In the end, the grand old man left the door slightly ajar. This concert had been billed as his “Farewell to Europe”, but as he had already pointed out, the master of the sitar – now 88 years old – is no stranger to farewell performances. Illness had forced him to cancel some recent dates, and he needed a smidgen of help in climbing the stairs to the stage. But once he had seated himself on a dais – sitting on the floor presumably being beyond him now – a puckish smile crept across his frail features as he quipped: “I hope it’s not the final, but the semi-final.”
His first faint words – “Hello, London” – were perhaps an unconscious reminder of how he