Watch the video below and ask yourself: is this raga-playing? I don’t think so. No ‘wavy notes’ here, a ‘first requirement’ in raga music. How to really expose a raag’s melodic material in detail if you can’t bend the notes in order to reveal the raag’s mood and character in all its nuances? And running parallel to this problem of execution is the tuning and scale-problem. Only a limited number of ragas is candidate for being ‘adapted’ to the piano. Otherwise: Utsav Lal is definitely very talented and I admire his playing and musical efforts.

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