A rainbow of romantic melodies – Bengal Classical Music Fest in bloom

Aloke Kumar Sen & Zahangir Alom

The third night’s musical proceeding of Bengal Classical Music Festival 2016 bagan with a group sarod recital by the artistes of Bengal Parampara Sangeetalay. They performed Raga Kafi at the grand event.

Talented Carnatic flautist Shashank Subramaniam’s emotive recital of Raga Purvi Kalyani (equivalent to the Hindustani Raga Puria Kalyan), portrayed a garland of melodies — narrating

myths of both the sun and the moon. Puria Kalyan, belonging to the Marwa thaat, is an intermingling of Raga Yaman and Raga Puria. Through elaborating ragam alapan, tanam, pallavi and traditional composition, the prodigious flautist also demonstrated exquisite techniques that he has developed – like dual-octave note production and such. The recital evoked the connotations of love, melancholia, prayer and gratefulness to the eternity. He later presented a famous Kanada song “Krishna Nee Begano Baaro” and a Tamil folk dhun.

Octogenarian Dr. Prabha Atre took the stage next. The living legend of Kirana Gharana started off her performance with a sweet Raga Shyam Kallyan. Her rendition of vilambit bandish was followed by a tarana on drut ektaal. The maestro later presented another khyal set on Raga Madhura Kauns. An urge for embracing the eternal soul with the nuance of holistic love was the main theme of the excerpts of her vilambit bandish “Shaam Maan Mohana” while her drut bandish “Paar Karo Mori Naiya” revolved around the spiritual state of love for the ultimate. A tarana “Ta na na tanum”, set on the same raga, followed on teentaal. A romantic dadra “Basanti Chunaria Lao More Saiyan” performance came next by Prabha Atre, who wrapped up her part with presenting a Bhairavi dadra “Jagat Janani Bhava Tarini Mohini Tu Nava Durga”.

Dhaka music lovers thoroughly enjoyed the jugalbandi tabla recital by the celebrated Pt. Anindo Chatterjee, and his son Anubrata Chatterjee. Pt. Anindo Chatterjee, an exponent of the renowned Farrukhabad Gharana, started off with Uthan and Peshkar, as Murad Ali Khan recited Raga Charukeshi on sarangi. The artiste duo played various kayda like mishra jati kayda, tisra jati kayda, along with old-school kayda composed by legendary Ustad Ahmed Jan Thirkua. Anubrata Chatterjee recited an Ajrara Gharana kayda, popularised by Ustad Habib Uddin Khan. The presentation instantly earned rounds of applause. Anubrata performed a Lucknow Gharana gaut and speedy composition by Ustad Keramat Ullah Khan. A jugalbandi recital by the father and son, followed. Pt. Anindo Chatterjee styled an old gaut, created by Ustad Masit Khan. The clarity of beat, safai and a precise permutation of bol were the main features of the recital. Anubrata recited a Pt. Jnan Prakash Ghosh rela while his father played an Ahmed Jan Thirkua tukra, and demonstrated the nuances of tha tabla, producing sounds of a conch with it. The recital also contained Punjabi Chakradar, sweet loggi, and a bit of sawal jawab.

Pt. Uday Bhawalkar performed dhrupad based on Raga Abhogi and Raga Saraswati. He slowly blossomed the melody of the ragas in the dhrupad alap part and presented immaculate bandish and bistar of the featured ragas.

Pt. Sanjoy Bandopadhyay diffused the melody of sweetness and love in his recital of Raga Shana Kanada. He adorably showcased the essence of the raga through his alap, jod, jhala presentation. He later played Raga Pilu Jongla on his sitar.

Master vocalist Ustad Rashid Khan performed Raga Lalit as the concluding artiste of the night. The Rampur-Sahaswan Gharana Ustad stood out for the emotive overtones in his melodic elaboration in mandra saptak. According to the Ustad, “The emotional content may be in the alaap, or the bandish, or giving expression to the meaning of the lyrics.” This brings a touch of modernity to his style, as compared to the older maestros, who placed greater emphasis on technique and skilful execution of difficult passages.

The Ustad’s rendition of vilambit tintaal bandish “Bhor Hi Aye Jogia Tum Alakh Jagao” and drut tintaal bandish “Kahe Sautania Dekh Birmaye” was followed by a tarana performance. His magical taankari, ragdari, mesmerising meend, murki, sargam combination, bakro and Sapat taan performance, immaculate gamak, speedy ascending and descending in three octaves, rare fondness of bolbistar and immersing in swar during the performance were outstanding. Pt. Subhankar Banerjee embellished the performance on tabla.

The maestro ended his performance with a popular thumri “Yaad Piya Ki Aaye”, shedding light on various ragas.

PERFORMING TONIGHT

AT BENGAL CLASSICAL MUSIC FEST

Vocal presentation by students of Music Dept, DU

Sitar by students of Bengal Parampara Sangeetalay

Santoor by Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma

Khyal vocals by Kumar Mardur

Sitar by Pt Kushal Das

Khyal vocals by Arati Ankalikar

Flute by Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia

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