Mesmerising Music casts a wider spell
SYDNEY :
One of the largest audiences I have seen at an Indian concert in Australia was at the Playhouse on Sunday night to hear India's master santoor player, Shiv Kumar Sharma.
Australians have been relatively slow to appreciate the mesmerising power of in classical music, the oldest classical music of the world. This large audience may be a sign that our musical tastes are expanding.
The atmosphere of the concert had none the cruel tension of a Western classical concert; the stage was dimly lit, and bare except for a raised platform covered in an Indian rug' and a couple of vases of flowers.
Shiv Kumar Sharma played two romantic evening ragas, developing the melody and'
rhythm subtly until there was a feeling of unearthly power in the room.
He and his tabla player, the joyful Shafaat Ahmed Khan, relied lrgely on eye contact to achieve a combination of ingenious improvisation and unfaltering control. It is a thrill in itself to watch this fine kind of communication.
In the light-classical raga, their rhythmic, and melodic inventiveness was so astonishing that the audience rose for an ovation.
By Anna King Murdoch at Playhouse, Victorian Arts Center
©COPYRIGHT 1997 Shivkumar Sharma Associates