The charm of youthful beats

Mangalacharana Sangeet Sam­melan presented the Yuva Taal Vadya Utsav at Sisir Mancha, featuring young percussionists under the supervision of Apurba and Indrani Mukherjee. This festival brought together different gharanas of the tabla like Farrukhabad and Benaras as well as Lala Keval Kishan’s gharana of pakhawaj and even featured the Bengali sreekhol. Senior gurus like Arup Chattopadhyay, Gopal Barman, Bickram Ghosh, Parimal Chakraborty, Debasish Bhattacharya, Samar Saha, Tejendra Narayan Majumdar, Tanmoy Bose, S. Sekhar, Swapan Shiv and Madhusudan Barman were present to encourage and inspire the youngsters.

The programme was inaugurated with “Guru Vandana” by the students of Indrani Mukherjee. It was followed by Taal Taranga, a tabla ensemble curated by Tanmoy Bose. It showcased traditional compositions of the Farrukhabad gharana based on teentaal. The tukras, kaidas, relas, gat and chakradars were presented by Archishman Sinha Roy, Anchit Majhi, Swarnabha Sarkar, Iraban Jha and Arka Ghosh with Sajal Das on the harmonium. A solo pakhawaj recital by Shyamkalyan highlighted kaidas and relas. He also presented with clarity traditional compositions by Pandit Shankar Ghosh along with Hiranmoy Mitra on the harmonium. A tabla duet by Suprabhat Banerjee and Nabagato Bhattacharya in teentaal offered a glimpse of the Benaras gharana.

The solo percussionist, Zargham Akram Khan, presented the legacy of the Ajrada gharana; he started with a peshkar and continued with kaidas. In madhyalaya, he played a rela in tisra jati and concluded with gats in drut with great command over speed. Arkodeep Das and Samapriya Goswami enchanted listeners with their tabla and sreekhol duet. They performed teentaal, which on the sreekhol is called daspere. The solo recital by Anjishnu Mukherjee presented chaartaal ki sawari in 11 beats; his intricate layakari was smooth. Subhadrakalyan Rana on the tabla and Aroni Kanti Bhattacharya on the mridangam presented an interesting duet in mishra chapu in a seven-beat cycle. The solo tabla recital by Aarchik Banerjee highlighted various aspects of the tradition that his father, Shubhankar Banerjee, has popularised. He performed an aochar, peshkar, rela and other compositions by his father in teentaal. Hiranmoy Mitra perfectly accompanied him on the harmonium.

Sister Nivedita Heritage Museum & Know­ledge Centre organised an evening of classical music at the Vivekananda Hall of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Golpark, to celebrate the 157th birth anniversary of Sister Nivedita. The musical event commenced with a sarod recital by Abhisek Lahiri (picture, right), who was accompanied by Debjit Patitundi on the tabla. Lahiri’s rendition in Raga Bhimpalasi created a soulful ambience with a variation in pace and in the movements of keynotes in three octaves in alaap, jor and jhala. In the jhamptaal gats, both the sarod and the tabla were pleasing in their playful styles. The artist then shifted the mood of the evening with a rich composition by Ustad Alauddin Khan in teentaal and expressed the charm of the raga on his instrument.

This was followed by a vocal recital by Kaushiki Chakraborty, a leading vocalist of our times. She graced the audience with Raga Shree. The sandhiprakash raga flourished in her sweet voice; in her usual style, it was also intricate. She also presented Raga Yaman beautifully and her maturity, acquired over the years, was evident. Charaborty concluded her performance with a bhajan and the famous Raga Bhairavi composition, “Ka karu sajani”. Patitundi skilfully accompanied her on the tabla. Murad Ali and Jyotirmoy Banerjee supported her on the sarangi and the harmonium, respectively.