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TODAY'S PAPER " FEATURES " METRO PLUS
January 21, 2012
Fused tunes
MARIANNE DE NAZARETH
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EVENT The flute and the piano commingled in beautiful union as Ned and Keiko
played on
DASHING DUONed McGowan and Keiko ShichijoPhoto: by the author
The celebrated McGowan Duo from the Netherlands threw open the year-long 25{+t}{+h}year
celebrations of the Bangalore School of Music (BSM) at the Alliance Francaise
on Wednesday.
Keiko Shichijo on the piano and Ned McGowan on the flute had western music
lovers of Bangalore enthralled with their virtuosity on their instruments
and the wondrous sounds they could coax out of them. Their chemistry spoke
volumes through their duet performance on the flute and piano.
"Look out for a plethora of programmes which will be staged through the
year," said Aruna Sunderlal the Director of the BSM, which is good news
for western music lovers of Bangalore.
The rather staid Alliance Francaise concert hall had been transformed with
bunches of colourful African daisies marking the celebrations of the BSM called
Odyssey 2012.
Ned revealed that he had begun playing the flute when he was just nine years
old and he chose the flute because it was 'shiny'! Now he plays a Brannen
which has a gold and even shinier head! "This is my 15{+t}{+h}visit to
India and I had moved into playing innovative styles of music with Indian
musicians. It was Keiko, a classical pianist I recently married, who brought
me back to my roots of western classical music. "
The duo opened the evening with a trio by French composer Claude Debussy,
which included the "Prelude al'apres-midi d'un faun".
"This was written at the end of the 19{+t}{+h}century and we are reviving
the pieces as they were revolutionary at the time and put Debussy on the map.
He wrote it originally as chamber music, but we will play you an arrangement
for flute and piano," explained Ned.
Keiko had the audience gasping at her brilliance and effortless fingerwork
on the ivories, playing "Fireworks", again by Debussy. Keiko began
playing the piano when she was barely three years old and did her final studies
at the Conservatory of Amsterdam.
Three folk songs by Béla Bartók, the great Hungarian composer,
was their next offering, which Ned explained were actual folk songs transcribed
by the composer, as folk songs eternally change, unlike western classical
sheet music.
In fact the Bagatelle, which they played with improvisation was also played
by American Jazz pianist Chick Correa.
The haunting melancholy sounds of the folk tunes were beautifully rendered
by the resonance of the flute.
It was thrilling to hear Keiko and Ned play the great German composer Johann
Sebastian Bach's "Sonata in B Minor", which is a complex piece,
with changes in the harmonies.
The sonata was originally written to be played by a trio "but if you
listen carefully, Keiko's left hand plays the third instrument, and the canons,
which are so typical of Bach, can be heard, echoed and re-echoed, not unlike
Carnatic music," said Ned.
The final piece was a composition of Ned's called "Chamundi Hill"
where Keiko imitated the sound of the tambura by intriguingly 'bowing' the
strings of the piano, which earned them a shout for encores and a standing
ovation.
MARIANNE DE NAZARETH
Programme
Ned McGowan, flute
Keiko Shichijo-McGowan, piano
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Syrinx (1913) - flute solo
Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (1894)
Preludes Book 2: XII. Feux d'artifice (Fireworks) (1913)
- piano solo
Béla Bartók (1881-1945)
Bagatelle #4 (1908)
Three Hungarian Folksongs from Csík (1907)
1. The Peacock
2. At the Jánoshida fairground
3. White Lily
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Sonata in B minor, BWV 1030 (1736-37)
1. Andante
2. Largo e dolce
3. Presto
Ned McGowan (1970)
Chamundi Hill (2011)*
