Ensemble of East and West
American guitarist Ben Beirs recently enthralled the music lovers of the City with his performance
As part of their ongoing initiative to bring artistes from different cultures together, under the aegis of their annual East-West encounter, the Bangalore School of Music had the wonderfully talented guitarist Ben Beirs performing in the City.
Looking much like a young Beatle, the American guitarist opened the concert with three Spanish pieces by Joaquin Rodrigo; Fandango, Passacaglia and Zapateado.
The Spanish flavour was prevalent in the pieces and the Flamenco technique was brought out well on the classical guitar.
Next was an intricate piece Tarantelle by Mario Castelnuovo — Tedesco, which was executed with ease and panache by the artiste.
Moving into a more classical genre, the young guitarist played Bach’s three movements — Preludio, Sarabande and Gigue from his Lute Suite No 1 in E minor with maturity and ease.
Moving smoothly from Baroque to contemporary music, Beirs presented his own composition titled Awakened Awareness.
The composition leaning towards the East in its structure captured the Indian spirit extremely well.
The last piece by Roland Dyens was very exciting in its modernity. Having studied with the great guitar virtuoso and composer, Beirs interpretation of his Libra Sonatine, was impeccable.
The first movement titled India was a blend of eastern raag interspersed with jazz-like progressions.
The second movement Largo, was very meditative, while the last movement opened with a flourish.
The arpeggio section with a melody on the upper string was also very interesting and the artiste ended the piece with flair, eliciting well-deserved applause and calls for encores from the audience.
In the last part of the concert, Beirs was joined by three well-known vidhwans — Amith Nadig on flute, Karthik Mani on ghatam and Muthu Kumar on tabla.
Beirs joined the ensemble sitting cross-legged on the carpet, in a true East-West spirit of camaraderie, with the classical guitar delicately balanced on his knee.
The East-West Ensemble then played a touching piece — Improvisation for Peace, where each artiste showed mastery over his instruments, especially in the solo parts.
The message of peace in delicate sound, touched the hearts of the audience.
The quartet then closed the concert with a Buddhist chant uniting both the artistes and audience.
Altogether it was an enriching musical ‘encounter’, which
captured the essence of the ongoing East-West
encounters.
DHNS
