East-West

At the Kochi Museum sitarist Rohan Dasgupta, tabla player Arunava Mukherjee and Italian lute player Emilio Bezzi had a unique musical interaction

Pics: (From left) Tabla player Arunava Mukherjee, lute player Emilio Bezzi and sitarist Rohan Dasgupta. Photo by Arun Angela. The trio with Aditi Zacharias, Director, Kerala Museum 

By Shevlin Sebastian 

It would seem like a typical Indian music concert. On the left is Arunava Mukerjee on the tabla, while on the right is Rohan Dasgupta on the sitar. But the person sitting in the centre indicates that this is a different type of concert. He is a brown-haired musician by the name of Emilio Bezzi and the Italian is playing a modern version of a 500-year-old instrument -- the lute. 

And the dance songs, ‘Saltarello’ and ‘Piva’ are also five centuries old. It had been composed by Joan Ambrosio Dalza (about 1508). Rohan and Arunava provide accompaniment. Later, Rohan takes the lead and plays an original composition based on Raga Parameshwari as a tribute to Pandit Ravi Shankar, the genius who put the sitar in the international limelight. The others again provide good accompaniment. 

The concert called ‘Beyond Kochi Sounds’ took place at the Kerala Museum recently. “This is a music programme that brings together sounds from across geographical borders and genres,” says Aditi Zacharias, Museum Director. 

The collaboration between Rohan, Arunava and Emilio happened by accident. Last year, in February, Rohan had met Emilio at the Italian Institute of Culture at Delhi. To celebrate the 70-year-old relationship between Italy and India, there was an exhibition of the paintings of Raphael (1483-1520). “Somebody said it would be nice to have some Renaissance music,” says Emilio. 

As Emilio was thinking about it, the Institute’s Director Andrea Baldi suggested a collaboration with Rohan. When the exhibition moved to Kolkata, Emilio met up with Rohan at a guest house and they played together. 

“There was an immediate connection,” says Emilio. “We felt we could create something new. There is something common with classical Indian and Renaissance music. Both are based on modality. And both our instruments are string-based.” 

Adds Rohan: “If I say, ‘Let’s play Raga Hemavati or Madhuvanthi’, Emilio can find an equivalent sound. We come from different schools of thought, but Emilio can improvise on the same scale. So we could meet at a unique point.” 

What helped was that Emilio is a fan of Indian music. Thanks to his father, a jazz musician, he came across the records of Pandit Ravi Shankar when he was a teenager. “I have listened to these records hundreds of times,” he says. “In 1996 I attended a concert of Ravi Shankar at the Barbican Centre in London. It was one of the best shows that I have attended.” 

The first concert of Emilio and Rohan took place at Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia in December, 2018. “The audience was accustomed to Renaissance music,” says Rohan. “But they liked this collaboration. Most were impressed and they said they liked the sound.” 

It was after this concert that Emilio and Rohan felt that something was missing. “We needed a body to the music,” says Rohan. “We felt we should include percussion. But since Emilio likes the sound of the tabla, we decided to get a player. That is how the talented Arunava came in.” 

Emilio and Rohan clarify that they are both traditionalists. “We don’t make any sound outside our classical repertoire,” says Rohan. “It is a classical crossover.” 

Asked whether the collaboration has changed them, Rohan says, “When you step out of your school of thought, the gainer is you. You get a wider vision. And you grow as a musician.” Emilio and Arunava nod in unison.