Search - Richard Clayderman, Rahul Sharma :: The Confluence: Santoor & Piano

Surprisingly very good.

David Rasquinha | Arlington, VA USA | 06/27/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"As a general rule, I tend to be very skeptical of mixed musical genres (artistes as well as instruments) , believing them to be usually having negative synergy. Yet the first time I listened to Confluence at a relative's place, I was soon captivated. The santoor has long been my favorite listening instrument and to my surprise, the combination of santoor and piano goes remarkably well despite the somewhat eclectic choice of numbers. The tracks on the CD have a strong classical orientation, including a handful of golden Bollywood movie favorites and just about every track is good. It no doubt helps that the key artists, Richard Clayderman on the piano and Rahul Sharma (son of the incomparable Pandit Shivkumar Sharma) are established names in their respective fields who need no introduction to music lovers. Rahul has also composed some of the numbers on this CD which impressed me further. Able support to piano and santoor is given by guitar, flute and percussion. Picking a favorite is hard as all the numbers are good but if I had to choose, I would recommend Blues Heaven for the interweaving of melody from instrument to instrument, with Dekha Ek Khwab from Silsila a close second. Highly recommended."

Disappointing

LCB | 01/07/2006

(1 out of 5 stars)

"i'm a HUGE piano fan and a santoor fan as well. so when i saw this album i thought i'd love it. unfortunately, it is as my title says: disappointing. first off, why does the album (and why do so many of the songs) start off with synthesizer sounds? actually, why are there synthesizer sounds at all on an album advertised as a confluence of piano and santoor? not that synths are universally bad (i like electronica) but in the context of combining piano and santoor, it seems unnecessary. perhaps it's because they didn't have the money to hire real musicians. it ruins what might have been an ok album. they could have just left it out - it seems like there's a lot of stuff that's simply extraneous: along with the cheesy synths, there's cheesy electric guitar sounds (which ruin the experience of norwegian wood). it's as if they thought by adding in more variety they could make it more interesting. but i think in this case paring it down to the play and tension between two unique instruments would have made the album stronger.



my other main complaint is that they don't seem to have really COMBINED the two instruments, but rather just played songs where the two instruments take turns. this is perhaps the biggest letdown. the whole way through while listening, i'm waiting for a moment where the two of them actually play together and build off of each other... and it never happens.



the great santoor-piano crossover album still remains to be made."