2 Shankars, Double Duty

Ravi Shankar looked small and a bit frail when he came on stage at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa on Sunday night.

It was hard to imagine this slight, graying figure as the primary champion of Indian classical music, the performer who literally brought this complex, often esoteric art form into Western consciousness.

Until, that is, he picked up his sitar and began to play, as masterfully as ever,

Typical of Shankar’s performances in large venues outside India, the program reflected his often stated desire to “maintain a respect for the tradition without making it sound strange for listeners.”

Toward that end, he chose three ragas with intervals friendly to Western ears and two fairly accessible talas (or rhythmic cycles): Teental and Rupak, based, respectively, upon sequences of 16 and seven beats.

Equally significant, the program also was concerned with the goal that has become increasingly vital to Shankar in recent years--advancing the career of his daughter and protege, sitarist Anoushka Shankar.

The net result of this dual focus was a somewhat unusual Shankar concert, at least in the context of his more classically oriented performances of the past.

In the two ragas performed in the opening half of the concert, it was only in the alap section--always the most intimate arena for personal expression--that the elder Shankar became one with the music, undistracted by his surroundings (which included, in addition to his daughter, two tabla players and two tambura accompanists).

At other times, his concentration more often centered on Anoushka, who was continually responsive to her father, as well, making for a fascinating familial--if not always compellingly musical--interaction.

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Although she displayed virtuosic technique and an imaginative improvisational sense, especially during a gat (or traditional-style melody) composed for her by her father, she is, at 16, still in a learning phase.

The final segment of an Indian classical performance is often given over to a thumri, a kind of light classical, romantically oriented style of music.

Shankar used the opportunity to emphasize the music’s accessibility, via a vigorous series of exchanges, including drum solos, sitar dialogues and such relatively uncharacteristic elements as snapped string accents and harmony lines from the two sitars.

If the music lacked the sheer creative intensity of Shankar’s classic outings with tabla player Alla Rakha, it nonetheless served as an entertaining introduction to Indian classical music.

And a packed house, clearly aware of Shankar’s legendary status, was content with what they heard, greeting every raga with cheers and a standing ovation.