The monsoon has a special place in Indian classical music. It is celebrated with many unique ragas. The season often ushers in showers of melody in the city. This year is no exception. The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Golpark, held its annual Malhar Festival at the Vivekananda Hall. The programme commenced with a duet performance by Sandip Chatterjee on the santoor and Arshad Ali Khan on vocals. Although it was an unusual combination, both artists were meticulous and their effort shone throughout the performance. They started with an alaap and jor (on the instrument) in Raga Megh. This signature monsoon raga demands a pattern of rotational keynotes and the musicians sincerely followed it. They also performed two compositions set to jhamptaal and teentaal in the same raga and tried their best to achieve onstage coordination. The vistaars and taans were melodious but some parts sounded repetitive given how the build-up of the raga was structured. Tanmoy Bose skilfully assisted Chatterjee and Khan on the tabla.
Alankar Singh demonstrated the application of ragas in gurbani kirtan. Chetan Joshi’s flute recital in Madhu Malhar (picture, right) enchanted the audience with a seamless blend of appropriate notes and melody. Sourced by The Telegraph
Next came Aashish Khan — the grandson of Ustad Allauddin Khan — who took the stage with Atish Mukhopadhyay. They added to the monsoon magic with their rendition of Desh Malhar on the sarod. The senior sarod artist touched the essence of the raga beautifully with appropriate movements of the keynotes. An escalation in the raga recreated the ambience of swelling monsoons and nuanced playing added to the mood. Aashish Khan chose Jayjayanti for his next presentation, with Sabir Khan on the tabla. The inner charm of the raga was expressed perfectly by the sarod player. Sabir Khan added wonderful texture to the performance with his expertise. The rendition was a perfect amalgamation of two different shades of Malhar.
A Malhar festival called Sawan Samaroh, a joint initiative of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Calcutta, and the NADD Foundation, took place at the ICCR auditorium recently. The three-day music festival featured both vocal and instrumental renditions to celebrate monsoon in the city. Sounak Chattopadhyay opted for the trademark monsoon raga, Megh, as the first piece, followed by some light classical pieces. Nabanita Chowdhary also began her performance with Megh and created a lovely ambience. Esha Bandyopadhyay focused on thumris and kajris, which are integral parts of monsoon melodies, and her presentation evoked nostalgia.
Alankar Singh demonstrated the application of ragas in gurbani kirtan. Chetan Joshi’s flute recital in Madhu Malhar enchanted the audience with a seamless blend of appropriate notes and melody. Debashish Bhattacharya on the chaturangi guitar and Partha Bose on the sitar presented Miyan ki Malhar, mesmerising the audience with their spontaneity and expertise. Mor Mukut and Manoj Kedia rendered Raga Charukeshi in a sitar and sarod duet. The programme also featured a Carnatic chitraveena performance by N. Ravikiran, who was accompanied by G. Shivani on the violin and S. Shekhar on the mridangam.
Pitch perfect accompaniment by Sabir Khan, Durjay Bhaumik, Indranil Mallick, Chiranjit Mukherjee, Narinder Pal Singh on the tabla; Dharamnath Mishra, Gourab Chatterjee and Anirban Chakrabarty on the harmonium; and Sandeep Singh on the dilruba added depth and completion to the festival.
