10A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, April 15, 1996

Shankar shakes inspired'U'

audience

Indian sitar virtuoso plays his cool, foreign tunes at Rackham

By Nikhil Chawla
For the Daily
The facial lines might have been more predomi-
nant, the hair had a bit more gray, but once the music
began, the magic was the same. Making his first
appearance in Ann Arbor, Ravi Shankar received a
long standing ovation every time he appeared on or
left the stage.
For this particular concert, he chose an unusual ac-
companiment that included another sitar. His help con-

REVIEW
Ravi Shankar
Rackham Auditorium
April 13, 1996

sisted of two
disciples, sitar-
ist Karthik
Sheshadri and
B i k r a m
Ghoshthe on
the tabla (a
two-piece In-
dian drum).

tion, almost like an invocation of the raga. The notes in
the raga were embellished by sliding the finger slightly
above and below the note, making use of microtones on
either side of the main note. This embellishment was
similar to the vibrato used on string instruments in the
Western Classical tradition. The piece began to gain
some acceleration in thejor, in which rhythmic elements
were added.
Shankar had some very beautiful passage work and
ornamentation high on the si-
tar, which had even the ac- a
companying performers shak- RaV> Si
ing their heads in amazement. d
Sheshadri adequately accom- o
panied the Master, at times L
playing a few octaves lower
than Shankar or repeating a his apab
phrase after it had just been
played. The tabla joined the p he s
sitar in the gat, with both per- layt
formers improvising but al-
ways coming back together in the first beat of the new
cycle.
Much like a seasoned chamber music group, the
communication between the players was achieved in
a subtle manner, either through eye contact, a nod or
a simple smile. The final climax of the piece was
achieved in the jhala, where Ghosh managed to match
Shankar's every move in the last few cycles of the
raga.
The raga Desh was performed next, with the gat
divided into teental (16 beats) for the slow tempo and
ektal (12 beats) for the fast tempo. It seemed that in
order to make up for the short gat section of the
previous piece, Shankar decided to cut short the alap

Oil

and jhor sections of this raga, so Ghosh came into the
piece quite early. This raga had some real Ravi Shankar
moments, including a sawal-jabab ("question-an-
swer") section where the Master would play a phrase
and Sheshadri would imitate the same phrase.
The second half of the program was more light-
hearted, including a demonstration of how spoken
syllables are used to indicate a given sound produced
on the tabla. The Maestro would say an endless series
of syllables that Ghosh would play
on the spot. Instead of playing a
tankar raga, a thumri was played, which
gave the performers the freedom
em *-to improvise on different ragas
and folk songs.
It also provided a chance for
-itv to Ghosh to show his virtuosity in an
extended solo that produced an
'tre"astounding range of rhythms and
sounds and earned him a standing
ovation in the middle of the piece.
While Shankar tried to give equal time to both play-
ers, Sheshadri seemed unable to follow Shankar or
grasp his ideas in this piece.
Even at the age of 75 Ravi Shankar does not seem
to have lost much of his physical or mental capability
to play the sitar. The soul and imagination that he
brings to every raga is still ingenious.
At this stage of his career, however, Shankar seems
more interested in using his recitals as a means to train
up-and-coming musicians. While some would com-
plain that this keeps him from playing to his usual
potential, given his depth and breadth of knowledge,
he should be applauded for trying to keep his craft
alive in the next generations to come.

Because ofthe dominance ofthe two sitars, two tambouras
(a stringed instrument plucked throughout to sound the
dominant note of a given composition) were also played
by Paul Livingston and Subhangi.
Shankar began the evening by playing a popular
evening raga called Yaman Kalayan. Unlike most
Western classical music, 90 percent of Indian classi-
cal music is improvised. The basic melodic frame-
work upon which the performer improvises is the
raga. Each raga is based on basic scales and carries its
own mood. The rhythmic framework, or the time
cycle, of a given raga is the tala, which is usually
subdivided (e.g., a bar of 10 beats may be subdivided
as 2-3-2-3 or 3-3-4 or 3-4-3). Yaman Kalayan was
played in Jhaptal, or a cycle of 10 beats.
Shankar began with the alap, a solo exposition sec-

Master sitar player Ravi Shankar played at Rackham on Saturday.

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