Inayat Khan: Sakuntala before Shiva (Musical illustrations) Video #1 of 3

Video #1 (this video)
1-Sword dance (sacred dance of the warriors); 2-A priest offers a sacrifice to Shiva; 3-Maidens bring flowers to the god (the Song of the Dawn); 4-The flower girls' prayer; 5-Shepherds' dance; 6-Sakuntala's lament.
Video #2
7-Sakuntala's dance with a dagger; 8-Shiva sings the melody of the Yogis (the prayer of the Yogis);
9-Shiva's mercy to Sakuntala; 10-Sakuntala thanks Shiva with a dance (Tandow); 11-Shiva meditates; 12-The king marries Sakuntala.
Video #3
13-The people sing the praise of Shiva; 14-Liberation Song; 15-Dances (ballet); 16-The dance of life.
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Inayat Khan (1882-1927) was a founder of the international Sufi movement, but his first role on leaving India in 1910 was that of a touring musician. He spent the winter of 1913-4 in Moscow and while there created some musical illustrations with other Indian musicians for a sketch based on the Sanskrit play Abhijñānaśākuntalam (The Recognition of Sakuntala) written some 2,000 years ago by Kālidāsa. The music was played on Indian instruments, but two Russian musicians, Sergius Tolstoy and Vladimir Pohl, transcribed the music for piano, and published it under the title '16 Hindoo Songs and Dances'. The arrangements have been heavily Westernized, and as such sound scarcely more exotic than some works of Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Stravinsky. Nevertheless, Inayat Khan was apparently consulted on the harmonizations, and these pieces form a fascinating sidelight of pre-revolutionary Russian piano music. In their directness of expression, the pieces are sometimes stylistically reminiscent of the work of Rebikov. The piano score contains some indications of orchestrations, so other versions may exist. Some of the chordal writing is awkward, and as I have a limited stretch between second and fifth fingers I have to arpeggiate chords (particularly in piece #12) that other pianists might take in their stride! I am indebted to Sergey Moskalev of "Science and Religion" magazine, Moscow for bringing this fascinating work to my attention. My thumbnail shows a detail from an 1894 painting by Raja Ravi Varma (1848-1906) of Sakuntala pretending to remove a thorn from her foot as she looks back at her lover, Dushyanta.
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Видео Inayat Khan: Sakuntala before Shiva (Musical illustrations) Video #1 of 3 канала PSearPianist