Raga & Raj

The second album in the Utsav! series hears musicians coming up with some fascinating ways of lauding Shankar’s contribution to the music of his country, while also continuing his role as a communicator across musical and cultural channels. Musicians from the West, principally from the Lux Musica Ensemble of the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival, team up with tabla player Debopriyo Sarkar to perform music either inspired by, or transcribed from, India by Western composers.

Most of the tracks here are arranged by Barry Phillips, a cellist and student of Shankar, and Phillips’ composition on a series of eight ragas opens the disc. The scoring for baroque ensemble is intriguing, especially the sound of the harpsichord, which comes to the fore in the highlight of the disc, William Hamilton Bird’s ‘Hindoostanee Airs’. This fascinating early encounter between Europe and India is a real gem and gracefully demonstrates how long cultural interest across national and stylistic boundaries has been with us.