improvisation at the bank of the Yenisei ; tijdsduur: 5’05 ; uitvoerende: Biosintes & Mark van Tongeren ; componist: Biosintes / Mark van Tongeren ; album: Overtone Singing ; label en jaar: Fusica Fus 001 CD , P en C 2002

titel: Zen dans l’art de la tartine ; tijdsduur: 4’22 ; uitvoerende: Tran Quang Hai ; album: Diva (soundtrack) ; componist: Tran Quang Hai ; label en jaar: MILAN A 120061 ; P 1981

titel : Stimmung ; tijdsduur: 3’03 ; uitvoerende: Collegium Vocale Cologne ; componist: Karl-Heinz Stockhausen ; album: Stimmung (Pariser version) ; label en jaar: opname van WDR geen label vermeld

titel : Stimmung ; tijdsduur: 1’10 ; uitvoerende: Collegium Vocale Cologne ; componist: Karl-Heinz Stockhausen ; album: Stimmung (Pariser version) ; label en jaar: opname van WDR geen label vermeld ; P 1993]

titel: Alleluia. Sancte Michael defende ; uitvoerende: Iegor Reznikoff ; tijdsduur: 5’38 ; componist: trad. Arr. By Iegor Reznikoff ; album: Le Chant du Mont Saint-Michel ; label : Studio SM D2914 ; P 2001

titel: Lulabells ; uitvoerende: Thomas Clements ; tijdsduur: 3’37 ; componist: Thomas Clements ; album: Round Sound Silence ; label : IRD 9802 ; P 1998

titel: Cavecall ; uitvoerende: Thomas Clements ; tijdsduur: 1’04 ; componist: Thomas Clements ; album: Round Sound Silence ; label : IRD 9802 ; P 1998]

titel: Flautofonie ; uitvoerende: Demetrio Stratos ; tijdsduur: 6’16 ; componist: Demetrio Stratos ; album: cantare La Voce ; label : EMI 724385744228 ; P 1978 C 1998

titel: Terre ; tijdsduur 6’35 ; uitvoerende: Jean Tricot met koor en solisten van het Festival van Minervois ; componist: Jean Tricot ; album: La mécanique de l’aurore ; label : Harmonia Mundi ED 13031 ; P 1994 C 1994

titel: The Second Dream of The High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer from The Four Dreams of China ; tijdsduur : 2’49 ; uitvoerende: The Theatre of Eternal Music Brass Ensemble o.l.v. Ben Neill ; componist: La Monte Young ; album: The Second Dream of The High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer from The Four Dreams of China ; label : Gramavision GRV 74672 ; P 1991 C 1991

titel: An Archeaology of Stones ; tijdsduur : 2’49 ; uitvoerende: Philip Dadson ; componist: Philip Dadson ; album: The Fourth Window ; label : Gramavision GRV 74672 ; P 1991 C 1991

titel : Aanvankelijk ; tijdsduur: 0’47 ; uitvoerende: diverse solisten en Ay-Kherel Ensemble , Nieuw Artis Orchestra, Mondriaan Kwartet ; componist: Guus Janssen ; tekst: Friso haverkamp ; album: Noach, an opera off Genesis ; Composers Voice CV 42/43 ; P 1994

titel : Arkadisch ; tijdsduur: 1’28 ; uitvoerende: diverse solisten en Ay-Kherel Ensemble , Nieuw Artis Orchestra, Mondriaan Kwartet ; componist: Guus Janssen ; tekst: Friso haverkamp ; album: Noach, an opera off Genesis ; Composers Voice CV 42/43 ; P 1994

titel: Grund- und bodenloses Gelächter (ansteckend) ; uitvoerende: Michael Vetter, Natascha Nikprelevic ; tijdsduur: 2’16 ; componist: Michael Vetter, Natascha Nikprelevic ; album: Duo oder auch Liebes-Szenen – Opera da Camera ; label: niet vermeld (Copyright Michael Vetter) ; P 1996 C 1997

titel: Interludium: Tantrische Meditation V (Obertöne, selbstironisch sich entfrömmelnd) ; uitvoerende: Michael Vetter, Natascha Nikprelevic ; tijdsduur: 2’23 ; componist: Michael Vetter, Natascha Nikprelevic ; album: Duo oder auch Liebes-Szenen – Opera da Camera ; label: niet vermeld (Copyright Michael Vetter) P 1996 C 1997

titel: Brummend vor Behagen (am Rande des Verstummens); uitvoerende: Michael Vetter, Natascha Nikprelevic ; tijdsduur: 2’02 ; componist: Michael Vetter, Natascha Nikprelevic ; album: Duo oder auch Liebes-Szenen – Opera da Camera ; label: niet vermeld (Copyright Michael Vetter) ; P 1996 C 1997

titel: Pitchendebin ; uitvoerende: Vershki da Koreshki ; tijdsduur: 7’21 ; componist: Vershki da Koreshki ; album: Real Life Of Plants ; label: Long Arms records CDLA 96020 ; P 1996 C 1996

titel: Kargyraa Moan ; uitvoerende: Paul Pena ; tijdsduur: 3’53 ; componist: Paul Pena ; album: Genghis Blues (soundtrack) ; label: Six Degrees Records 6570361038-2; P 2000 C 2000

titel: City Chess ; tijdsduur 2’04 ; uitvoerende: Mark van Tongeren ; componist: Mark van Tongeren ; album: Overtone Singing ; label en jaar: Fusica Fus 001 CD , P en C 2002

titel: Dzjangar ; uitvoerende: Okna Tsagan Zam ; componist: trad. Arr. by Okna Tsagan Zam ; album: Dzjangar ; label: niet vermeld ; C.1999, private release.
btw !: the final title – Dzjangar – will be broadcast later on, entirely (!), at the close of The Night of the Overtones, approx. from 05.00-06.00 AM

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Youtube-video on my find of Ravi Shankar recordings from 1957

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Ravi ShankarMy latest Youtube-video is concerned with a sensational find I did of a recording of Ravi Shankar, made by Radio Netherlands in 1957. I did this find already in January 2002. It might be nice for viewers of my Youtube-channel who are interested in Indian classical music to learn about this interesting historical recording. For more details, see the ‘more info’-section attached to the Youtube-video .