Richard Clayderman: Mumbai is quite exotic for a French person

When

Richard Clayderman

and Rahul Sharma put their musical notes together, it turns out to be more than just a jugalbandi. The French pianist and

santoor

maestro, who marked their maiden collaboration 17 years ago, have proved time and again that music has no boundaries. The diverse instruments of piano and santoor transform into a source of magic and open a world of harmonies, melodies and emotions. They did it again with their special concert in Chennai last night. Having performed in Mumbai on numerous occasions, the senior musician, Richard, describes the city as exotic. “Mumbai is quite exotic for a French person. Such crazy traffic makes me dizzy sometimes,” he wrote, adding, “I wish I could perform more often in India, but my concert schedule is quite intense.” Rahul, on the other hand, enlightens us on his experience of making music with the veteran pianist and his probable return to composing for films.

When Richard met Rahul
Richard and Rahul first collaborated in 2002 for The Confluence. “I loved his touch on the piano,” says Rahul, as he reminisces about the time he first connected with the renowned pianist. “I was totally humbled that he agreed to play my compositions. In fact, he enjoyed the idea of presenting the santoor and piano in an Indianised fashion. It was huge to get an opportunity to compose and play with him so early in my career,” he adds. Richard, however, had never heard of the santoor before. Talking about his association with Rahul, he said, “The record company that was distributing my albums in India came up with the idea of experimenting with music and collaborating with Rahul. And when we did get together, I was captivated by Rahul’s skills. To perform with him has been a discovery and pleasure.”

‘It was a challenge to pair the piano and santoor’
Not many know that the piano and santoor belong to the same family. Rahul explains, “Both the santoor and piano have strings. When you strike a piano key, a little hammer inside the piano plucks a string and that’s how the sound is produced. The piano needs to be tuned just like the 100-stringed santoor. The challenge in composing our album together was to not just present the most popular pianist in an Indian avatar, but to ensure that his music blended seamlessly with my santoor.”

‘Plagiarism of our music is rampant’
While instrumental music is popular, it is also rampantly used without being given due credit. Rahul says, “Our album is played everywhere — right from airlines to hotel lobbies, weddings and elevators. I have even heard my music being played on television, in tourism advertisements, at events, etc. It’s good for the instrumental genre, but they always forget to give royalties and the due credit to the musicians.” Richard adds, “In fact, I have developed a new style of music, which was, no doubt, plagiarised a lot about three decades ago. But I cannot say that I have been a victim of those plagiarisms. Many pianists have recorded albums in my style, but they have not been successful.”

Working in Bollywood
Rahul Sharma composed the music for '

Mujhse Dosti Karoge!

' (2002), which has been his only Bollywood outing so far. “It was an awesome experience. I got to work with Lataji (Mangeshkar) and Ashaji (Bhosle), and also had Hrithik Roshan, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Rani Mukerji groove to my tunes. In fact, I keep getting offers to compose for films and I’m currently looking at one, which may probably work out,” he smiles. Richard is not new to Bollywood. The pianist says, “We are aware of Bollywood. In fact, there are more people watching Indian movies in France now.” He adds, “In fact, I should be going to see some of those films sometimes.”