East Meets West

1	Raga Piloo for sitar, vio
2	Raga Piloo for sitar, vio
3	Tzigane, rhapsodie de con
4	Suite Populaire Espagnole
5	Suite Populaire Espagnole
6	Suite Populaire Espagnole
7	Suite Populaire Espagnole
8	Suite Populaire Espagnole
9	Suite Populaire Espagnole
10	Romanian Folk Dances (7)
11	Romanian Folk Dances (7)
12	Romanian Folk Dances (7)
13	Romanian Folk Dances (7)
14	Romanian Folk Dances (7)
15	Romanian Folk Dances (7)
16	Sonata for violin & piano
17	Sonata for violin & piano
18	Sawara Kakali for sitar,
19	Sawara Kakali for sitar,
East Meets West
1.	Raga Piloo for sitar, violin & tabla 16:15
	Composed by Ravi Shankar
	Performed by Daniel Hope, Asok Chakraborty, Gaurav Mazumdar and Gilda Sebastian
2.	Tzigane, rhapsodie de concert, for violin & piano (or orchestra) 10:47
	Composed by Maurice Ravel
	Performed by Daniel Hope and Gaurav Mazumdar
3.	Suite Populaire Espagnole, for violin & piano (arr. from "Popular Spanish Songs" by Kochanski) 13:19
	Composed by Manuel de Falla
	Performed by Daniel Hope and Gaurav Mazumdar
	Additional Notes: arranged by Kochanski, Paul~arranged for violin & luthéal
4.	Romanian Folk Dances (7) for violin & piano (arranged by Zoltán Szekely from piano version), Sz. 56, BB 68 6:49
	Composed by Béla Bartók
	Performed by Sebastian Knauer, Daniel Hope and Gaurav Mazumdar
	Additional Notes: arranged by Székely, Zoltán~arranged for violin & piano/luthéal
5.	Sonata for violin & piano 16:33
	Composed by Alfred Schnittke
	Performed by Sebastian Knauer, Daniel Hope and Gaurav Mazumdar
6.	Sawara Kakali for sitar, violin & tabla (based on Raga Tilang) 9:03
	Composed by Ravi Shankar
	Performed by Daniel Hope, Asok Chakraborty, Gaurav Mazumdar and Gilda Sebastian

Barnes & Noble

The meeting of East and West has a long history in music, dating back past the Beatles' Indian dabblings to Debussy's flirtation with the Indonesian gamelan and even Mozart's borrowings from Turkish military bands. Usually, Western composers have pilfered styles from elsewhere, but in today's globalized society the influences can travel in any direction. Sitar master Ravi Shankar is one musician who has occasionally adopted European instruments into the classical Indian style, notably in a famous collaboration with violinist Yehudi Menuhin in the 1960s. Daniel Hope takes that project as a model, opening and closing this program with raga-based works that Shankar wrote and recorded with Menuhin. Shankar protégé Gaurav Mazumdar plays sitar here, achieving a bracing synergy with Hope as they accelerate toward thrilling climaxes. In between, Hope charts a journey among European composers who explored connections between art and folk music. Ravel's virtuosic Tzigane peers imaginatively toward Gypsy music, and Hope is accompanied here, as Ravel intended, by a piano fitted with a luthéal attachment, which creates shimmering sounds akin to those of a Hungarian cimbalom. The performers also take the liberty of using the luthéal on suites by Bartók and De Falla, enhancing their folk flavor. Alfred Schnittke's Sonata 1955, in which a Russian composer looked West for inspiration, was only recently rediscovered; this is its premiere recording. It will surprise anyone familiar with Schnittke's later avant-garde experiments, for it sounds like an appealing hybrid of Prokofiev and Ravel. The program looks curious on paper, but it makes perfect sense to the ear -- less because of the East/West theme than of Hope's charisma and flair, which allow him to lead us willingly on whatever itinerary he chooses. Scott Paulin

All Music Guide

Any album titled "East Meets West" may raise suspicions of crossover commercialism, and purists may reject this disc as a contrived hybrid of classical and international genres. But violinist Daniel Hope presents a program that is much more than a superficial exercise in multiculturalism, and his selections reveal the exotic impulses that touched many composers in the twentieth century. While Ravi Shankar's "Raga Piloo" and "Swara-Kakali" overtly reach westward, particularly in the employment of a violin with the Indian sitar, tabla, and tanpura, Ravel's "Tzigane," de Falla's "Suite populaire espagnol," and Bartók's "Romanian Folk Dances" are more dispersed in their regional influences and certainly suggest no connections with Asia. Yet these works sound surprisingly unified in mood and coloration because elements of folk songs and dance rhythms permeate them; and the use of the luthéal -- a piano modified to produce lute and cimbalom timbres -- goes far in conveying the flavors of music from distant lands. Only Alfred Schnittke's "Violin Sonata" 1955, which receives its premiere recording here, sounds conventionally European and fairly bland in comparison with the other pieces. Hope's performances are energetic and varied in tone, reflecting a deep concern for the pieces' different styles, expressions, and idioms. Warner's sound quality is clear and focused. Blair Sanderson