Maestros' tribute
JITENDRA PRATAP
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The annual Pandit Chaturlal Memorial Concerts paid tribute to Ustad Bismillah Khan, who passed away recently.
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Shujaat Hussain Khan.
The sprawling Siri Fort auditorium was jam-packed to witness the Tabla Wizard Pandit Chaturlal Memorial Concert presented by Pandit Chaturlal Memorial Society in collaboration with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited. This is one of the major annual cultural events in the Capital presented with much aplomb by the late tabla wizard's son Chiranjit Chaturlal and his wife Meeta. The memorial concert entitled Amar Jyoti is in honour of the country's brave unknown soldiers and the memory of the late Rajiv Gandhi.
This year's concert was particularly dedicated to the memory of Ustad Bismillah Khan. A two-minute silence observed as a mark of respect to the late Ustad was followed with audio visual clippings of his talking on music. Another clip showed the late Ustad and the sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan discussing and rendering kajri dhun on their respective instruments.
Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia.
The young and gifted sitarist Ustad Shujaat Khan, the son of the sitar legend the late Ustad Vilayat Khan, provided a befitting curtain raiser to the evening. Incidentally, Shujaat is respectively the grandson and the great grandson of sitar legends Ustads Inayat Khan and Imdad Khan. The gharana known as the Etawah gharana was established by Ustad Imdad Khan. Shujaat is the seventh direct descendant of the dynasty's founding father, Ustad Sahibdad Khan. A brief alap in the opening raga Maru Bihag was followed with the usual Masitkhani gat-toda in the 16-beat Teen tala. The artiste embellished it with numerous subtle as well as boldly executed variations of several hues and colours. Most of his meanderings were with bold and powerfully executed gamakas interspersed with sweepingly released taan flourishes. One did appreciate the gradual manner with which Shujaat reached the climax in the super-fast tempo jhala and the finale's tihai.
He concluded his recital by playing some thumris, mostly in the melody of Mishra Pahadi. These included a song based on the tune from the film "Mughal-e-Azam" ("Panghat Pe Nandlal") and a couple of Hazrat Amir Khusrau's sufi songs. Shujaat had excellent support on the tabla by Sudhir Pandey and by Ranjit Barot who in the letter of invitation was intriguingly mentioned as a drum player.
Enthralling flute
Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia enthralled with his highly sonorous alap-jod taken at length in raga Jhinjhoti, followed by many a liltingly executed rhythmic variation, to superb tabla accompaniment by Rashid Mustafa Thirakwa, who executed a number of his own solo renderings with much aplomb. Chaurasia's disciple Sunil Avachak on the flute gave adequate accompaniment to his mentor.
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