Search - Menuhin, Shankar :: West Meets East, Vol. 2

Interesting collaboration, but volume 1 is better.

michael d. chlanda | St. Louis, MO | 02/10/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This is the second collaboration between master musicians Ravi Shankar and the late Yehudi Menhuin. The first piece is an interesting interplay of violin and sitar. Then, the second piece is a Ravi Shankar solo with tabla and tamboura. The first movement of the Yehudi Menhuin contribution is a little "free form", i.e., not the standard classical piece and takes more getting used to (for me) than the sitar pieces (as I'm more familiar with Mr. Shankar's work and own several cds). The sitar is (as it says in the notes) hard for some Western listeners to adapt to (as the rhythms, etc., are different from Western music). As I said in the title, not bad, but volume 1 is better. The second and third movements are better as the piece settles down a bit, from the cacophonous beginning of the first movement, to a more "standard" classical work. Somewhat worthy of the price for the early pieces."