Anoushka Shankar

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one at the Theatre Royal who had this abiding thought. Anoushka Shankar? In Norwich?Really? Widely recognised as one of the world’s greatest musicians, she is someone you really don’t expect to see in what – in global terms – is a relatively modest venue. The fact that she was performing with Manu Delago and the Britten Sinfonia – both worthy headliners in their own right - was little short of astonishing. Wonders didn’t stop there – this was one of only five outings for this world class collaboration, and I’m still scratching my head how we got on the short list. Whatever the reason, hats off to whoever at the Theatre Royal bagged with one.

The central concept of the evening was dreamt up by conductor and arranger Jules Buckley. Buckley has worked with everyone from the Arctic Monkeys to Paul Weller, founded the Heritage Orchestra and has a collection of Grammys on his mantelpiece. As Shankar explained on the night, it was after winning the last one, and ten minutes after she failed to win hers, that he approached her with his big idea. “I don’t know why I even listened to him,” she joked. Listen, though, she did, and the result was an stunningevening, where her ragas, and her sitar, were presented in an entirely new light.

The evening kicked off with the Britten Sinfonia playing Roxanna Panufnik’s 'Indian Summer' from Four World Seasons, with Buckley conducting. This proved the perfect foundation for an evening that slowly built, with ever greater talent joining the stage. Manu Delago has been working with Anoushka Shankar for years, but here he was given space to perform his own work, with Wandering Around and Secret Corridor complemented beautifully by Sinfonia’saccompaniment. Delago is notionally a percussionist – and during the night he did flirt with the drum kit – but for the most part he focused on his extraordinary ability to make music with the Hang, an instrument he has made his own. The Hang is a Swiss invention based on the Caribbean steel pan instrument, and in Delago’s hands is capable of producing an astonishing variety of sound. He sat with one on his lap, and one on either side of him, creating both rhythm and melody with a gossamer light touch. Backed, but never overwhelmed, by the strings of the Britten’s it made for a magical, almost ethereal sound that left the audience slack jawed that this was nominally the support act.

Notwithstanding that Delago’s performance could have easily been the headliner, when Anoushka Shankar joined the stage after the interval, there was a tangible sense that we had gone up a notch yet again. Performing with both the Britten Sinfonia and Manu Delago throughout, this was very much a greatest hits set, albeit music that had been rearranged for the evening by Jules Buckley. Land of Gold, Flight and Traveller were among some of her best known works in an hour that flew by. I’ll admit, there were times where I felt the integration of musical styles felt less integrated than earlier in the evening. The sitar is such a powerful instrument, and her playing of it so expertly executed, that the Sinfonia’scontribution was a tad incidental at times. Teetering dangerously close to Prog Rock on occasions – at times the noodling of Robert Fripp in King Crimson sprung to mind – my mind occasionally wandered, unable to fully engage with the music on offer. Nonetheless, there was no doubt that we were in the presence of a master of her instrument, and that this was an evening of musical excellence.

Rounding off the evening with Chasing Shadows, Shankar revealed they were also rounding off their all too brief tour. “It’s Sunday night in Norwich”, added Buckley wistfully, and not for the first time congratulated a full house for turning up. “You certainly know how to do things here.”