The SwarDarbar Sangeet Sammelan, a two-day music festival, was held at the Mahajati Sadan auditorium in Calcutta (picture, left). The festival commenced with a performance by Shiraz Ali Khan, a distinguished name from Ustad Ali Akbar Khan’s family. He played Raga Madhuvanti in vilambit teentaal and an alaap, a jod and a jhala in Raga Kirwani. He was perfectly accompanied by Indranil Mallick on the tabla. The tabla recital by Rohen Bose featured traditional compositions of the Benaras Gharana in vilambit and drut teentaal. He played compositions by various artists and created a soundscape of beats and rhythms. Subrata Bhattacharjee accompanied Bose on the harmonium. The santoor exponent, Tarun Bhattacharya, played an alaap, a jod and a jhala as well as gats in Raga Rageshree with Prosenjit Poddar on the tabla. His performance was an exquisite display of musical harmony and virtuosity. The vocalist, Soma Ghosh, presented Saraswati vandana in Raga Vasant, Shiv vandana in Raga Hamsadhwani, Shyamasangeet, hori based on Raga Kafi, chaitis and ghazals. Pankaj Mishra and Nazish Hussain Khan ably accompanied her on the harmonium and the tabla, respectively. The performance was full of soulful melodies and had an enjoyable flow of tunes and beats.
The second evening commenced with vocal recitals by Sayan Kabiraj, Samiran Biswas and Abhilash Poddar, students of SwarDarbar, who presented Raga Yaman in madhyalay and drut teentaal. Prantar Karmakar and Kamalaksha Mukherjee accompanied them on the tabla and the harmonium, respectively. This interesting performance was followed by a harmonium recital by Rupashree Bhattacharjee, who played the ragas, Bhimpalasi and Mishra Khamaj, beautifully along with Soumitrajit Chatterjee on the tabla. The vocalist duo, Ritesh and Rajnish Mishra, performed Raga Shyam Kalyan in vilambit and a drut khayal in ektaal with Gopal Mishra on the tabla and Jyoti Goho on the harmonium. Their performance enchanted the listeners. Mormukut and Manoj Kedia, on the sitar and the sarod, respectively, entertained the audience with Raga Rageshree with Amit Chatterjee on the tabla. The melody created by their strings brought the festival to a perfect conclusion. The event was supervised by Sandip Bhattacharjee and Sushmita Chakraborty.
Vivekananda Music Festival Shilpi Sambhamurthy
The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Golpark, has had delightful musical offerings for the city almost every month this year so far. It began with this year’s Swami Vivekananda Music Festival where Ravindra Katoti’s harmonium recital in Raga Natbhairav set the ambience. It was followed by a talvadya ensemble by the tabla maestro, Anindya Chattopadhyay, Ravishankar Upadhyay (pakhawaj) and Gopal Burman (srikhol). Ulhas Kashalkar enthralled the audience with the ragas, Vrindavani Sarang and Lalit Pancham, with Suresh Talwalkar on the tabla. The Manipuri dance performance by Guru Thingraizam and his troupe was one of the key attractions this year. Raga Madhuvanti on Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia’s flute (picture, right) and Basant Kabra’s rendition in Raga Shree set the musical mood for the events to come.
The Vasant Utsav was colourful with the vocalist, Ambarish Das, capturing the spirit of Holi with his rendition of Raga Vasant and other seasonal ragas. At another programme, Rhitam Sarkar’s beautiful slide guitar performance was a surprise for the audience. The two-day folk festival representing West Bengal and Bangladesh was unique and exceptional. Artists like Purna Das Baul, Pabandas Baul, Arindam Ganguly, Mansur Fakiri, Farida Parveen, Binay Burman, Pinky Burman, Debdas Chowdhury, Tapan Roy and Chandana Majumdar painted a vivid canvas of folk music with its various sub-genres from across undivided Bengal. The excellent accompaniment provided to these artists brought out the essence of this soulful programme.
