East Meets East

Sitarist Ravi Shankar, 68, has spent a lifetime collaborating with musicians from around the world, combining various traditions of music. Perhaps it is no surprise then, that he resists the claim that he has broken new ground in glasnost with his latest recording, “Inside the Kremlin.”

“There’s nothing gimmicky about it,” Shankar claims. “They have my records in the Soviet Union and I have been going there since 1953. They know my music very well.”

Shankar was invited by the Soviet government to participate in a yearlong festival in Moscow to celebrate Indian culture. A live recording of Shankar’s contribution which was performed in Red Square last July, “Inside the Kremlin” melds various Russian traditions with Shankar’s Indian traditions combining the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the Russian Folk Ensemble, the Government Chorus of the Ministry of Culture and an ensemble of Indian musicians and vocalists--about 140 musicians altogether.

“I learned about Russian music listening to records of Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and Rachmaninoff, and I also know the folk music through my studies on the balalaika,” Shankar said. “The musicians had no trouble assimilating the seven original compositions of this project. We rehearsed about five or six days before the performance.”

Described as “Swar-Milan” or “meeting of musical notes,” Shankar’s efforts to combine musical traditions are not without precedence. In the past he has collaborated with violinist Yehudi Menuhin, koto master Susumu Miyashita and ex-Beatle George Harrison.

In October, he will collaborate with the Birmingham Touring Opera of England with an opera, “Vision Through the Haze.” Shankar plans the opera as a statement against drug abuse.