Shivkumar's santoor turns dusk into dawn
Bombay :
The Glory of Dawn (Raga Ahir Bhairav): Shivkumar Sharma (Santoor)
Zakir Hussain(Tabla).EMI ECSD 2995
It was at dusk when I played Shivkumar Sharma's LP featuring the morning melody Ahir Bhairav.
So great is the emotional impact of his santoor recital and his capacity to convert the musical atmosphere prevailing in the evening into that of the day through his highly imaginative exposition of the raga. I did not get time to listen to the disc in the traditionally stipulated early hours of the day, perhaps, then it would have sounded even better, evoking deeper feelings.
Having heard this record, I feel that if rendered by a genius of an artiste, ragas traditionally earmarked for a particular period of the day or night can be enjoyed anytime.
What is more commendable is that Shivkumar could build up so much raga bhava in a short time of 50 minutes, that too with a humble folk instrument of Kashmir like santoor or shatatantri. But Shivkumar's shatatantri or 100-stringed instrument has only 87 strings.
Indeed only an artiste of Shivkumar's calibre could have brought this Kashmiri folk instrument out of the valley into the classic concert platform. Again, only a great artiste could so deftly and flawlessly manipulate a maze of 87 strings and produce varied sounds and effects. He can command at the slightest wave of his magically-musical wand, his santoor to whisper, to coo, to cry, to wail, to laugh. His strokes sometimes fall like pebbles in the water producing ripples and sometimes like cascading waterfalls letting out a roaring sound.
Here the confluence of tinkling notes right from the beginning weaves magic casements of raga Ahir Bhairav an aesthetic combination of raga Bhairav and raga Kafi.
The soft jingling strains in the slow alap movements herald the break of dawn, the rhythmic jod heightening the spirit of the day, and the vilambit and drut Teental gats portraying life with all its ups and downs. All this in just 50 minutes, proving that lengthy exposition of ragas is not needed to bring out raga bhava.
Though titled "The Glory of Dawn", the disc, in fact, is glory unto Shivkumar and his santoor and not just of raga Ahir Bhairav, which is associated with sunrise. And one truly gets into the mood of the hour even with the very first alap flourishes of the raga, coming as a whiff of fresh, cool morning air in the stillness and sweetness of nature and as dewdrops gently falling on green grass. Having dispelled the darkness and heralded sunshine, the melody progressively gains momentum through rhythmic jod and jhala and vilambit and drut gats in Teental to conjure up images of life in all its bright sunlight and shadows.
Zakir Hussain's brilliant tabla accompaniment runs in consonance with Shivkumar's ideas on santoor.
By Chandramohan Rao, Evening News of India
©COPYRIGHT 1997 Shivkumar Sharma Associates