Passing By : Exploring music

Jaywant Naidu How do you think that the music of the East and the West came together for this project? I must mention at the outset that my idea was never to mix up or bring together an orchestra and Indian Ragas. It has been a process of creativity to keep the originality of both systems in their place and explore it as it stands. Indian system of playing Alaap and a composition set to a time cycle is very different to the western classical music. So each system was very much moving in its place and it was not about merging or copying one system or to make them sound alike. In 'Ananta Opus' we had the Sarod in its original form and symphonic orchestra as well as electronic music joining in parallelly.

How was the rehearsal process? Ustad Amjad Ali Khan had come to Paris and he spent time with the orchestra. Then again we met again for sometime in India along with the orchestra and the electronic band. Tell us about your musical journey? Music has been my constant companion. I began musical study at the Conservatory of Nancy followed by the Conservatory in Luxembourg and later in Austria at the Mozarteum of Salzbourg. I have done more than 180 compositions, symphonies, concertos, chamber music, symphonic poems, mass, oratorios and even the accompanying score for silent films. I have travelled widely in Africa and Central Asia especially, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan and India.

What are the different places you visited in India? During my two-year residency, I travelled across India exploring music and musicians and looked into the creative process which could be experimental in nature. I met many musicians like pianist Anil Srinivasan and VS Narasimhan of the Madras String Quartet in Chennai, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia in Mumbai, GS Rajan in New Delhi, and U Srinivas in Chennai. And when I met Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, I knew that my creative process had already begun. He was very enthusiastic and modest about the whole project.

Can you elaborate about the Khojaly Commemoration Concert? About 350 Senators, National Assembly Members, Ambassadors and music-lovers attended the Khojaly Commemoration Concert at the Baroque Eglise St-Roch in Paris, located in the first arrondissement. The concert was organised by the French office of The European Azerbaijan Society (TEAS) in order to commemorate the 613 civilians killed on 26 February 1992 in the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly, Nagorno-Karabakh, when it was forcibly occupied by Armenian armed forces, supported by the No. 366 Soviet Infantry Regiment. The evening featured the London-based Orion Orchestra under the baton of the leading conductor and composer Laurent Petitgirard. The programme also included the Nizami Symphony by the Azerbaijani composer Fikret Amirov (1922�84), which was inspired by the work of the 12th century Azerbaijani poet Nizami Ganjavi. This piece demonstrated his synthesis of western classical techniques and glorious, passionate Azerbaijani mugham (folk music composition), known as 'Symphonic Mugham'. It is generally acknowledged that 'Mugham music' originated in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which remains occupied by Armenia.