Sri Guruguha Gana Vidyalaya’s commemoration of the 188th Aradhana Utsavam of Nadajyoti Muthuswamy Dikshitar at Uttam Mancha was grand. It was organised by Guruguha Sangeeth Sammelan, the student wing of Sri Guruguha Gana Vidyalaya. Both veteran and young artists performed Carnatic Sangeetanjali at this three-day event. The programme was based on the Sanskrit text, Lalitopakhyanam, which was then divided into three segments. The stories were narrated beautifully by B. Karthickeyan and the visual presentations were interesting as well. Muthuswamy Dikshitar had compositions based on all the stories of Lalitopakhyanam. There were about 47 songs, which were rendered beautifully by the senior students of the Vidyalaya. S. Venkatraman accompanied the students on the mridangam on all three days. It was a captivating experience.
The Vijaya Sangeet Samaroha of Ghoshbari, Bally, in association with Ustad Bhagwan Das Memorial Music College, celebrated the end of the most beloved festival of the Bengalis, Durga Puja, through an evening of Indian classical music. The programme began with a tabla recital by the young artists, Debdeep Chakraborty, Abhiraj Dutta and Shatadeep Chatterjee. Another group of young tabla players — Rijit Mallick, Sidhartha Adhikari, Kaustuv Dutta, Anurup Guin, Abhijoy Ganguly, Souradeep Putatundi, Jayadratha Pal, Debaditya Dey and Ridhipriya Banerjee — presented teentaal in both vilambit and drut formats. This energetic performance was followed by a tabla recital by their guru, Sanjay Adhikari, who chose to present the nuances of vilambit and drut jhamptaal. The bols, tukras and chakradhars were interesting and were followed by madhyalay teentaal with Dwaipayan Roy on the harmonium. Krishanu Saha, Mrinmoy Rupam Ghosh and Sunrit Chakraborty assisted him on the tabla.
Sarada Prasan Das (on violin) and Arkodeep Das (on tabla) Ramkrishna Mission
Sagar Morankar presented a dhrupad in Raga Gurjari Todi as well as compositions set to sultaal and teora. Shubhayan Ganguly played Raga Durga, which was a perfect selection for the festival. Pragya Parijat Halder’s vocal rendition of Jaunpuri had flourish. Rupashree Bhattacharya’s performance on the harmonium was arresting (picture, left). She began with Raga Madhuvanti in vilambit jhamptaal followed by a drut teentaal with mellifluous gatkari. Bhattacharya concluded with a dadra in Raga Gara. Tapas Bala presented Raga Kirwani in both jhamptaal and teentaal. Ranjani Ramachandran rendered kheyals in Gawati set to vilambit ektaal and drut teental. She also sang a tarana in her generous voice and completed with a Kabir bhajan. The sitarist, Sugato Nag, enchanted listeners with Anandi Kalyan; his expert movements were variedly paced. He played a melodious gat in Kafi as well. The programme concluded with a vocal performance by Mashkur Ali Khan who sang Rageshree, Kalavati and Darbari Kanada. Pradip Palit and Dwaipayan Roy provided support on the harmonium with Alla Rakha Kalavant on the sarangi. Sanjay Adhikari ably supported all the artists on the tabla.
A recent violin recital by Sarada Prasan Das (picture, right) delighted music lovers at a concert held at the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Golpark. He commenced with Rageshree, playing different compositions in it along with a tarana. His next presentation was a medley of bhajans that included “Payoji maine”, “Vaishnav jan toh”, “Majhe maher pandhari”, “Baje muraliya baje”, “Banarasi chaiti” and “Raghupati Raghav”. The artist concluded the concert with Raga Bhairavi. He was supported deftly by Arkodeep Das on the tabla.
