For that spiritual touch
MANJARI SINHA
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Kishori Amonkar kept her fans waiting as usual, but finally delivered a soothing recital in her singular style at the inaugural concert of the ongoing Music in the Park initiative in New Delhi.
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PHOTO: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA
CAPTIVATING A file picture of Kishori Amonkar in concert.
The concert series Music in the Park, presented jointly by Star India, Spicy-Macay and NDMC, features some of the most accomplished musicians of Indian classical music in perfect harmony with nature.
The verdant setting in Nehru Park provided the ideal ambience for the uplifting concert, which was this year's inaugural event, featuring Kishori Amonkar's sublime vocal recital recently.Daughter and disciple of Gana Tapaswini Mogubai Kurdikar, though Kishori belongs to the Jaipur Atrauli gharana, places her own stamp on whatever she sings. The soul-searching quality of her music is redolent with a spiritual aura. She believes that feeling is the soul of music, and her emotionally charged voice proves it time and again. This is perhaps the reason why her ardent fans do not mind waiting for her to emerge on the stage. This time also the audience waited, as usual for quite some time, but her concert was worth the wait.
Romantic melody
She opened her recital with raga Rageshri, a romantic melody of the evening. The initial alap in the mandra saptak (the lower octave) paved the path for a sustained and stable Shadja, alive with shades of diverse feelings that drenched the heart. The bara khayal "Palak na laagi... " set to slow Teen tala, saw the raga developing step by step with unlimited permutations focused around each nyasa swara in a gradual sur dar sur barhat (note by note elaboration).
This linear progression was altered in between, with spectacular horizontal geometrical designs adorning the architecture of the raga, before she showered the torrential taans of various hues and shades.
The chhota khayal "Dekho Shyam gah lini... " that followed in drut Ek tala, was equally captivating.
Sampoorana Malkauns, which she rendered next, came as a stunning contrast. The famous bandish (composition) "Baraj rahi... " set to vilambit (slow) Teen tala evoked the emotional content of the raga, with the immaculate vision with which she develops her ragas. The unexpected, criss-cross and intriguing swara combinations beautified her renditions with a sense of wonder. Her disciple Nandini ably assisted her with vocal support, while Milind Raikar on the violin, Suyog Kundalkar on the harmonium and Pradip Dixit on the tabla gave her excellent accompaniment.
Parthosarothy's recital
Earlier in the evening, Parthosarothy presented a sarod recital. Initiated into music by his father Sudhamoy Chaudhury, Partho took advanced training under Dhyanesh Khan, son and disciple of the legendary Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.
He is presently being groomed by Pandit Ravi Shankar.
With this long and illustrious training under great gurus, Partho no doubt has got a good command over technique, but Marwa perhaps, was not the right choice for him, keeping in mind the time constraints.
As a result he wound up the alap-jod-jhala of such a profound and serene raga, within hardly 20 minutes. The kind of importance due to the pivotal Rishabh and Dhaivat was totally missing in his hurried rendition of the raga. The Masitkhaani (slow) gat was also rendered in approximately madhya laya (medium tempo).
The drut gat in Teen tala, instead of getting faster gradually for the jhala, was interrupted abruptly, with the jhala starting in double the tempo, like a separate piece. Aashish Pal did his best to enhance the performance with his commendable tabla support.
Parthosarothy is a bright young sarod player, with lot of potential. This much was clearly evident, and that is what matters.
There is always a next time.
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