Sharon Isbin: Live In Aspen; with Amjad Ali Khan, Amann Ali Bangash and Ayann Ali Bangash; also Amit Kavthekar (Zoho)
Guitarist Sharon Isbin heads the guitar department at the Aspen Music Festival, and something unexpected happened there two years ago. The result is her latest recording, Live in Aspen, released just in time for the festival’s 75th anniversary. It includes Amjad Ali Khan, the world's foremost sarod virtuoso, and his sons Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash, as well as tabla player Amit Kavthekar.
“Aspen always makes an archival recording,” she explains. “So a couple months later, when we listened to the recording, Amaan said, ‘My goodness, this is incredible.’ We had a sold-out audience. They were extremely enthusiastic, and we got such a great energy from them that he said, ‘This is an album.’”
Find out more on the latest episode of New Classical Tracks, in which Isbin also shares a funny story about mentor Andres Segovia, who was rumored to have a major feud with Paraguayan composer Agustin Barrios.
“I was a 14-year-old kid when I first met Segovia and had the opportunity to have lessons with him,” she recalls. “So every year I would have a lesson with him, and it was very inspiring. And then this was perhaps the fifth or sixth lesson I would prepare, as I usually did, music that had been written for him or that he loved to play. And each time I played something, he'd say, ‘That's beautiful. Play something else.’” So an hour went by of that and I ran out of pieces.
“So I thought, ‘Well, I know that he would love Julia Florida, by Barrios, if I don't say who wrote it. I'll just play it for him because I'm stuck now. I have nothing else to play.’ So I played it for him. ‘Oh, that is beautiful. What is that?’ I said, ‘Well, actually, it's by Agustin Barrios.’ … That was the end of the lesson. I never had another one. So it proves that this antipathy that was legendary really was true.’
Resources
Sharon Isbin: Live In Aspen; with Amjad Ali Khan, Amann Ali Bangash and Ayann Ali Bangash; also Amit Kavthekar (Amazon)
Sharon Isbin, guitar (official site)
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About New Classical Tracks®
Host Julie Amacher provides an in-depth exploration of a new classical music release each week.
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