(Pradeep
Ratnayake)
Soloists extract maximum value from exotic
and attractive music. (Review by Michael Green)
The old and the new, familiar ground and
unknown territory, were covered by the KZN Philharmonic in the third concert of
the orchestra’s summer season in the Durban City Hall.
The new music was a concerto for sitar and
cello by Pradeep Ratnayake, a Sri Lankan who is a master of the sitar, the
ancient stringed instrument of the east. It vaguely resembles a guitar but is
much bigger, with many strings, of which six or seven are plucked. The others
are “sympathetic strings” which resonate with the plucked strings.
Western audiences learned about the sitar
mainly through the work of Ravi Shankar, the Indian maestro who died a few
months ago aged 92. Pradeep Ratnayake is a worthy successor, both as composer
and as executant.
He himself was the sitar soloist in the
Durban performance of his concerto, which was written four years ago, with the
solo cello role taken by an outstanding local player, Boris Kerimov, leader of the
orchestra’s cello section. The conductor was again the vigorous and
enthusiastic Yasuo Shinozaki from Japan.
Much of the concerto is based on Sri Lankan
dance music, and its style in general is a successful fusion of eastern and
western musical tradition. It is a four-movement work that runs for about 30
minutes. It is deftly scored (with the help of an American musician), strongly
rhythmical and easy on the ear. The slow movement is particularly appealing,
with a sweeping melody.
Both soloists seemed to me to extract
maximum value from this exotic and attractive music, and it was a visual
delight to watch the composer at work with his sitar, sitting on a cushion on
the floor of the stage.
A large audience obviously enjoyed the
performance and gave generous applause to the players. The two soloists played
an eloquent and lively encore.
The rest of the programme consisted of two
well-known and well-loved items: Rossini’s William
Tell Overture and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. This Beethoven work has no
real parallel or equal in the symphonic repertory; the English novelist E.M. Forster described
it as “the most sublime noise that has ever penetrated into the ear of man”.
Conductor and orchestra gave an accurate,
full-bodied, well-phrased and exciting
performance of music that after 200 years still has an overpowering
effect on the listener. - Michael Green
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