It's quite something, what Sami Yusuf brings to the stage: his own accompanying group of seasoned pros, the heavenly voices of Cappella Amsterdam and the traditionally Mediterranean sounds of the Amsterdam Andalusian Orchestra. Together, this yields a sound experience that moves from calm ponds with a gurgling fountain, to dry steppes winds, raging seas and overwhelming mountains. A film could effortlessly be made in which Sami Yusuf's music plays the lead role.
On 6 June, in a Concertgebouw filled to the brim, Yusuf's latest work finally premiered live, after it was previously limited, in 2020, to a single recording, made by all the musicians in the isolation of their own studio, because of Corona. That recording, deeply moving, still, has since been viewed more than half a million times. So of those hundreds of thousands of viewers, many hundreds came to Amsterdam to now experience it in real life. The Holland Festival received bookings from at least 45 countries, so far extends the fame of this British composer and singer, with roots in Azerbaijan.
From headscarves to thickly lacquered influencers, from elderly to young and in quite a few colours of the rainbow, the Concertgebouw's audience space looked like a celebration of cultural fraternisation, just as the title of Yusuf's new work reads: When Paths Meet.
Connection
It was all connection and love, religion with God and Allah at the same time: Sufism in optima forma, so there were also links in the music to Chinese meditation. Yusuf draws his inspiration from all the countries around the Mediterranean and further east. Therefore - looking for points of reference, name a commonplace - I recognised a acoustic Vangelis, an oriental Carmina Burana and Arabic flamenco. So then we are talking world music in optima forma.
It is also music that blows your socks off with polyphonic choirs, virtuoso percussion and the power of the unison melody held simultaneously by many instruments. A warm bath, then, that at moments thrilled the audience.
We quite need that in these confusing times.
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