Bringing Mozart home – The Hindu

Classical music lovers in Delhi trooped into India Habitat Centre with renewed ardour as the capital slowly began opening up auditoriums for live concerts this month. Filled to about a third of its capacity (due to social distancing), the venue this evening drew an eclectic mix of those with an ear for Indian classical music, connoisseurs of Western classical music, as well as enthusiasts of edgy musical experiments.

A piano placed downstage on the right, the sitar and cello in the centre, and tabla at the other end raised our curiosity — what if Mozart were to meld his compositions with raga music? Shubhendra Rao, his wife Saskia Rao-de Haas and son Ishaan Leonard Rao offered a rich mix of possibilities on sitar, Indian cello and piano with a new raga, alaap-jod-jhala blending with Mozart’s Requiem, and a ragamala improvisation alongside a sonata.

Shubhendra and Saskia have spent decades performing together and striking a fine balance in musical forms. “We are a family steeped in classical music,” says Shubhendra while Saskia adds, “This concert is special for us because it showcases our journey into two musical traditions.”

This time, they were joined by their son, 16-year-old Ishaan making it the family’s first live music concert in Delhi after the lockdown.

Musing on Mozart

Mozart’s canonical oeuvre offers multiple points of exploration. Family Rao chose to deep dive into compositions that would resonate with Indian audiences alongside the more challenging sombre shades of the legend’s music. The trio opened with an invocatory piece blending traditional Indian music with Mozart’s ‘Dona Nobis Placem’. Alternating between pathos and the playful, the composition was a gentle melodic interplay between the instruments.

“It’s not fusion,” clarified Rao, “it is the coming together of two artistic traditions that must be treated with respect and sensitivity. My guru (Pt. Ravi Shankar) often used to say that to change the rules you must first deeply understand the rules.”

For Saskia, the concert rekindled memories of her initial training in Western classical music. “For the last 25 years, my artistic identity is of an Indian classical musician; this journey through Mozart’s work was like revisiting the culture I grew up in.”

Talking about the process of putting together the concert, she said, “It is important for the music to flow, to build a story through the structure, the logic, the mood, and the notes.”

The duo doesn’t hesitate to discuss and debate while creating music together. “We are each other’s sounding board,” said Shubhendra. “My job as a partner in life and music is to constantly question and play the critic too,” quipped the cello exponent. “We try to open up the process of music-making for each other. Meaningful music comes from such a thought process, it is created in the heart and the mind, it is both mathematics and poetry.”

A fine balance

For young Ishaan, it is about balancing eclectic music sensibilities. He started learning the sitar at age three, a year later he started training in the cello, and by the age of six, he had decided to turn to the piano. “I’ve grown up listening to my parents practising Indian classical music, I have trained in Western classical music and we all listen to a lot of jazz and other genres as well.” A confident soloist, Ishaan presented the ‘Molto Allegro’ from piano sonata K.457 in C Minor. Reflecting on his choice he says, “I’m drawn to the melodic simplicity of this sonata.”

Later in the programme, the trio improvised around another piano sonata with a ragamala. Mozart’s prolific improvisations echo with the improvisatory process in Indian classical music. Raag Yaman, Khamaj, Kaafi and Bilawal were wrapped seamlessly around the Andante Grandioso of Mozart’s Piano sonata K.331.

Raga and Requiem

One of the highlights of the concert was a new raag composed by Shubhendra Rao. A work in progress, the raag remains untitled, yet plays with the consonants of Mozart’s name with an emphasis on the notes ‘Ma’, ‘Sa’ and ‘Re’.

“Creating a raag is not a planned event, it is an organic process,” said Shubhendra. “One morning when I was doing my riyaaz and didn’t know what to play, I just started going with the flow of the music that I experienced at that point of time.” He presented the contours of the raag with a vivid alaap, evoking pathos and sobriety. Saskia joined him to explore the raag, which is inspired by the darker side of Mozart’s music. With precise and playful layakari sections, the duo was accompanied by Pranshu Chaturlal on the tabla.

They delved further into the intensity of Mozart’s compositions, concluding in D Minor. The familiar refrain from Symphony 40.K in a rondo form alternated with the alaap-jod in Keerwani. Mozart’s intriguing Requiem, often called his swansong, intertwined with the Keerwani jhala to bring home a haunting melody that bridged two different musical worlds.

The Delhi-based author writes on culture.