Symphony Orchestra of India: Zakir Hussain Triple Concerto

Usher Hall - 03/12/23

Alpesh Chauhan, conductor | Zakir Hussain, tabla | Niladri Kumar, sitar | Rakesh Chaurasia, bansuri

Composer and world-renowned tabla player Zakir Hussein received an enthusiastic reception alongside his accompanying soloists and the Symphony Orchestra of India at Usher hall last night. The European premiere of his Triple Concerto was undoubtedly the main draw tonight. However, those who stayed for the second half also got to hear an electrifying, stand-out performance of Stravinsky’s Petrushka.

If there was a theme to the three chosen pieces, it was presumably dance. The concert opened with the 1944 orchestral suite put together by Artur Rodziński from the popular Richard Strauss light opera, Der Rosenkavalier. This proved an underwhelming prelude to what was to follow. The suite itself, the most enduring of several versions, is rather jumpily hewn together. Essentially this focuses on the best-known musical themes from the opera but takes them out of any real narrative flow. Instead, it places emphasis on references back to the nineteenth century world of Johann Strauss and the era of the waltz. The SOI’s performance felt a little flat at the outset but got into its full stride when the swinging Straussian strings made an entrance. Perfectly enjoyable, but not particularly noteworthy.

A rapid and efficient stage reset preceded the entrance of virtuoso Zakir Hussain, whose engagements with Hindustani and western classical music have been accompanied by a huge range of percussive collaborations, film scores, and stints with the intense jazz/rock-influenced fusion of guitarist John McLaughlin and Shakti. Famously, Hussain also featured on George Harrison’s follow-up to All Things Must Pass, the 1973 album Living in the Material World. For this performance of his Triple Concerto, which received its world premiere in Mumbai in September, he was joined by master musicians Niladri Kumar on sitar and Rakesh Chaurasia on bansuri, an ancient side-blown bamboo and metal flute originating from India and Nepal.

Proceeding across three movements or phases, the concerto blends Western and Eastern classical traditions. The opening is sculpted by plaintiff themes on sitar and bansuri, with a quiet orchestral backdrop emerging from a transition introduced on harp, and the emergence of a dancing theme of increasing pace intertwined with the virtuosity of the soloists and responsive bursts of instrumental flourish. 

The second movement features a further orchestral blaze, overlaid with percussion. The bansuri and sitar return, bridging into sweet and lush string tones. The mood is sunny and diatonic, but harmonically and melodically unadventurous. It is the sitar and bansuri, sometimes in exchange with particular instruments within the orchestra (notably flute at one point) that bring colour, longing and poignancy to the mix. Ascending and descending motifs on the bansuri end this phase of the concerto with a haunting electronic reverb.

It is the third movement that contains the real musical interest, moving from pastoral, romantic strings and harp into a jaunty trialogue for the soloists and then an intense dialogue between tabla and sitar. A tabla solo, perhaps Zakir Hussain’s standout moment in the concerto, paves the way for an explosion of orchestral fireworks, varying time signatures and a degree of polyphonic overlaying. This is by far the most inventive section of a Triple Concerto in which the orchestra largely plays a backdrop to encased solos and exchanges. It is all very pleasant, but there is little development, and the instrumental writing and arrangement remains fairly conservative.  

An extended encore followed, with a traditional evening raga providing the opportunity from some breath-taking playing and interaction between Zakir Hussain, Niladri Kumar and Rakesh Chaurasia. In all honesty it felt as if this, rather than an orchestral setting, was where they were really in their element, and the audience responded with a standing ovation.

After the break we were treated to a well-rehearsed and dynamic account of Stravinsky’s Petrushka. Sadly, the audience was somewhat diminished for the riches that ensued. There are few places to hide in this musical burlesque. On the other hand, Petrushka is a work which allows well-prepared instrumentalists to shine – as the woodwind, brass and percussion and strings all did, plentifully. The Symphony Orchestra of India on tour combines some Mumbai-based players with (in this case) European guests. It was the challenge of Stravinsky that allowed conductor Alpesh Chauhan to demonstrate his considerable abilities. Being principal guest conductor of the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, associate conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and music director of Birmingham Opera Company, as well as synergising the work of SOI, certainly keeps him busy.  

In truth, Petrushka was the highlight of the evening for me, along with the sparkling first half encore. Zakir Hussain is a global cultural icon, and the musical authority he, Kumar and Chaurasia manifest through their respective instruments is beyond dispute. It was a privilege to see and hear them. Whether this Triple Concerto, underwritten by a loose narrative about a forbidden friendship (sitar and bansuri) and the intervention of a village elder (tabla), will add a great deal to their legacy is rather more questionable.