ConcertPodium – Indian ragas played on the Indian cello
A long time ago, in 2002, the world-famous cellist Saskia de Haas and sitar player Shubhendra Rao gave a concert at the KIT in Amsterdam. The Concertzender recorded this special concert of Indian classical music. For a long time, we were only allowed to broadcast the first part of the concert, but now we can let you hear the entire performance.
It is a very special concert, not only because of the virtuosity of both players, but also because of the special instrument that Saskia de Haas plays.
Saskia de Haas, who once lived in India because of her interest in Indian music, was taught by sitar player Shubhendra Rao (himself a student of Ravi Shankar), whom she later married. In order to make the cello suitable for the Indian musical tradition, she designed (together with violin maker Eduard van Tongeren) a special Indian cello. The instrument has, among other things, 5 playing strings and ten resonance strings that are not played but resonate with the other strings, as is customary with Indian string instruments.
In the concert, Saskia and Shubhendra each play their ‘own’ raga. Saskia starts with the Raga Maru Bihag, Shubhendra then plays the Raga Basant Panchan, a work by his teacher.
Click here to listen to the concert on ConcertPodium.
