November 29, 2013
There's a strong tradition in Indian music of going to a maestro of an entirely different instrument in order to hone an understanding of one's own. And that's because the fundamentals of approach, of artistry, and of listening, are deemed at least as important as pure instrumental technique.
So it was with Saskia Roa-de Haas, who plays the 'cello but studied with Hariprasad Chaurasia the great flautist. The instrument was specially built for her, with sympathetic strings as well as five primary strings - and we were therefore treated (as she told us) to one of just three or four players in the world, of 'cello working in the Indian tradition.
Indeed there's something of a trend of introducing exotic new instruments into performance of Indian music - Lakshminarayana Shankar's double violin, Uppalapu Srinivas' mandolin, John McLaughlin's 13-string guitar - anything to allow fresher experimentation with form, and different qualities of sound. The evening was an illustration of what a valuable approach that is, with the resonance of the 'cello bringing a quality few of the audience can have heard before.
Shubhendra Rao took perhaps a more conventional route with the sitar, except insofar as he was a prodigy who first came to the instrument at the age of three, coming to the attention of Ravi Shankar, leading to a tremendously successful career in performance and recording and displaying unmatched skill in his craft.
The two virtuosi, very ably supported on tabla by Biplab Bhattacharyya gave a tremendous performance, energised as they said by an appreciative audience - they are in the process of an international tour, and exhausted by travelling, but we wouldn't have known that if they had not told us!
They performed an evening raga, mishra khamaj, and an adaptation of a Greek folk tune, and gave a generous fifteen minutes to answering questions from the floor.
Aside from being a pleasure to be there, it was very impressive that the Oxford India Society had managed the coup of bringing such musicians to the city - but it does raise the bar for future efforts!