DOUBLE BILL: Musical legacies and mesmerising ragas right here at your doorstep in London  

Alam Khan sarod  

Pandit Yogesh Samsi tabla 

Alam Khan continues India’s musical legacy which was thrust forward by Baba Allauddin Khan (1862-1972), who taught both Ustad Ali Akbar Khan (1922-2009) and Pandit Ravi Shankar (1920-2012) in the Maihar style and who took Indian music to every part of the world. Yehudi Menuhin once described the late sarod maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan as ‘the greatest instrumentalist of the 20th century.’ 

In this thrilling double bill featuring the much-awaited Khan from Hindustani (north India) and Ranjani & Gayatri Sisters from the Carnatic south perform on the same night, a unique feature of the Darbar Festival’s double bill concerts. Khan demonstrates the legacy of the great masters through his poetic aesthetics, from the sensitive to the grandest of ragas. He is accompanied by one of India’s greatest tabla masters, Samsi, who guides the rhythmic tempo through a gradual building up to the world’s fastest improvisation that raises your heartbeat to a crescendo. Khan returns to London after his last performance at Darbar Festival in 2011. 

Don’t miss the lecture demonstration titled ‘Alam Khan, The Sonic Prayer’ on Sunday, 29 October 

INTERVAL 

Ranjani & Gayatri Sisters carnatic vocal 

Vittal Rangan violin 

Delhi Sairam mridangam 

Ghatam Karthick ghatam 

Renowned for the lyrical luminosity and purity with which they continue to present Carnatic music to audiences around the world, Ranjani and Gayatri’s performance from their concert at the Darbar Festival in 2015 was a firecracker. As siblings who embarked on their musical journeys hand-in-hand, they are blessed with an extraordinary timbre and infectious personalities.  

The Ranjani and Gayatri sisters charm with their beautiful and gleaming voices and are accompanied by stalwart musicians on the violin, mridangam (double barrelled drum) and the ghatam which looks similar to the Indian cooking pot. Don’t be fooled by the simple look of these instruments - these masters will leave you in awe with compositions created by India’s great composers: Tyāgarāja (1767-1847), Dikshitar (1775 -1835) and Sastri (1762–1827) whose hymns of praise have wide appeal, in music that is by turn exuberant, intense, serene and dramatic.  

Don’t miss the lecture demonstration titled ‘Ranjani and Gayatri - Poetry of the Saints’ on Sunday 29 October 2023