This is not a joke. At his increasingly irregular appearances she accompanies him, on the sitar. Her disc contains nothing ecstatically virtuosic or especially magical, but nothing positively unimpressive either. Anoushka Shankar plays a serious instrument seriously and accepts succession from an illustrious guru and father. She sets an example.
Indian women can play solo, too.
But listen to an astonishingly compressed but wonderfully broad three-minute version of the same piece from Hariprasad Chaurasia and you know what you are missing. Chaurasia plays on The Raga Guide , a collaboration from Nimbus Records and the Rotterdam Conservatoire, which established itself, on its day of issue, as an essential new tool. Seventy-four Hindustani ragas are described and analysed. Special performances, by a variety of expert soloists, have been recorded on four CDs. Forty years' experience, to be charitable.