Gharana recently organized Aalap 2021, a day-long concert of Indian classical music, at Nazrul Shatabarshiki Sadan. The programme was dedicated to the tabla maestro, Subhankar Banerjee, who was posthumously awarded the Sur Sadhak Samman — it was handed over to his wife, Nivedita Banerjee. The concert began with a solo tabla recital by Banerjee’s son, Aarchik, who played the teentaal and created an enjoyable ambience with his sparkling talent. Aarchik was ably accompanied by Hiranmoy Mitra on the harmonium. The performance by the vocalist, Omkar Dadarkar, was well-appreciated by the audience. Dadarkar presented Raga Dhani and Patdeep — he brought out the charm of both ragas in his unique, enchanting style. This was followed by the popular bhajan, “Baaaje muraliya baaje”. Dadarkar had perfect support from Bivash Sanghai on the tabla and Gourab Chatterjee on the harmonium.

Yashwant Vaishnav awed the audience with his tabla solo, presenting traditional kaidas, relas and chakradhars in teentaal, along with Hiranmoy Mitra doing a commendable job on the harmonium. The evening was made even more melodious with a sarod recital by Abhisek Lahiri (picture, left), with Ishaan Ghosh on the tabla. Lahiri played Raga Puriya Dhanashree skillfully, beginning with an alaap, jod and jhala. His rendition of mattataal was arresting; it had an interesting combination of taans and tihais. He concluded his recital with a melodious Manjh Khamaj, with Ghosh showing his prowess on the tabla. The programme ended with a flute recital by Shashank Subramanyam, who was accompanied by Tanmoy Bose on the tabla. Subramanyam played Raga Hemavati and Bhairavi charmingly. The renditions were a compact and balanced blend of the Hindustani and the Carnatic styles.

Koushik Bhatacharjee at Music for Harmony 2021-22 NADD Foundation

After an inaugural session in Amritsar, the second instalment of NADD Foundation’s multi-city, classical music fest, Music for Harmony 2021-22, was held in collaboration with the National Foundation for Communal Harmony and the Alka Jalan Foundation at Daga Nikunj in Calcutta. The event started with a vocal recital by Koushik Bhatacharjee (picture, right) in Raga Shree; he followed it up with Raga Kedar and a thumri, with able support on the tabla by Sandip Ghosh and on the harmonium by Koulik Bhattacharjee. The second session of the concert was a sarod recital by Biswajit Roy Chowdhury — he chose Shyam Kalyan and experimented with the alaap, jod and jhala. Next came vilambit and drut gats composed by Ali Asgar Khan in Shuddha Kalyan with Durjoy Bhowmick supporting him on the tabla.

Devajit and Riddhi Bandyopadhay took an initiative to celebrate the beauty of Bengali music in a recent digital concert. From Nidhubabur tappa and Rabindrasangeet to the diverse works of stalwarts like Dwijendra Lal Roy, Rajanikanta Sen and Atulprasad Sen, the soul of Bengali music was captured brilliantly by the event. Adding to the attraction of the programme was the theatrical dimension of Bengali music. Popularized by the likes of Girish Chandra Ghosh and Kshirod Prasad Vidyavinod, the genre, Natoker Gaan, flourished and came into its own in the works of Shishir Bhaduri, Sombhu Mitra, Utpal Dutt, Ajitesh Bandyopadhyay and other such luminaries. Devajit Bandyopadhyay’s profound research brought together a collection of songs that revealed the depth as well as the chronological evolution of this particular genre of music.

This two-day digital concert opened to music lovers the wonderful world of Bengali music. The melodious voice of Riddhi Bandyopadhyay left a deep mark on listeners. Alongside Riddhi and Devajit, narration by Satinath Mukhopadhyay and Subhdeep Chakraborty and a dance performance by Madhubani Chattopadhyay enhanced the ambience and the stature of the programme.