Ravi Shankar brought the sitar to a global audience and his death in 2012 left a gap that has been understandably difficult to fill. One obvious contender for the role of new sitar hero is his daughter Anoushka, with whom he gave a memorable concert on this stage eight years ago. And then there’s Nishat Khan, another sitar maestro with an impressive history. He comes from a family of distinguished north Indian classical musicians; his father and late uncle were both celebrated sitar players. And he has been happy to experiment, working with John McLaughlin, Philip Glass and Paco Peña. In 2013, his sitar concerto Gate of the Moon premiered at the BBC Proms.
This was a more minimalist affair. He began playing solo, matching drone effects from the lower strings with slow, repeated phrases that gradually developed into a flurry of notes before finally reaching a crescendo after an hour. Then he introduced his excellent tabla player Shahbaz Hussain, who joined him for lengthy, improvised pieces that included percussion solos and passages where Nishat acted like a rock guitarist, matching rapid-fire playing with strumming and power chords, but then switching to delicate, almost plaintive passages before speeding up once again. There were some fine passages, but in other sections the fury and repetition made it seem as if he was demonstrating technique at the expense of emotion. By the end of his nonstop three-hour set, some of the audience had left. Those who remained gave him a standing ovation.
