Emotions run high and sometimes power and rage comes to play in the music – an expression of the musician's interpretation of the raag and the ambiance in the concert hall. This is a remarkable rendering of the majestic Raag Darbari by Ustad Irshad Khan, a maestro that is able to switch between playing the sitar and surbahar. He is accompanied by Sukhvinder Singh on the jori, the percussion instrument of choice in the Sikh tradition of kirtan.
The surbahar’s deep-toned strings can bend upwards over an octave, allowing artists to explore the contours of a raga using only a single fret. Suited to the slow elaborations of dhrupad, it is large, heavy, and notoriously difficult to master. Here it is played by Irshad Khan, who hails from the illustrious Etawah (‘Imdadkhani’) gharana alongside greats such as Shahid Parvez, Vilayat Khan, and Imrat Khan (Irshad’s father). His ancestors gave shape to the modern sitar, customising the design and mastering gayaki ang (singing style). Irshad lives in Canada today, playing and teaching sitar and surbahar around the world.
Ustad Irshad Khan (surbahar)
Sukhvinder Singh (Jori)
Raag Darbari Kanada
Up Next in Season 1
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S1 EP2 Sanjay Subrahmanyan
In this power-packed ragam, tanam, pallavi a’la Sanjay Subrahmanyan style, Natakurinji is elaborated. Santhanam Varadharajan (violin), Neyveli Venkatesh (mridangam), RN Prakash (ghatam) accompany him in this lively performance from Darbar Festival 2008.
Sanjay Subrahmanyan was born in Chennai ...
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S1 EP3 Tarun Jasani
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S1 EP4 Shashwati Mandal
Shashwati performs Raag Shudh Kalyan followed by stunning tappas in Raag Khamaj & Raag Sohini in her signature Gwalior style and two taranas in her UK debut concert. Shahbaz Hussain (tabla) and Ajay Joglekar (harmonium) accompany her. Shashwati elaborates the tappas with complex patterns typ...
