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Darbar 2011 on Sky Arts 2

TUESDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2011 - Sky Arts 2/HD 17:30 DARBAR FESTIVAL [HD] Highlights from this year's massala of Indian classical music. Accompanied by the jori, Uday Bhawalkar performs in one of the four Dhrupad styles, now an endangered form of music.

This year's festival is being shown week by week on Sky Arts 2, on Sunday evenings and with repeats during the week.

I urge readers to try to catch this transmission, an ideal recital to watch at home. Uday Bhawalkar has an intimate manner of singing which is caught ideally by the cameras and transmitted in excellent sound.

The rapport with his percussionist on jori Sukhwinder Singh, whose name appeared on screen briefly half way through (not at beginning or end of the telecast) is endearing to watch and this is altogether a treasurable filming which hopefully may be made available on DVD?

For English speakers Darbar offers less help this year than in the past; no introductions to the programmes or to the "endangered" Dhrupad, no programme notes to read at the hall itself; nothing about the unusual jori [L].

The only few words in English I caught from the platform were when Uday suddenly said "It's dialogue, conversation" before continuing on his own as before...

Yet the TV programme is rewarding to watch, indeed hypnotic and compelling, even though it leaves we Westerners feeling complete outsiders...

But it's worth persevering; do look out for further telecasts from Darbar 2011 in the weeks to come.

Peter Grahame Woolf

Reviews of previous London appearances of Uday Bhawalkar can be found at
http://www.musicalpointers.co.uk/reviews/liveevents/uday_bhawalkar.htm
and
http://www.musicalpointers.co.uk/reviews/liveevents09/IndianChineseJapanese.html