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Songs of Freedom and Tradition New York
Isaac Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall
08/07/2024 - & August 9, 2024 (Washington)
Traditional: Rag Pilu – Rag Bihag – Pir‑e‑Mano
Mohammad Hussain Sarahang: Tark‑e Arezo Kardam
Ahmad Zahir: Zendagi
(arr. Lauren Braithwaite)
Nainawaz: An Selsela Mo
(arr. Allegra Bogges & Constança Simas) – Ay Nay Naway Jawedan (arr. Khaled Arman; orch. Tiago Moreira da Silva)
Amir Jan Saboori: Sarzamine Man
(arr. M. Qambar & Tiago Moreira da Silva)
Sediq Shubab: Pa Bismillah
(arr. Tiago Moreira da Silva)
Shankar-Jaikishan: Mera Joota Hai Japani
(arr. Lauren Braithwaite & Tiago Moreira da Silva)
Johannes Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 5 in G Minor (arr. Tiago Moreira da Silva)
William Harvey: Saudade do Afeganistão
Zoltán Kodály: Intermezzo from Háry János Suite (arr. Tiago Moreira da Silva)
Tiago Moreira da Silva: An Afghan in New York
Awalmir: Maste Mange Bar
(arr. M. Qambar)
Mikis Theodorakis/Maria Farantouri: Watan Ishq Tu Iftekharam (arr. Tiago Moreira da Silva; adapt. Abdul Wahab Madadi)
Members of the European Youth Orchestra, Afghan Youth Orchestra, Tiago Moreira da Silva (Conductor)
T. Moreira da Silva with Afghan Youth Orchestra (© Samuel A. Dog)
“Even on a mountain, you can find a road.”
Afghan Proverb
“After the return of the Taliban, I thought ‘What if I never get to play again?’ Now I can listen to music, and I cannot give up on my dreams.”
Zohra Ahmadi, Afghan Youth Orchestra trumpet player, quoted in Carnegie Hall Playbill
Dwelling in Afghanistan a decade before the Horrors, I loved going to Kabul University. No head coverings, no sexual segregation, Pushto, Uzbek, Dari, Pathan etc having lively debates in the University lingua franca (French, of course), even studies in the varied Afghan classical music styles.
Such wondrous culture was hardly reflected in rural Afghanistan. Nor would it ever reach the walled towns I visited, nor the exciting bazaar of Kandahar. (Though I did attend a moonlit Uzbek Dancing Boys show a few hundred miles north of Kabul.)
In fact, the cultures of this vast country could have been lost in the Diaspora. But one element (at least) has been restored in northern Portugal. There, the Afghanistan Institute of Music has re‑embraced the pre‑Taliban music, and introduced the Afghan Youth Orchestra which performed last night as the final World Orchestra Week concert.
Actually, the first half of this three‑hour program was devoted to a six‑piece group devoid of any Western instruments., The various rubabs (a fretted lute) and sitar and tabla drum produced music reminiscent of North Indian ragas, though the differences were great.
Sufi Ensemble (© Samuel A. Dog)
The first two were traditional ragas, but the melodies seemed far simpler–even whistleable–than what one would imagine. Still, these were Indian (or Sikh-) inspired, unlike the Persian-sounding final group, played with a larger ensemble.
Two notes. One: tabla player Ahmad Emad Karini, with his subtle beats. Yet when given a few measures to show off, the audience raved and clapped like he was Buddy Rich or Gene Krupa!
The second note: no credit was given for the program notes. No directions, alas, about the instruments. But excellent explanations on the backgrounds, the words, the particular Afghan emotions to much of the music. Not that the Afghan members of the audience needed these words. They reacted to all of the patriotic songs.
Which brings in the second half, the Afghan Youth Orchestra itself. About 30 strings, flutes, trumpets, tuba, with seven percussion. Then–giving the Afghan sounds–a sitar, a rubab, four guitars and a harmonium.
Four works came from the West. A Brahms Hungarian Dance, an Intermezzo from Háry János, An Afghan in New York by the Portuguese conductor, and an Afghan tribute by one William Harvey. The first two were wonderful, since the Afghan instruments did splendid replicas of Gypsy or Hungarian instruments. The second pair were neither fish nor fowl, partly ethnic, partly Western.
And the orchestra itself? No, this was hardly the Vienna Phil or New York Phil. Yet to be fair, we had young people in an alien setting, with alien instruments, longing for their own homes, their old customs and their old music.
So if the playing, under the baton of Maestro Moreira da Silva, was less than perfect, one could still give wonder to the arrangements–and the obvious appreciation of the audience.
The pieces–call them syncretic or hybrid or fusion–differed widely. Some demanded claps from the audience (and orchestra), some started with rubab or sitar cadenzas. I had two favorites. Po Bismallah was a wedding song. The melodies came out of Scheherazade (or vice versa), the harmonies also seemed from the Russian.
(And no wonder. Rimsky-Korsakov, unlike the other members of The Five, actually did travel to the Exotic Eastern part of the Empire.)
The other was the finale, today seen as the most patriotic song, penned in 2001 after the original defeat of the Taliban. The melody was by that other revolutionary, the great Mikis Theodorakis, the words celebrating freedom.
A premature freedom, to be sure. But as long as the Afghan Youth Orchestra can perform works like this, or Zindagi, a work for women’s rights and the elimination of the veil, one can still hope. Not pray, but hope for a people displaced and ready for a redemption.
Harry Rolnick
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