Search - Hari Prasad Chaurasia :: Rag Lalit

Fabulous Flute

Ragamala | UK | 01/24/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Hariprasad Chaurasia is undoubtedly the foremost proponent of Indian classical flute music. His work rate and output has been immense, and this is reflected in the number of CDs featuring his bansuri. But he is not a studio musician or a panderer to western taste, he is to be seen and heard at many concerts and festivals in India, where he faces the informed and critical audience regularly, and woos them with his superb long raga performances.We are fortunate to have in this recording a lengthy exposition of one raga, Lalit. Too often Hariprasad's CDs are issues or reissues of short and comparatively shallow performances, but in this Nimbus recording, although it is studio-based, we can get a glimpse of a full performance of what is a beautiful but difficult morning raga.For more than half the performance we are treated to a leisurely examination of the character of Lalit in the unmetred alaap, followed by the jor, with metre but still unaccompanied. We then hit a highlight of the performance, a stunning entry by tabla player Anindo Chatterjee, who introduces the taal then gives a dazzling solo before Hariprasad takes up the the bandish in rupak (7-beat) taal. Anindo is a superb accompanist and his crisp playing forms an ideal counterpoint to hariprasad's development of his melodic improvisations. In the final quarter of the performance a fast 16 teental returns us to more well-trodden taal territory for the expected fireworks of a conclusion which shows off Anindo's skill and musicality as well as Hariprasad's unique technique in jhala, with an amazing breath and tongue control over his instrument.A minor criticism is that this 1988 CD shares with some others of Nimbus Record's studio recordings an echoing acoustic ambience dulling the sparkle of the sound of both flute and tabla, but this is a small price to pay for an excellent performance."