Joined by two master percussionists, Leicester-born Roopa Panesar brings her sublime gift to the Royal Welsh College Of Music & Drama’s Dora Stoutzker Hall. Accompanied in the first half by tabla player Surdashan Singh, Panesar introduces the Raag Yaman, a solemn and meditative melodic framework of the Hindustani tradition. To almost pin-drop silence, the sitarist bends gently into 30 minutes of improvised playing, with low floor lighting and dry ice casting dynamic shadows against the chamber’s golden timber panelling.
Panesar’s engagement with the sitar is measured and deliberate. Cradling its ornate body over one knee, she exercises a hypnotic constraint, administering sonorous rhythmic patterns to its strings. Steering the ensemble, she establishes a wordless dialogue with both Singh and her listeners, inviting us with her eyes to share in her devotional act.
As the melody unfolds, the raga’s layered complexity builds, its time cycles punctuated by moments of supreme technical skill and speed. Panesar’s fingering is exact, mathematical, rising into a dreamy crescendo as her effort to manipulate her instrument grows; both musicians sway under their own enchantment.
In the second act, Panesar welcomes her second accompanist to the stage: accomplished Carnatic percussionist RN Prakash. “It’s a bit scary to sit between these two,” she says, regarding the virtuosos warmly from across the stage. The trio resume playing with the ethereal Raga Jog, with Prakash offering a network of polyrhythm on his narrow-mouthed clay ghatam. With the room now bathed in a wash of cool blue, the percussionists enter into a playful musical duel. Their digits strike in call and response as Panesar conjures stirring, microtonal melody.
Moving into the final, joyful raga, the ensemble reaches its true sonic zenith: they play with their whole bodies, convulsing as they fall in and out of easy synchronicity, and drench the room in a rich, harmonic soundscape complemented by the acoustic capabilities of the hall. Moments of improvisational excellence beget applause and vocalisations from a beguiled and enraptured audience.
In a sustained frenzy of tremolo picking, the evening comes to a resolute and satisfying close. Panesar’s final elated flourish cycles into perfect cadence, with its resonant notes rousing the audience into a prolonged standing ovation. Sated, the assembly spills out under a darkened Welsh sky, and the RWCMD defends its spotless track record of presenting extraordinary and diverse musical talent in its halls.
Roopa Panesar, Royal Welsh College Of Music & Drama, Cardiff, Thurs 7 Mar
words CJ WAGSTAFF
