CluedIN’s Maitreyee Sarcar travelled to Birmingham to see Anoushka Shankar perform to a pact audience.

Anoushka Shankar daughter of legendary sitarist Pandit Ravi Shankar gave a superb recital here on Monday 17th May at the Birmingham Town Hall in UK to a very appreciative audience. The very fact that they came to attend the concert in hundreds on a weekday evening is a testimony to the fact that they have such a high regard for her artistry. This is the first concert we have attended; where Anoushka performed all by herself without the support of her legendary father Pandit Ravi Shankar. It was obvious from her performance that she has made tremendous progress from those days when we heard her in the past as a supporting artist to her father. She has matured well beyond our expectation. It was most heart warming to see her being alter in the course of a few years to a recitalist of immense calibre. We were looking at someone who is trying to emulate her renowned father and half-sister, Nora Jones and was looking very self-assured. It is not at all easy to step into the world that rightfully belongs to her father and also the pressure building from the fact that Norah is an eight times Grammy award winner.

    
She played a number of composition few from her father and a few her own creation. The compositions based on some North and South Indian ragas such as Madhuvanti, Bachaspati, Raghuvamsho Sudha, Jana Sammohini and Jog were the ones I enjoyed most as they were portrayed with great artistry and skill in such a short time without the usual elaboration of the ragas. She has most successfully developed the technique to attract the young audience; who has little previous experience of classical music as well as to please the seasoned classical music lovers like us who are likely to be extinct like dinosaurs in due course.  People like us may not appreciate opuses based on Flamenco like the one she played called ‘Buleria’; which she composed in collaboration with flamenco pianist Pedro Ricardo Mino. However, the reaction from the younger generation like was quite palpable.

Some of the compositions were meant for the young listeners and not for people with conservative taste. The young audience seating all around us seemed to have been enthralled by the music. Perhaps it is the right way to attract the new audience from the younger generation. It fits in with the modern trend to mix the traditional classical music with contemporary music to maximise its popularity. Perhaps few people of this generation have the time and the patience to listen to the slow and prolonged development of the ragas as we are accustomed to. This is the age of the super fast life, super fast planes, trains, cars and the rest. Who has the time or the patience to listen to a raga for one and half to two hours? Hence the new trend of playing a raga with five to ten minutes’ development and ten minutes’ gat in fast tempo. Still I believe that there are times when one should slow down the speed of life and listen to long ragas at least for the sake of therapeutic reasons if not for anything else.

It was obvious why Anoushka has already received worldwide recognition at such a tender age for continuing the tradition of her father in bringing the traditional music of the India to the world stage. She showed tremendous dexterity, self confidence, intellect and professionalism rarely seen in other female musicians of her age. It was wonderful to find that she is trying to develop herself in the path shown by her father especially in artistry and musicianship for which she has received numerous awards.  Anoushka was accompanied by some marvellous accompanists like Tanmoy Bose on the tabla; Ravichandra Kulur on the flute and kanjira; Pirashanna Thevarajah on mridangam, Kanjira and ghatam and Nick Able on tanpura. Together they played some wonderful music and received thunderous applause from the most appreciating crowd.
Town Hall and Symphony Hall of Birmingham should be thanked for arranging this programme for the audience of the Midlands. The concert was supported by Radio XL, Sampad and the Birmingham City Council.


Maitreyee Sarcar [Mrs], Wolverhampton, UK
May 27, 2010

Photographer: Mr Yogi Raj Pardhi