The ambitious film Raga Unveiled, taking a look at the history and essence of the Hindustani classical musical system, has received a lot of praise. Will be screened on Sunday evening, 10 April 2011 at King’s Place in London, as a prelude to the Darbar Festival 2011, on 21 – 24 April 2011, at the same location. Here’s from YouTube a video to promote the film:
Tag Archives: raag
Kaushiki sings in Brussels, June 24th 2011
Kaushiki / Photo by Daniel Zafir (click on photo to enlarge)
Best news I’ve heard this week: Kaushiki Chakrabarty will sing on June 24th in Brussels :)) in the Palais des Beaux-Arts/Paleis voor de Schone Kunsten. Ahum… anyone in Holland picking this up?
Interview with brilliant and versatile veena player Jayanthi Kumaresh
I think this is great, an interview in three parts with brilliant and versatile veena-player Jayanthi Kumaresh, a carnatic artist whose work I’ve been following for years. I hugely admire her playing and I really hope to meet and interview her one day.
Interview – Part One
Interview – Part Two
Interview – Part Three
Raga playing on a piano? I don’t think so.
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.
Beautiful playing by young carnatic violinist Charumathi Raghuram
Groomed so far mainly by famous violinist T.N. Krishnan, this is Charumathi Raghuram, a young carnatic violinist with an excellent technique and in her playing a delightful, refined expression. With great imagination she plays a wonderful rendition of Akhilandeswari and – according to my taste – she achieves the kind of carnatic violin sound that I personally like best and that I always seek for in this music. Also the overall sound, the recording and amplification are ok here I think. I mention this, because many recordings in this area of music sound pretty bad, if not – if I may say so – horrible, that is, in my ears. For instance, I don’t like the use of big reverb and excessive microphone amplification in raga music, as – regrettably – soo often happens on stage or in studios. An interesting topic for debate and for further musicological investigation.
Kala Ramnath: excerpts from ‘All in one bow’ (2006)
Excerpts from my short film ‘All in one bow – de streken van Kala Ramnath’ (17min.), about Mewati-gharana violinist Kala Ramnath, filmed in september 2005 at my place in Amsterdam. I hope to rework this material (playing and interview) and combine it with other material of Kala’s playing that I shot in 2006, a full concert in Utrecht and a workshop in Rotterdam.
HOME
Awesome footage in documentary about fabulous sitarist Nikhil Banerjee
The exceptional/fabulous & one and only Nikhil Banerjee lived up to his own words: “My approach to music is very deep. I do not believe in compromise. My music is based on spiritualism and was practiced to know the Supreme Truth. A musician must lift up the soul of the listeners.” The footage of Nikhil Banerjee’s playing in the video above – taken from a wonderful documentary by Steven Baigel – wonderfully illustrates his statement. It’s priceless stuff that lifts up my soul ! 🙂
Marvellous mridangam solo by legendary master K. Sivaraman
Some phenomenal playing by K. Sivaraman, the legendary master of mridangam… wow!
German radio WDR3 portrays phenomenal ragasinger Kaushiki Desikan Chakrabarty
On tuesday 23 November 2010 at 23.05 PM German public radiostation WDR3 portrays phenomenal 30-year old (and my favourite) ragasinger Kaushiki Desikan Chakrabarty from Calcutta.
Kaushiki in 2010
Earlier, on 10 November 2010 WDR3 devoted a radio evening on Kaushiki, with a live broadcast of her concert in Bielefeld, a very beautiful performance that was described by renowned ragaspecialist Jan Reichow as “Das außergewöhnlichste, ergreifendste, intelligenteste, fröhlichste, innovativste Konzert Europas”. He’s not exaggerating. Kaushiki has it all and when you hear her live on stage her voice is able to touch your heart and soul deeper than you ever could have imagined… I’m saying this with great conviction as I’m speaking from my own wonderful experiences with hearing Kaushiki live in concert (at the Darbar Festival in 2008 in Leicester, and in 2007 in the Tropentheater in Amsterdam).
Kaushik performing in London in 2005, after she received the BBC3 World Music Award
WDR3 radio provides the following information for the radiobroadcast on 23 November 2010: Kaushiki Desikan Chakraborty gehört zu den großen Talenten der jungen Generation. Im Gegensatz zu früher dürfen Nachwuchskünstler heute schon viel früher ihr Können öffentlich zeigen. Kaushiki ist erst 30 Jahre alt und schon eine anerkannte Sängerin auf den großen Bühnen Indiens. Sie hat eine betörende Stimme und ein für ihr Alter ungewöhnliches technisches Vermögen. Die Pflege der alten Tradition ist ihr erklärtes Ziel. In diesem Sinne ist sie, obwohl jung, eine wertkonservative Künstlerin – mehr noch: sie trägt mit ihrer Haltung zum Überleben des klassischen indischen Geangs bei. Anlässlich ihres Bielefelder WDR-3-Konzerts vor knapp zwei Wochen erzählte Kaushiki unserer Autorin Clair Lüdenbach von ihrer Kunst und aus ihrem Leben.
If you like ragamusic you really should listen on tuesday 23 November at 23.05 PM to this WDR3-radio broadcast devoted to Kaushiki.
WDR3 live-radiobroadcast ragaconcert Kaushiki 10 November 2010 in Bielefeld
Her voice and music are breathtaking and soultouching and of a heartbreaking beauty, to put it mildly.
Kaushiki sings raag Multani in Amsterdam, 2007
In the past couple of years I’ve tried to tell about Kaushiki’s extraordinary musical powers in some of my writings on the web etc , in my programme Gharana and in this radioprogramme. Phenomenal Patiala ragasinger Kaushiki Chakrabarty from Calcutta performs in Bielefeld (Germany) on Wednesday 10 November and this concert will be broadcasted live on WDR3 Radio, starting at 8.05 PM.
Kaushiki sings ‘Yaad Piya Ki Aaye’ in Amsterdam, 2007
I like the way WDR Radio has tried to put in words the qualities of Kaushiki: “Die Sängerin Kaushiki aus Kolkata hat eine phänomenale Stimme und die stupende Fähigkeit, jede Nuance der großen traditionellen Form- und Melodiemodelle perfekt umzusetzen, von expressiven Wendungen, die ins herz treffen, bis zu Läufen und Koloraturen, die mit atemberaubender Geschwindigkeit ablaufen.” A very true, good description.
If you happen to like ragamusic the WDR-radiotransmission is not-to-be-missed!
Kaushiki performs a bhajan in bhairavi, concert in Amsterdam, 2007