Customer Reviews

Live at Carnegie Hall

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

I am frankly shocked at the number of negative reviews written by people who either admit they don't know much about Hindustani classical music or display their ignorance in the comments they make.

Anoushka has 24 concert scheduled in the next 2 months; in addition, she will be by her father's side at each of the 8 concerts he has set in the same time period. Ample evidence that many thousands of Classical Indian Music fans in the US alone consider her a major talent - as do I.

Anoushka is a professional recording and concert artist - yet several reveiws criticize her "commercialism". Concerts and CDs are commercial enterprises, my friends - duh! Some criticize her for trading on her family name while singing the praises of her father who became well known because of his famous brother, Uday Shankar.

It is improper under any circumstances to refer to classical performances like these as "songs". Those who claim that these pieces are "verbatim" or "identical to" something on another of her CDs or played at a concert they attended simply have no idea what they are listening to and may have mistakenly assumed that this music, like virtually everything in the West, consists of composed pieces written in advance and played as such.

Hindustani classical music is improvised within strict and complex rules that define and control each raga. The term "composition" most often refers to a short chorus or refrain which states the theme and to which one returns after a period of improvization. (In the Carnatic music of South India, the term is used for something much more akin to a Western song. This lends Carnatic music it's repetative and non-creative feel. And please note: Hindustani music is the most complex system of rhythm and melody in the world, substantially more developed than any other in South Asia - it is hardly waiting to blossom.)

The use of two drummers is common in all Indian Classical Music. To suggest that these great tabla players tripped one another up in any way is simply foolish. If you cannot hear the tala, you may become confused. They played brilliantly together!

This music is taught to students who imitate EXACTLY what their gurus sing or play. To preserve a tradition developed over centuries it is very important that a performer master the one style being handed down to her before hot-dogging and "doing her own thang" - something that may be valued among kids who last week learned a few chords on the guitar, but considered very dangerous in highly developed classical music systems of all kinds. Anoushka has a responsibility to preserve the entire classical traditon of her father, his guru the great Ustad Allaudin Khan, and indeed, the entire Maihar tradition. Once we are all fairly certain this has been acomplished, we will welcome more of her own individual expression. Until then it is with great humility and respect for her father that she doesn't try to show him up, act like she knows more than he does, or even suggest that she has something important to add that he missed in the last 60 years. This is not an Okie Stomp. Anoushka displays grace, modesty and deep respect for her culture, traditions and family honor. In addition, she is always dressed very tastefully in the typical outfits of India - to criticize this is to criticize India herself, something for which you should be ashamed!

Michael Robinson is among those musicians who has retuned a piano using just intonation in order to play with the sitar. You can also chose pentatonic ragas that avoid a few sour notes.

Finally, the tuning of sympathetic strings is a highly variable and personal matter. I can think of several situations in which I have tuned both 4ths for various reasons. Why Anoushka may have done so is really not any of your business. If you were Hindustani musicians you would have found it unremarkable and would not have made the mistake of assuming that there is any correct way to tune a sitar's tarafs.

I'm not a music scholar and I know little about musical theory, especially that pertaining to classical Indian music. However I have a good pair of ears that have loved and appreciated many forms of great music for the last 35 years (years that I can remember at least, now being age 42).

Like many westerners, I first heard the sitar through the Beatles way back when. However, I've only recently got into indian classical music (for about 4 years). I have 8 Ravi Shankar CD's...they are all brilliant and he is an obvious genius..musician, composer, man .........

I saw Anoushka play solo in London in July 2002. I hadn't heard her play before... I was simply amazed.... She was brilliant...the sounds coming into my ears were glorious and nearly brought me to tears on many an occasion. The Carnegie Hall cd, purchased after the recital, did not disappoint at all!!...... it is brilliant and I never tire of listening to it..... She plays beautifully, with so much emotion you can feel it choking u up...Indeed, she looks gorgeous and has wonderful stage presence.....this is irrevalent however when listening to her interpret the wonderful music that her father had lovingly composed especially for her..

I wonder whether some of the reviewers have even heard the cd?
It seems that minds have been made up beforehand.....it's possible that a)her beauty, a)her position of privilege as Ravi's daughter(though she never flaunts it), c) her young age...could actually be against her in the eyes of the damners..
for example...what would the reviews of 'carnegie hall' be like if it had Ravi Shankar's name and photo on the cover?

I also own the other two cd's, Anoushka and Anourag....I recommend them both wholeheartedly. I had the great pleasure of seeing Ravi and Anoushka play in London the other day....how fantastic that was! How an 83 year old can play like that is a miracle really... I'm off to see solo Anoushka this weekend and can't wait.....

For the record, I'm aware of many musicians from India, Pakistan and Afghanistan...having spent 4 years living and working in those areas....

Hopefully Anoushka will release a new cd in the near future...I'm greatly looking forward to it....

Anoushka was 16 when I saw her on stage at Boston's Symphony Hall with her Father. My first thought was "well if you're Ravi Shankar, I guess you can get away with putting your teenager on stage."

Then she started playing.

Her musical ability is far beyond what anyone's wildest expectations could have predicted. With only approx eight years of training at that time she was almost perfect. The only moments she appeared inferior to Ravi was in the interplay/imitation back and forth that is part of this musical style. But this can only be learned thru experience which at 16 she was _well_ on the way to perfecting.

I've seen Ravi many, many times. Someday he will be gone, but I will not feel deprived if Anoushka continues his live performance tradition.

- Jeff

I don't expect this to be tagged a "helpful" review necessarily, but I wanted to cast a positive vote to counterbalance what appears to be a deliberate and unfounded campaign to give this album a low rating.

Notice that most of the one-star reviews follow a formula and repeat the same obscure arguments, almost as if written by the same person.

Incidentally, I bought this album and found it to be a beautiful performance. It's a shame to think that Amazon customers might be dissuaded from buying it due to this oddly hateful body of negative reviews.

Anoushka's music speaks to me, and I enjoy it immensely. I am not a scholar or even greatly knowledgeable of Indian music, just a music lover who knows what sounds good to my ears and what doesn't. Bear that in mind if you use this review as a guide. It appears that the more of a scholar of this music you are, the less you are able to enjoy it.

I do question the questions asked by one reviewer who wants to know why two tablas. It seems to me that the artist has the right to decide the makeup of the accompaniasts, and if Anoushka feels that it takes two tablas to create the sound she wants, so be it. Again, she chooses to perform her father's work, or at least his interpretations of the ragas. I doubt that there's any law, man made or divine, against that. If she presently is so deeply tuned in to her father's spirit that she chooses to play only that which he has had his hand in, I feel this is her choice.

Now this may be my overworked imagination, but the very first time I played this CD, I have an overwhelming feeling of listening to a female voice expressed by the sitar. I might be the only one who gets this feeling. I haven't seen anybody else mentioning it. At any rate, I share that feeling with you without guaranteeing you will hear the feminine spirit in the music that I hear. This is the second CD of hers I have, and I didn't get that feeling on the other one.

So if you enjoy sitar music, but are not a scholar with preconceived ideas of how it should be played, I think you will like this as I did.

It's very odd that the reviews for this album, and even for the artist herself, fall into only two camps; very positive or extremely (desperately) negative.

When musical purists believe that they own a musical style just because they're grandmas did, you end up with artistic Naziism. To them I would say: Music has a bigger agenda than simply being obsessive over nit-picky little details(regarding the proper use of notes in a raga, etc.). You seem to be desparately throwing such trivia around only because you begrudge how easily success comes to some, and how difficult it seems for you to even get a life!. The guy or gal who had a tizzy just because some sympathetic string seemed tuned to a note different than what their grandma wanted, made me laugh!

...And hey, if I had released a CD, even I would have reviewed my own album. Even the President gets to vote for himself! We're all human; give her a break!

The album under discussion was very good, and I dare say had more "vibe" than even some of her fathers perfomances on record that I've heard. I hope the desparate eventually learn to deal with it.

it seems to me at least to of these reviews were rather vicious. maybe im naive but this last year in minneapolis i saw her and her father at the state theater. to be honest i came to see him and didn't know or care who she was. but after her first set (without ravi) i was completely blown away. not only was her music rich and exciting so was her stage presence as well as her smile.she played off the other musicians so well that the audience became captivated. later her father came out to join her. to me that was just icing on the cake. though i love ravi's music (especially his work with philip glass on the c-d "changes" i wouldn't hesitate to see her in concert at all. if you get a chance to see her by all means do.by the way if at all possible i will get all her works. keep your eyes open she will be around for a long time.

With two studio albums behind her, Anoushka Shankar has released her first live recording. All but one track comes from a performance at Carnegie Hall (one of them, "Raga Mishra Piloo", made famous by her father, is taken from a concert in England).

If you enjoy the way Ravi Shankar sets the mood of a raga through the "alap", you will enjoy Anoushka's playing.

I think what I enjoy about her music is the potential she has in the future. She's only 21, and could easily treat us to 60 more years of great music. I look forward to hearing her development, and to see where she takes her musical interests.

This recording really captures the energy of a live performance. Hearing Anoushka announce the raga (this is the first time we've heard her speak on record!) gets you settled in the mood and the thunderous applause at the end of each piece really make you feel like you're at Carnegie Hall with her. She seems to give a lot more of herself here in this concert than in previous recordings, and as she is still young, it's natural (though still wonderful) to see how she has grown musically and artistically since her second album, Anourag.
The first raga, Madhuvanti, is an early evening raga, and she meanders through it, slowly building up the intensity through her solo section and into the interplay with the tablas, played brilliantly by Bikram Ghosh and Tanmoy Bose. Desh is more lively and fiery, but Anoushka still keeps true to this important raga throughout her fast improvisations. The third piece is a tabla duet in which Ghosh and Bose trade off riffs and playfully compete until they reach a thundering crescendo together.
Finally comes the highlight of the album, raga Mishra Piloo, which was actually performed at the Salisbury Festival in England this summer- and at which none other than Sting and his wife Trudy Styler were sitting in the first row (I was there so I know!). In this piece Anoushka lets go as her father often does at the end of a concert, playing the raga in a more folk-style which allows for more freedom. After a beautifully ornamental and mellow beginning she starts to hit on a dizzy array of ragas, rapidly changing one from the other, showing her sensitivity and skill. She also includes what seems to be a short South Indian composition, something very unusual in sitar music. All in all this album is a joy to listen to and hasn't left my player since I bought it last week.
Bonus- if you also buy her father's "Full Circle: Live at Carnegie Hall" album, you have a full concert in your CD player! Listen to the first half of the concert (Anoushka's album) and then put in Ravi's, and you won't know what hit you. I promise.

Why not 7 stars? I am still learning about Indian music, but I've been listening to it for 20 years off and on, starting with Ravi Shankar, Ali Akhbar Khan, L. Subramanian, Zakir Hussein and bunches of people I've heard on Princeton radio's Saturday morning show whose names go by too quickly for my Anglo ears. (I'm gun-shy about buying Indian music, always afraid I'll get a synthesizer or some neo-world mix of great musicians that end up watering each other down to unrecognizability--like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan did so often) Well, last night I put on Anoushka Shankar, hoping for the best. And I was NOT disappointed. I got the best. This, to my ears, is at once more centered and driving than Ravi's work, a relentless exploration of the aural and incantatory, that, more than the musicians named above, seemed to transcend its own cultural place without losing anything of that culture's power and authenticity. My experience of it, especially the last track, was of sonic transport into the music, which could exist as its own universe for its 18 minutes or so...It doesn't take you to another dimension, unless you consider the music itself another dimension, and if it is its own dimension, it's a place I'll continue to visit again and again. Who needs heaven with this stuff around? I'll have to read some more reviews to see why it's averaging 3 stars. Maybe I'm just a dumb, uncultured Anglo, but WOW!!!