Search - Instrumental Artistry of Vishwa Mohan Bhatt on DVD

An instructive performance

Kumar Bhatt | AHMEDABAD, GUJARAT, INDIA | 09/12/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Pandit Vishwesh Mohan Bhatt gives a nice introduction to the way in which he created the instrument, MOHAN VEENA that he plays with deceptive ease and impressive artistry.
He presents raga Yaman with full elaboration of all the canonical 'movements'.
Although I enjoyed the performance, I felt that excessive use of higher notes makes the performance sort of lopsided.
Any one who listens to this performance should find its precision awesome. At times the speed of the complex taans is breath taking.
Yaman is often considered a 'majestic' raga. i felt the slower movements in lower saptaks are better suited to bring out this mood of majesty and serenity. The greater emphasis placed on speed and higher notes dazzle but tends to wipe out the initial mood of Yaman. This could only be my personal opinion.
I recommend this Video to every one interested in Indian classical music. This Video is also important because the musician himself who has created a new instruments talks about its creation and the purpose for which it was created is then demonstrated with unparalleled artistry. This is a rare event.
The Video must be seen, heard, discussed and studied in all ethno music departments for its tutorial content.
I want to add that Sukhvinder Singh-ji's presence on the stage is very pleasing. The obvious happiness he feels in the music that is being created is wonderful. His tabla accompaniment enhances the guitar. On the other hand the beautiful lady with nice long fingers who plays the taanpura appears thoroughly bored with what is going on. It is not her fault that she is seen that way on the video. It is the fault of the director who made this video to allow such a thing to happen even if she plays the taanpura perfactly well."

From the Back Cover:

Barney book finder | Great Lakes | 02/17/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"While the world never seems to be in short supply of great guitarists, it's a rare artist whose approach to the instrument is so strikingly original as to make us step back and reexamine just what the guitar can do -- indeed, just what the guitar is. Indian slide guitarist Vishwa Mohan Bhatt has had such an impact, acknowledged by his 1993 World Music Grammy for A Meeting by the River, his collaboration with Ry Cooder. Since then, Bhatt has recorded several more cross-cultural albums blending Indian music with bluegrass and blues in the company of Taj Mahal, Jerry Douglas and Bela Fleck. But for concertgoers around the globe, Bhatt performs unadulterated Indian classical music on a modified archtop lap-style slide guitar, an instrument so uniquely personal in design that he has christened it the Mohan Vina ('vina' is a rather generic term for several plucked stringed instruments in India). If the Hawaiian guitar were crossbred with the sitar, their offspring would resemble Bhatt's Mohan Vina, replete with resonant sympathetic strings and vocally fluid slides. Bhatt's guru, Pandit Ravi Shankar has written: "The effect of his playing is unique . . . merging the sound and style of guitar and sarod." This video presents Bhatt, accompanied by tabla master Sukhvinder Singh Namadhari, performing four ragas and a folk tune, among them the majestic Yaman, a cornerstone of Hindustani (North Indian) classical music. Bhatt introduces each performance with detailed commentary about his musical life, as well as fascinating remarks about the Mohan Vina, including specifics of tunings and technique. Guitarists and Indian music aficionados alike will find much to admire, enjoy and study in this combined concert video and self-portrait of an artist who alerted the West to the guitar's radical and new possibilities within India's classical music tradition."