Hariprasad Chaurasia’s magical flute brings curtain down on mega event
The incredible presence of a huge number of audience on the final day of the five-day ‘Bengal Classical Music Festival 2017’ (BCMF) on Sunday night was something to be remarkably noticeable. The entire venue, Abahani Field of Dhanmondi, was filled with the thousands of avid music lovers who came mostly to enjoy the magical flute recital of living legend Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia on the concluding day of the sixth edition of the mega event. The world-famous Indian music maestro was the final performer on the last day of the world biggest classical music festival.
Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia took the stage at around 4am of Sunday dawn. As the lights were turned on, he started mesmerising the audience with his modest words. “I wait entire year for this. Yes, entire year. Nothing similar would be found in any other places of the world like this”, he won the hearts of the music lovers with his words, even before fascinating the audience with his magical tune of the flute.
Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia’s mellifluous flute recital included Raga Lalitha and folk tune and bhajan. The audiences were listening to his heavenly flute recital in pin-drop silence until he brought a conclusion of his performance. The music maestro also received round of applause several times from the audience during his performance.
The flute king was accompanied by Pandit Subhankar Bannerjee on the tabla, Pandit Bhavani Shankar on the pakhawaj, Vivek Sonar and Uka Nagai on the flute and Mushfiqur Islam on the Tanpura. After the performance, Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith handed the crest to the artiste.
The fifth night of ‘Bengal Classical Music Festival’ began with an Odissi dance recital by Vidushi Sujata Mohapatra with co-artist Soumya Bose. Accompanying them were Soumyaranjan Joshi on flute, Rupak K Parida on Vocal, Ramesh Chanda Das on the Violin, Eklabya Moduli on the Pakhawaj. Lights were done by Jaydev Das.
After the first performance, the closing ceremony of BCMF 2017 took place. Presided over by Professor Emeritus Dr Anisuzzaman, BRAC Chairperson Sir Fazle Hasan Abed was the chief guest of the event. Among the special guests were cultural exponent and president of Chhayanaut Dr Sanjida Khatun, Managing Director of Impress Telefilm and Channel i Faridur Reza Sagar and Mother of Kazi Nabil Ahmed, the Vice President of Abahani Limited Aminah Ahmed.
The next performances of the night was Mohan Veena by Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt; Pandit Subhen Chatterjee accompanied him on the Tabla. He performed Raga Maru-Bihag and dhun.
Brajeswar Mukherjee was the next artiste to enthrall the audience with Khayal rendition where he performed Raga Jog. Pandit Subhankar Bannerjee was on the Tabla and Gourab Chatterjee on the Harmonium.
A wonderful Jugalbandi of Sitar by Pandit Kushal Das and Kalyanjit Das enchanted a sea of people in the dead of night. They performed Raga Jogkauns.
The penultimate performance of the night was Khayal by Pandit Kaivalyakumar. He performed Raga Gorakh Kalyan and a Thumri in Raga Khamaj. Accompanying him were Sridhar Mandre on the Tabla; Dr Sudhangshu Kulkarni on the Harmonium; Kumar Malakar and Abhijit Kundu of Bengal Parampara Sangeetalay on the Tanpura.
Beginning on December 26, the sixth edition of ‘Bengal Classical Music Festival’, organised by Bengal Foundation, continued till December 30 at Abahani Field of Dhanmondi in the capital.