Category Archives: Gharana / raga music

Oude lp’s met meesterlijke ragavertolkingen op sarod en sitar in Concertzender’s Wereldmineralen

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In het door mij samengestelde Concertzender-programma Wereldmineralen, zijn in de aflevering van 29 mei 2026 bijzondere opnamen te horen van Noord-Indiase ragamuziek op sarod en sitar, afkomstig van elpees uit de jaren zestig en zeventig.

De sitar is een langhalsluit met verplaatsbare fretten, heeft melodiesnaren, ritmesnaren en een aantal resonantiesnaren. De sarod is een veel kleinere luit dan de sitar, heeft geen fretten, en heeft door een andere bouw en speeltechniek een heel andere klank. Wel heeft de sarod, net als de sitar melodiesnaren, ritmesnaren en een groot aantal resonantiesnaren.

In de uitzending komen opnamen van drie elpees aan bod. Twee van de drie, eentje van Amjad Ali Khan uit 1970 en eentje van Sharan Rani uit 1962, komen uit mijn eigen platencollectie.

Een elpee uit 1970 van sitarspeler Debu Chaudhuri komt niet uit mijn eigen collectie, maar vindt via mij ook z’n weg naar de luisteraar. Voor de liefhebber van ragamuziek is deze uitzending een ware, niet te missen tractatie.

De uitzending is te vinden in het Concertzender-archief en is permanent te beluisteren.
Klik hier om te luisteren.

De opnamen in de uitzending:
Ter introductie van de instrumenten sarod en sitar begint het programma met een kort muziekfragment waarin sarodspeler Ali Akbar Khan en sitarspeler Ravi Shankar gezamenlijk de raga Hem Bihag vertolken.

Hierna volgen drie opnamen:

1.
Raga Durga – 19:45
Uitvoerenden: Amjad Ali Khan (sarod) ; Samta Prasad (tabla)
Componist: trad.
Album: Amjad Ali Khan – Sarod
Label en Jaar: EMI EASD 1348 ; 1970

2.
Raga Lalit – 11:18
Uitvoerenden: Sharan Rani (sarod) ; Chatur Lal (tabla)
Componist: trad.
Album: The Music of India – Sharan Rani
Label en Jaar: World Pacific 1418 ; 1962

3.
Raga Rageshri – 20:48
Uitvoerenden: Debu Chaudhuri (sitar) ; Shyamal Bose (tabla)
Componist: trad.
Album: India’s Debu – Sitar Maestro
Label en Jaar: ABK 2001 ; ca. 1970

Samenstelling: Pieter de Rooij

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Subroto Roy Chowdhury plays Raag Desh – De Kosmos, Amsterdam/The Netherlands – May 7th, 1973

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Sitarist Subroto Roy Chowdhury (1942 – 2017) plays Raag Desh, live at De Kosmos in Amsterdam/The Netherlands – May 7th, 1973. Zamir Ahmed Khan plays tabla. Recorded by Henk Braaksma with permission by the artists. This recording is part of my Braaksma tape collection.

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Sharmistha Sen – Raga Miyan Ki Malhar | House Concert – Haarlem/The Netherlands – May 11th, 1974 (Part 2)

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Sitarist Sharmistha Sen plays Miyan Ki Malhar. On tabla: Ananda Gopal Bandopadhyay. Part 2 of a private recording (taken from my Braaksma Collection) of a house concert in Haarlem/The Netherlands, May 11th, 1974. The photo of Sharmishta Sen was taken during this concert – the same goes for the photo of tabla player Ananda Gopal Bandopadhyay (shown at the beginning). This recording is not covering her complete performance of this raag – beginning parts are missing, and unfortunately right before the end there’s a fade out.

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Sharmistha Sen – Raga Madhuvanti | House Concert – Haarlem/The Netherlands – May 11th, 1974 (Part 1)

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Sitarist Sharmistha Sen plays Raga Madhuvanti. First part of a private recording (taken from my Braaksma Collection) of a house concert in Haarlem/The Netherlands, May 11th, 1974. The photo of Sharmishta Sen was taken during this concert. On tabla: Ananda Gopal Bandopadhyay.

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All in one bow – De streken van Kala Ramnath (2006, 18 mins) / complete version on YouTube

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This video, produced by me and completed in 2006, contains an interview with world famous violinist Kala Ramnath, filmed in Amsterdam, September 2005. Also comments are included from interviews I did in Autumn 2005 with Kala’s guru Pandit Jasraj and with producer/recording engineer Derek Roberts, Head of Production of the Sense World Music label. Earlier on I already published a few excerpts of this video. This is the complete version.

 

                                Kala and me, after the interview

In April 2006 I also filmed a fabulous concert by Kala at RASA in Utrecht. In 2013 I published the entire concert on YouTube.

And in May 2006 I filmed a workshop by Kala at the Rotterdam Conservatory. I intend to publish some of that material as well. When ready I will add a link later on in this blogpost.

Kala workshop

Kala’s workshop at the Rotterdam Conservatory, May 2006

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Britain’s eminent sitar player Roopa Panesar plays a ‘dhun’ (folk melody) in Bhairavi

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Britain’s eminent raga musician Roopa Panesar is one of my favourite sitar players. Her superb rendition here of a famous Dhun in raag Bhairavi – marvellously accompanied by Bhupinder Chaggar on tabla – is a complete delight for the listener.
Deep musical knowledge, a great feel for beauty, virtuosity and an enormous amount of passion and joy comes across in her style of playing.

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Playing around India : A portrait of Dutch cellist Saskia Rao-De Haas (2002)

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Playing around India – A portrait of Dutch cellist Saskia Rao-de Haas, is a radio documentary I produced in 2002. [original Dutch title: Op streek in India – een portret van de Nederlandse celliste Saskia Rao-de Haas]
The documentary is mostly in dutch, but this video offers a transcript in english locked to the timetable, in order to make this production accessible for an international audience. To allow convenient reading of this transcript, you should play the video in HD (1080p).
Production date: May-June 2002. First broadcast by Concertzender on 8 November 2002, also broadcast by Radio Netherlands on 25 and 29 December 2002. Voice narrator: Wim Vriezen.

In the documentary ‘Playing around India’ (produced May-June 2002) programme maker Pieter de Rooij introduces the career of the brilliant 31-year-old (that is, in 2002) cellist Saskia Rao-de Haas. She is one of the very few people, and the only European, to play the classical ragas of North India on the cello. She is considered the only genuine cello soloist by the Indian concert going public. Her virtuosity and deep musicality have introduced a new resonance to Indian music and have been enthusiastically receieved by critics and audiences worldwide. To achieve a proper Indian sound Saskia Rao-de Haas plays on a specially modified cello: smaller (so as to be able to be played sitting on the floor), with five instead of the usual four strings, and with ten ‘sympathetic’ strings. These freely resonating strings give a beautiful Indian sound to the cello and the instrument has quickly become very popular.
For two years (speaking from 2002) Saskia Rao-de Haas has lived in New Delhi with her husband, the famous Indian sitar player Shubhendra Rao. As well as traditional raga improvisations, she and her husband play their own compositions in which they mix classical Indian music with elements from European folkmusic and Western classical music.
In May and June 2002 Saskia and Shubhendra toured outside India when, for the first time, Western audiences were able to hear the combination of sitar and cello in Indian classical music. Programme maker Pieter de Rooij caught up with the couple in Amsterdam where they gave a concert at the KIT Tropen Theatre on 25 May. Saskia talks about her music, her cello and her life in India. Her husband Shubhendra, the violin maker Eduard van Tongeren and her former teacher at the Rotterdam Conservatory, Joep Bor, all have something to say about Saskia’s amazing cello adventure. Recordings from the Amsterdam concert are heard during the documentary.

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