West Meets East: The Historic Shankar Menuhin Collection [Original recording remastered]

Ravi Shankar (Artist), Yehudi Menuhin (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 2, 1999)
• SPARS Code: ADD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Angel Records
• ASIN: B00002CF0J
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #35,464 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #44 in Music > World Music > India & Pakistan > General
  • #68 in Music > World Music > Far East & Asia > General AAS
  • #68 in Music > World Music > Far East & Asia > General

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Without renowned violinist Yehudi Menuhin, the West may not have found Indian classical music until decades later, much beyond the late 1960s. Thanks to Menuhin's chance meeting and later lasting friendship with the master sitarist Ravi Shankar, the West witnessed the sublimity that the merging of Western and Indian classical music could produce. The two collaborated in key performances during the late 1960s and mid-1970s, the highlights of which are captured here on West Meets East. In an incredible, interwoven dance between violin and sitar, Shankar and Menuhin spin a new yarn from the wool of ancient and rare Indian ragas, capturing the ecstasy of Hindustani praise while spontaneously bringing forth their own voices in the music. Menuhin's violin sings in beautiful sadness alongside Shankar's twanging sitar amid the droning of tanpura and occasional tabla rhythms. It's as if the two greats are playing a game of tag, taking the other's notes and stretching them into their own inspired shapes while creating a timeless music where love and respect swirl up like blessed smoke. --Karen H. Hugg

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I completely disagree-- This CD is amazing, November 29, 1999

By 

Carl A Jacobson (Manchester, NH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: West Meets East: The Historic Shankar Menuhin Collection (Audio CD)

I love this album. My dad made me a tape of this from his vinyl when I was 12 years old, and it completely expanded my musical horizons. I'm 27 now and I still listen to it at least once a month. The interplay between Yehudi & Ravi is breathtaking, the improvisation is top notch, and the technique is astounding. I'm so excited this has been reissued on CD because my dog ate the tape last week, even dogs like this album!

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like Discovering a New Planet in the Musical Solar System, December 15, 2004

By 

For Two Cents Plain (Brooklyn, New York United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: West Meets East: The Historic Shankar Menuhin Collection (Audio CD)

I heard this music as a teenager, when it first appeared in the 60s, and it was my entry into Indian and other Far Eastern musics. Only recently, I bought it again in CD format, and began to reminisce. Now it sounds very different to me. Forty years ago, it was the sound of the sitar that captured my mind and heart. I had grown up listening to and playing (on the cello) classical music, and then heard Duke Ellington and Charlie Mingus and turned to jazz. Indian music was a mind-blower! Now I hear Yehudi Menuhin in a different light: the tremendous emotional depth and courage, the bittersweet Jewish pathos and mysticism, the intense psychic electricity that he brings to the duet. And I hear (or at least I imagine hearing) Pandit Ravi Shankar responding with equally intense interest in what Menuhin is saying, with equal musical respect. The result should NOT be judged in terms of Western classical music or Indian classical music (as the late master sitarist Nikhil Banerjee mistakenly did). It is something new -- a meeting of worlds, a meeting of minds, and as such it transcends the traditions these two consummate masters represent.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece by two masters, February 19, 2000

By 

Michael P. Goldenberg "Markov Chaney" (Ann Arbor, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: West Meets East: The Historic Shankar Menuhin Collection (Audio CD)

To anyone who might be moved by the negative review posted on this site, two words: ignore it. This album, which was thrilling when first released in the late '60's, is still full of surprises and delights. If it consisted of nothing more than the lengthy piece that ended the first side of the vinyl release, it would be a must for any discerning listener's collection. The passion and imagination brought to this collaboration by two geniuses of their respective instruments and musical genres combines in a tour de force of invention and humor. Anyone fortunate enough to have seen them perform live or on televison at the United Nations anniversay concert (the second album in this series contains that music) will want to share the joy Menhuin and Shankar brought listeners and themselves.