COMPOSERS: Various
LABELS: Naxos World
PERFORMER: Chitravina N Ravikiran and guests
CATALOGUE NO: 76017-2
Issues of South Indian music are so few in comparison to the large catalogues from the North that they are usually worth seeking out unreservedly. That is what RAVIKIRAN’s appears to be, though it turns out a complete oddball, probably the only ‘Indian’ record to begin and end with Chinese pipa and Brazilian piano.
In between comes an impressive solo on the wonderfully resonant chitravina, but the main business is sharing ideas between the three main styles. Usually the musicians stay on one or another’s home patch, infectiously lively in some intricate up-tempo material.