Karnataka - Bangalore   

A night of endless music

Ashwini Bhide Deshpande

BANGALORE: The packed audience at the Indian Institute of Science’s Gymkhana could not have asked for more as it was one musical treat after another all night on Saturday. In fact, even as the first rays of the sun lurked in the horizon, the audience lingered on, reluctant to get away from the world of lilting notes.

This was the atmosphere at the All-Night Sangeet Mehfil organised by Gururao Deshpande Sangeeta Sabha in Bangalore. The event is organised annually by Vinayak Torvi in memory of his guru. Saturday night marked the 25th anniversary of the event.

The highlight of the night was the concert by Ashwini Bhide Deshpande. The acclaimed musician of Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana cast a spell on the audience in her two-hour concert. “Wah-Wah”s resounded in the hall as she presented Malkauns in her silken voice. She ended her presentation with Brahmanandaji’s bhajan on Lord Krishna, “Kaise Shor Machaye…”

Flautist Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, who performed later, recalled the time when he performed with Gururao Deshpande on the All India Radio. “I am fortunate to get an opportunity to pay Shranddanjali to him,” he said. Pandit Chaurasia played two compositions in Jhinjotii followed by Saraswathi.

It was the concert of young sitar player Praveen Bhattacharya that prepared the audience for the night-long performances. The audience swayed (and even whistled!) in appreciation of violinist Mysore M. Nagaraj’s concert that followed.

Mr. Nagaraj’s presentation of Darbari Kanhada was well appreciated.

The programme ended with performances by vocalists Ulhas Kashalkar and Vinayak Torvi.

The other concert that took place at another venue, however, did not have the same impact. Many people, who attended the concert of Pandit Shivakumar Sharma and Pandit Zakir Hussain at Gayatri Vihar in Palace Grounds, returned disappointed because of poor acoustics. The concert, billed as a “Tribute to Bangalore,” started an hour late with the solo performance by Pt. Shivakumar Sharma. Later Pt. Zakir Hussian joined him.

This performance saw constant interruptions because of poor acoustics. “The sound from the speakers is reverberating, we are not able to hear what we are playing,” said Pt. Zakir Hussain repeatedly.

His appeals, however, went unheeded. At one point, some frustrated members of the audience went in search of the event manager asking him to sort out the problem.

To their great relief, there was some improvement in the sound during the final phase of the two-hour long concert.

The two musicians were in their element as they played light romantic compositions in Pahadi.

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