If winter comes, can music be far behind, especially in the city of joy? The post-Covid ambience was improved vastly with the first ground event on Indian classical music, organized by the Behala Sanskritik Sammilani. The four-day session, which brought out the resonance of live music, commenced with the sitar recital of Kushal Das along with Bickram Ghosh on the tabla. After such a long time, the vibes at the beginning were truly elevated with the rendition of the Raga Puriya Dhaneshree. The intense, intricate style of the artist brought out the charm of this evening raga, which was followed by Charukeshi. The father-son duo of Anindya Chattopadhyay and Anubrata Chattopadhyay attracted the audience with their skill and variety on the tabla with the able accompaniment of Hiranmoy Mitra on the harmonium and Sarwar Hussain on the sarengi.

Pallab Bandyopadhyay’s performance with the tabla of Rupak Bhattacharya was followed by the flute recital of Rakesh Chourasia. He expressed the true essence of Puriya Kalyan with the able support of Abhijit Bandyopadhyay on the tabla. Kaushiki Chakraborty’s gorgeous performance of the Raga Jogkauns — with the expert tabla of Shubhankar Banerjee and the harmonium of Gourab Chatterjee — enhanced the mood of the festival. Debangshu Sen’s santoor presentation of Kirwani with Amal Das on the tabla entertained the audience. The solo harmonium rendition of Rupashree Bhattacharya with the tabla support of Ashok Mukherjee in the Raga Shyam Kalyan added a fresh touch. The vocalist, Kaivalya Kumar Gurav, spread the beauty and the energy of Madhubanti through the modulations of his voice and with the tabla of Subhen Chatterjee and the harmonium of Sanatan Goswami. The ragas, Charukosh and Jog, flourished on the sarod of Partho Sarothy with the perfect tabla of Kumar Bose.

Tejendranarayan Majumdar. Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Golpark

The finale session commenced appropriately with the vocal recital of Sanjukta Das in Maru Behag, followed by a bhajan and thumri; Soumen Nandy and Sanatan Goswami accompanied her on the tabla and harmonium. Rahul Sharma took a little time to set in, but moved smoothly with the keynotes of the Raga Gorakh Kalyan on the santoor; the tabla-santoor conversation was especially interesting in drut gat, and Abhijit Bandyopadhyay evoked the ambience of soulfulness. Venkatesh Kumar took the stage and created magic with Behag in his generous voice (picture, left). The energy slowly flowed through the lower, middle and upper octaves with the variety of vistaars and taans. The well-known compositions in Kausi-Kanada in both vilambit and drut mesmerized listeners. The beautiful rendition of “Bhavani dayani” and “Shyam Sundar” in Bhairavi filled the concluding tunes of the festival. Samar Saha (tabla) and Jyoti Goho (harmonium) provided the artist with able support.

Like every year, the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture at Golpark had its music festival to celebrate Swami Vivekananda’s birth anniversary. To keep up with the ‘new normal’, the programme was streamed online through the institute’s own music channel. Although online, it had the resonance of an in-person rendition. It began with the vocal recital of Omkar Dadarkar with Ujjwal Bharati on the tabla and Gourab Chatterjee on the harmonium. Omkar beautifully captured the morning essence of Ramkali followed by Jaunpuri. Tejendranarayan Majumdar’s sarod with the arresting tabla of Shubhankar Banerjee was the most attractive part of the programme (picture, right). The artist played Devgiri Bilawal in an elaborate way, followed by another rare rendition of Lankadahan Sarang. Charukeshi on Tarun Bhattacharya’s santoor with Jyotirmoy Roychowdhury’s tabla was sweet to the ears, yet could have been shortened. The nostalgic bhatiali tune of the santoor was enhanced by the enjoyable tabla of Kumar Bose and Rohen Bose with Hiranmoy Mitra’s harmonium support.