The Mirza touch!
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After a long gap Ustad Mahmud Mirza enthralled the discerning audiences of the Capital.
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CHASTE MUSICAL TASTE Ustad Mahmud Mirza
Ustad Mahmud Mirza is among the senior-most sitarists of the country and a contemporary of the late Ustads Mushtaq Ali Khan, Vilayat Khan, the late Pandit Balram Pathak, Pandit Ravi Shankar and Ustad Abdul Halim Jafer Khan. He is reputedly known as an authentic exponent of the rich Jaipur Senia style of which his illustrious uncle the late Ustad Haider Hussain was a leading doyen.
He has gained popularity through innumerable performances and personal appearances on Akashvani and Doordarshan. He is however better known abroad for propagating Indian classical music by repeatedly performing, mainly in Britain, France and the U.S.
His popularity is due, besides to the technique mastered over more than four decades of perform, also to his chaste musical taste. Hybrid music, as he calls it, is not for him. This repugnance drove him from the silver screen, which he entered after giving up a staff position with All India Radio.
Mirza was introduced to the sitar at the age of six by Ustad Haider Hussain. After his uncle's demise, he adopted the eminent musicologist, Pandit Jiwanlal Mattoo, as his guru. Mirza used to visit India every winter and enthral audiences across the country. This time however his visit took place after a gap of several years. The large audience for his recital at New Delhi's Triveni Kala Sangam included eminent musicians like Ustads Asad Ali Khan, Wasifuddin Dagar, Ghulam Sadiq, besides a large number of music scholars and sitarists.
Raga Madhuwanti
He commenced with raga Madhuwanti, which basically is a late afternoon melody. However, due to its proximity to the evening raga Yaman except for the note Komal Gandhar instead of Yaman's Shuddha Gandhar, most musicians have adopted it to open an early evening concert.
The at length alap-jod was rendered with deep insight for the raga's sombre mood. The pivotal note Komal Gandhar was released with refreshingly conceived and varying nuances, both in the madhya and the mandra saptaks. With bold and rounded strokes of the mizrab (plectrum) one was treated to scores of long soothing glides with occasional, but brilliantly inserted krintans and zamzamas. The 16-beat slow Masaitkhani composition was laced with refreshingly deployed variations or the upaj with utmost spontaneity. The ensuing Razakhani composition set to mid-tempo Teen tala had sweeping taans and colourful embellishments culminating in lively jhala sequences that had the soothing appeal of a lullaby.
A Masitkhani composition followed by yet another Razakhani piece in raga Desh were replete with intense romantic fervour and rich melodic appeal.
He concluded with a madhya Teen tala gat-toda in raga Kafi, a most welcome piece. It was a vintage piece of music very popular during the good old days, particularly in Kolkata. One recalls a parody associated with it in Bengali "Thakur dada piyaara khaaye". Its English version being "Grand papa guava takes".
Mention has to be made of the superb tabla accompaniment by Delhi's ace percussionist, Subhash Nirwan, who proved his mettle with several rounds of scintillating solo variations besides giving befitting support to the soloist.
JITENDRA PRATAP
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