Anoushka and Ravi Shankar at Symphony Hall, Boston

Anoushka and Ravi Shankar performed at the Boston Symphony Hall [home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra] yesterday as part of the Festival of India [PDF, be warned...].

The Symphony Hall was crowded with the swish of gorgeous saris, the occassional flowing kurta and a gaggle of tongues, many of them Indian. The Hall itself is quite magnificent on the inside, what with a very tall stage that stands majestically at one end of the Hall. The imposing, gilded pipe-organ rising to the ceiling from above halfway up the backwall of the stage forms a very strking backdrop.

Anoushka Shankar led the first part of the event. She looked quite spiffy in her mod-ish salwar-kameez, a blue, silken affair with the kameez (shirt) cut rather high. There was a team of performers flanking her on rug-covered takhts: performers on the sarod, veena, violin, ghatam/mridangam, bamboo flute, tanpura, tabla, shehnai and two vocalists. This was an impressive ensemble and I must admit they performed quite admirably. Anoushka really anchored the pieces with alacrity, her smiling, encouraging mein quickly assuming a playful seriousness when it was her part to link the various accompaniments with some scintillating showers of sitar-sounds.

All the artists were young and it was heartening to see people playing instruments such as the shehnai and the veena which tend to be considered the less favored, as compared to, say, the tabla or the sitar.

Ravi Shankar made his appearance in the second half of the show, was welcomed with thunderous applause. He did look frail while walking to the stage but his face still carries the cherubic smile and radiance one has always associated with it. He played energetically, "jamming" well with Anoushka, whose fingers travel ever so nimbly on the sitar, performed some subtle notes and phrases(that is far as I can tell, my knowledge of Hindustani classical being woefully inadequate). He ended with raga Mishra Pilu.

Sure, it was a fine evening of inspired music and performance, but one did wish that Ravi Shankar himself had played a bit longer.