‘Bolero’ on Instruments Ravel Never Dreamed Of

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/arts/music/afghan-ensembles-at-carnegie-hall.html

Version 0 of 1.

During the course of Ravel’s haunting “Bolero,” the slinky, repeated theme is played in turn by a flute, a clarinet, a saxophone and more. But Ravel, a master of orchestration, would surely have been fascinated to hear the tune played on Tuesday night at Carnegie Hall by a rubab, the national instrument of Afghanistan, plucked like a lute to produce a sound both tender and tart.

Or by a long-necked sitar, an ancient instrument central to Indo-Afghan musical traditions, which proved perfect for bringing out a jazzy twang in the “Bolero” melody. Or, best of all, the sarod, another plucked Afghan instrument, like a rubab but fretless so that the performer on this night could bend the blue-notes of the melody with the yearning of a Billie Holiday.

The occasion was an inspiring concert by Ensembles of Afghanistan National Institute of Music, presented by that country’s Education Ministry. Founded and directed by Ahmad Sarmast, a scholar of Afghan and Central Asian music, the institute is a free-tuition school in Kabul where young Afghan musicians from all backgrounds, regardless of ethnicity or gender, are taught both traditional Afghan and Western classical music. The program, which has nurtured disadvantaged children, including orphans and street hawkers, is run by the Education Ministry, which today instructs some 10 million students, 40 percent of them girls.

With support from the United States Department of State, the World Bank and other sponsors, this tour is presenting nearly 50 Afghan musicians, ages 10 to 21, along with some of their teachers. The Carnegie Hall program featured the Afghan Youth Orchestra, which has been in operation for only two years, led by the American violinist, conductor and composer William Harvey, who lives and teaches in Kabul. Mr. Harvey, 30, was among the first roster of postgraduate musicians admitted to the successful program run by Carnegie Hall and the Juilliard School, the Academy. One of the goals of that program is to get gifted Juilliard musicians to give back to their communities. Mr. Harvey has taken that mission to Afghanistan.

It was his arrangement of Ravel’s “Bolero,” somewhat shortened and rescored for an orchestra that included Afghan instruments, that ended the first half of Tuesday’s program. The idea of this arrangement may seem gimmicky. But it was both charming and revealing to hear the work in this fresh way.

The Afghan orchestra musicians were joined by 17 players from the Scarsdale High School Orchestra. Some of the Afghan students are still new to their instruments. But as “Bolero” built steadily to its brassy, clattering climax, everyone — older violinists who exuded command of their instruments, girls wearing traditional Afghan head scarves playing cello — brought impressive focus and energy to the performance.

The other novelty was Mr. Harvey’s arrangement of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons,” titled “The Four Seasons of Afghanistan.” The piece basically hews to the layout of the Vivaldi work, with four concertos of three movements each. But Vivaldi’s music is altered and tweaked, with some steady duple and triple meters transformed into irregular Afghan rhythmic patterns. And the Vivaldi solo violin part is imaginatively reconceived for guitar, sitar, rubab and other diverse instrumental combos. In the slow movement of “Winter,” here renamed “Khana,” Farhad Safari, a 12-year-old red-haired boy, playing ghichak, a bowed instrument, won your heart (and earned bravos at the end) with his tender rendering of the ruminative solo theme.

The highlights of the program, though, were the selections of Afghan music, played by smaller ensembles of traditional instruments, sometimes in arrangements by Mr. Harvey that brought in the orchestra.

Before the concert Mohammad Asif Nang, deputy education minister, explained to the audience what playing Carnegie Hall meant to the young musicians and his country. His people, he said, are “fed up with war” and “pray for peace.” He ended by saying, “Long live peace, long live our friendship.”

Sometimes a concert is much more than a musical experience. This one ended with “Shakoko jan,” an Afghan folk song, a rousing rendition that had concertgoers throughout the packed hall clapping along. The ovation was so boisterous that the piece was repeated as an encore.