SIMON THACKER and THE NAVA RASA ENSEMBLE
Inner Octaves
****
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SIMON THACKER and THE
NAVA RASA ENSEMBLE
Inner Octaves
****
Rowena Smith
The Guardian, Friday 13 November 2009
Billed as a programme of east meets west, this concert brought together European
and Indian classical musicians, with the Nava Rasa Ensemble – guitarist Simon
Thacker, Carnatic violinist Jyotsna Srikanth and tabla player Sarvar Sabri –
joined by the Edinburgh Quartet, double bassist Mario Lima Caribé da Rocha and
percussionist Iain Sandilands. In fact, cultural cross-currents were working at
a deeper level than Indian and European given that Srikanth is a violinist from
the Carnatic tradition, Sabri comes from the Hindustani tradition and Da Rocha
is a jazz rather than classical double bassist.
In such collaborations one influence usually dominates, depending on the force
of numbers in the ensemble or on the origins and outlook of the composers
involved. This event was notable for largely avoiding this pitfall, thanks to
careful programming symmetry. Two new works had been written for the ensemble,
one by a Scottish-based composer with an interest in Indian music and culture,
the other by a composer of Indian descent from Uganda, who has spent the last
four decades in the US.
Of these two pieces, the latter, Nada Ananda by Shirish Korde, arguably made
more from the forces than Nigel Osborne's The Birth of Naciteka. Like
Osborne, Korde alternates solo passages with unison writing, though his piece is
more interested in pushing the technical possibilities of the group to the
limit. The third movement, in particular, is an exuberant virtuoso display of
rhythmic complexity. Nada Anada means joy of sound, an idea Korde captured in
his music.
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