Guruguha Gana Vidyalaya in Calcutta celebrated Independence Day and Janmashtami through a two-day long digital programme. The latter commenced with a soulful rendition of “Vande Mataram” by Brinda Radhakrishnan, Aishwarya Sundaram and Gayatri Krishnamurthy supported by Santosh Jayaram on the veena and Krishnamurty herself on the violin. The attractive background score was created by P.R. Sivaramakrishnan followed by the renditions of K.K. Mukund, Brinda Radhakrishnan and Prasanta Nath. “Vandemataram Jaya Jaya” was an ecstatic rendition by Aishwarya Sundaram and P.R. Sivaramakrishnan. The programme ended with the national anthem.

The next show started with “Swagatam Krishna” in Ragam Mohanam rendered by Shruti Iyer. Meena Prakash’s rendition in Ragam Dwijavanti composed by Muthuswami Dikshitar was melodic. The third sangitanjali was a veena recital by Santosh Jayaram. He performed Ragam Kapi, set to adi tala, followed by a beautiful rendition of P. Aravindan’s deshadi talam, composed by Tyagaraja.

The violin recital by S. Dinesh was a beautiful rendition of “Santana Gopala Krishnam” which brought life to the charming little Krishna. The song is in Ragam Khamas, set to rupaka talam and was composed by Muthuswami Dikshitar. Next was an exuberant rendition of “Shri Krishno Mam Rakshatu” by Atul Jairaj in Ragam Nasamani, set to rupaka talam, also composed by Dikshitar. This was followed by a soothing rendition of the violin by S. Dinesh in the morning Ragam Bowli, Shruti Iyer’s beautiful performance of “Om Namo Narayana” in Ragam Karnaranjani, set to Khanda Chapu.

The second part of the Janmashtami programme started with V. Deepa Meiammai with compositions by Dikshitar. Aishwarya Sundaram’s melodious “Baro Krishnaiyya”, a ragamalika, set the tone for the evening and was followed by the veena recital of Santosh Jayaram. He beautifully played the popular kriti. The performance of Brinda Radhakrishnan in Ragam Mishra Kapi touched the heart. The penultimate sangitanjali was the enticing rendition of “Kalyana Gopalam” by Aishwarya Sundaram in Ragam Sindhu Bhairavi, set to Khanda Chapu. The whole programme was conceptualized by A. Srividya.

Sangeet Ashram celebrated its first virtual concert filled with the voice of Supriyo Dutta (picture, left). The musician paid homage to Ustad Amir Khan and presented some compositions like “Baje neeke ghoongharia” in Bilaskhani Todi, “Mann ki panchi bhaye baaware” in Gurjari Todi, a devotional composition in Bairagi, “Mann sumirat nisidin”, “Re jag baaware” and “Guru bin gyan na paawey” in Marwa, “Jeen ke man Ram biraajey” and “Aaj morey ghar aayila balma” in Malkauns, “Saajan morey ghar aye” and a tarana with rubai in Jog, a tarana in Darbari Kanada, and “Barasaan laagi badariya” in Miyan ki Malhar.

All these renditions were brief and arresting, and also evoked a mood of celebration on the 90th birthday of Vijay Kichlu. Indranil Mallick gave Dutta an able tabla support as well as Jyotirmoy Banerjee who was on the harmonium accompaniment. The programme thread was well compered by Meena Banerjee and included the inaugural address of Bhaskar Mitra.

Baithak presented a father-son duo performance by Jyoti Goho and Sourabh Goho in two parts (picture, right). After the opening piece in Maru Behag, Sourabh showcased his talent with intricacies like khandajati, tisrajati kayda, tripalli gats, paran, chakradhars and concluded with laggi. In the second half, Jyoti Goho brought out the essence of ragas like Shyam Kalyan in jhamptaal, Rageshri in ektaal, Jog in teentaal and concluded the session with “Yaad piya ki aye” in his usual mellifluous style on the harmonium.