This summer, fresh voices rang through the city, which got a glimpse of the future of Indian classical music. The Udaan Music Festival held at the G.D. Birla Sabhaghar was an initiative to showcase young talents from Calcutta and beyond. The festival commenced with a sitar recital by Mehtab Ali Niazi. A follower of the Bhendibazaar Gharana, young Niazi began his performance with Raga Behag. The sweetness and spontaneity of his rendition brought out the soulfulness of the raga. He played gats in both jhamptaal and teentaal. The pace and the twists and turns of the vistaars as well as the taans, especially in the jhamptaal, enchanted the audience. Although some variation would have helped, Niazi kept the momentum going in the teentaal as well. Debjit Patitundi ably assisted him on the tabla.
The sitar presentation was followed by a solo tabla recital by Yashwant Vaishnav. He based his piece on teentaal with Akash Jalmi on the harmonium and Amaan Hussain on the sarangi accompanying him. Vaishnav demonstrated kaydas, relas, chakradhars and tihais of many shades. He also tried his hands at some critical compositions by former exponents from various gharanas. Although Vaishnav was able to show his skill through his performance, his presentation could have been more compact.
Pallabi De performing at Shraddhanjali, an event organised by Kasba Brijdham Academy for Performing Arts Sourced by The Telegraph
The cynosure of the event was its concluding act. Indrayuddh Majumder played the sarod with Ishaan Ghosh on the tabla (picture, left). The two artists have been known to create a magical ambience together for some time now and this programme was no different. Majumder perfectly captured the essence of Raga Behag with an unconventional movement of the keynotes in the alaap, dwelling on the notes in the manner demanded by the raga. The jor and the jhala were smoothly rendered as well. Majumder also presented gats in vilambit and drut teentaal and his innovation and improvisations created an enjoyable atmosphere. Ghosh, one of the most talented tabla players of this generation, is already known for his speed and skills. His creative, yet measured, assistance brought this jugalbandi to a fulfilling end.
The Brijdham Academy for Performing Arts, Kasba, organised Shraddhanjali, a rhythmic tribute to Pandit Birju Maharaj, at Gyan Manch. The programme was supervised by Pallabi De (picture, right), a disciple of Birju Maharaj and a recipient of the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar from the Sangeet Natak Akademi. Guru vandana by the students of Brijdham was followed by a presentation titled Prakriti, which brought together music from Hirak Rajar Deshe by Satyajit Ray and a composition by Birju Maharaj. Next was a performance to the tune of a tarana in Raga Yaman set to teental. The composition was enriched with techniques such as tukra, tihai, aamad, parmelu and lari.
After a choreography based on a poem written by Birju Maharaj, Sreyashi Chakroborty and Neha Basak presented a duet set to a jhamptaal and a thumri written by the Kathak maestro. The solo recital by Pallabi De commenced in taal ashtamangal (11 beats). She performed upaj, aamad, tihais, parans and so on. De concluded her recital with a thumri in which she played the role of a khandita nayika. In the end, Vidushi Saswati Sen was felicitated and she presented a thumri written by her guru as well. The accompanists for the evening were Pratik Mukherjee on the tabla, Jaydeep Sinha on vocal support, and Chandrachur Bhattacharjee on the sitar.
