Festival of Hindustani
SWAMI HARIDAS Sangeet Samaroh, a two-day Hindustani Music festival was held on February 24 and 25 under the auspices of Viswa Kala Sangama. The festival began with a shehnai recital by Ballesh, disciple of Ustad Bismillah Khan. His enunciation of Madhuvanti and Jog brought out grace gamakas in the use of the two gandhars, establishing the essential melodic structure. Jain Painadathe on the tabla provided good support.
Pt. Vinayak Torvi, a child prodigy learning under the doyen of Gwalior gharana Gayanacharya Guru Rao Deshpande, combined in his recital the expert training of the Agra school. He began with Raga Bageshwari of the Kafi thaat. The bold staccato movements and full-throated evocations with rhythmic interplay were reminiscent of the Agra School. In the kirana style of Gangubai Hangal and Bhimsen Joshi, he built the base with strong movements in mandra saptak. His raga delineation combined the sur and taal in a rare feat of workmanship.
The taans were of varying patterns and the sargam delineation was superb like a `motiyan mala.' At the request of Pt. Janardan, Pt. Torvi sang dhrut in Sur Malhar `badlwa barsan ko aaye, koyaliya ki kook, kuhoo kuhoo.' The Kannada bhajan `dayeeya maadho ranga' was sung with emotion and bhava. The ragamalika, a passionate rendition in Charukesi, Ramkali and Bhairav showed off his talents nicely. Nitin Mitta on the tabla was excellent and proved worthy of the tradition of the late Ustad Amir Hussain Khan of Farukhabad Gharana.
The young artiste to perform on February 25 was C. Rajasekran, disciple of Meera Savoor, violin maestro M. Chandrasekaran and Parur M. S. Anantharaman. He began his recital in Raga Marwa - the raga of the sunset. Being an uttarang pradhan raga, Rajasekran rested on the note `dha' in uttarang avoiding too much stress on `g' thus saving it from moving to Puriya of Kalyan thaat. Rajasekran moved the audience with his rendition of a bhajan in Jog `bhaj man nand nandan girdhaari'. Sri Veereshwar Madri, a senior and seasoned violinist exhibited an amazing range of musical sensibilities. The tabla by Jain Painadathe gave many moments of good interaction.
Sitar recital
Asthana Vidwan sitar maestro Pt. Janardan, disciple of Pt. Ravi Shankar, began his concert in Raga Vasant Pancham, a creation of Ustad Allaudin Khan Sahib. Pt Janardan's playing style exhibits considerable vocal influence. In delineating raga Vasant Pancham Janardan used the phrase `ga ma dha ni sa' in the ascent and `sa ni dh pa ma ga re sa ' in the descent. This addition of `p' in the descent gave vasant pancham its characteristic flavour. He excelled in his use of the phirat taans, the ornamental crooked turns and trills to the accompaniment of tabla (Nitin Mitta). This was followed by a sitar recital in Raga Bihag by Anupama Bhagwat, a promising artiste and disciple of R. N. Verma and Pt Bimalendu Mukerjee. Hailing from the Imdadkhani Gharana or Sur bahaar gharana of Ustad Vilayat Khan, Anupama exhibited her skill in layakari and taans while executing Razakhani gats with extensive use of the khayal ang. She played the famous bandish `baaje re mori payaliya jhanan jhanan', striking at consonants and not at vowels, keeping the lyrics in mind. Anupama used the single note taans with great finesse, the chikari sound was prominent.
For their jugalbandi, the duo took up a Ragamalika with Piloo as the base raga. It was a beautiful experience.The concert brought to the forefront the aesthetic differences and the different sources of playing in the two styles. Pt. Janardan besides using the first string also used the second, third and fourth low pitched strings attributed to the Senia bin style of stringing adopted by Ustad Allaudin Khan Sahib. In the Imdadkhani style, the steel strings are substituted for brass strings and the traditional tuning is modified by doing away with low pitched strings. .
JYOTI NAIR BELLIAPPA
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Entertainment
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
