Hand in hand
JITENDRA PRATAP
|
Teachers and taught showed their mettle at a festival to welcome spring.
|
A LAUDABLE FACULTY Music students and staff of Delhi University in full flow.
The Delhi University's Faculty of Music and Fine Arts celebrated Vasant Utsav Music Festival this past week with much joy and gaiety. Geeta Paintal, the Dean of the Faculty, gave a brief account about the Faculty being first established as a department in 1960 and a few years later given the status of a Faculty. It earlier comprised six teachers, four members of the office staff and just a handful of 12 students. Now it has 28.
The Faculty's yearly publication of the journal Vageshwari was released on this occasion by Delhi University's Vice Chancellor and the chief guest Deepak Paintal.
The festival commenced with the choral rendering of the Saraswati Vandana by the Faculty Choir. This charmingly conceived and tunefully set piece of music was composed and conducted by Harkishan Goswami, a member of the Faculty. This was followed with the rendering of a khayal by Nupur Roy Choudhary in raga Basant "Gaeely gaeely endi eindy" that did contain quite a few well-conceived variations. She was accompanied on the harmonium by Mehmood Dholpuri and on the tabla by Sita Ram, a member of the Faculty.
Incidentally, Nupur Roy Choudhary and the next two sitar artistes, Prateek Choudhary, Sunira Kasliwal and also the accompanist are members of the Faculty staff while the last three, Yashpal Kaur, Chetna Sud and Prabhakar Narayan, are the students there.
Pleasingly executed
The sitar recital by Prateek Choudhary would have appealed better if he had judicially deployed the note Komal Rishabh in the avarohi (descent). There were a good number of pleasingly executed todas. The raga's serene mood could have been better retained by avoiding the super fast variations towards the end of the recital. Tabla accompaniment was provided by Subhash Nirwan.
The sitar recital by Sunira Kasliwal in the raga Palash Kafi, a creation of the sarod maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, delighted for being rendered with colourful variations and tunefulness. The raga's specific moments were deftly etched with a brief alap-jod followed by a well-conceived Masitkhani 16-beat composition and later by a Razakhani piece, also of 16 beats but in a fast tempo. The jhala sequences and the concluding teehai were executed neatly and with aplomb. The tabla accompanist for her and for most of the other performers was none other than Subhash Nirwan.
Sufiana kalam
Yashpal Kaur, a student of the Faculty, enthralled with a soulful rendering of a Sufiana kalam with her melodious and powerful voice and neatly uttered lyrical contents. A brief rendering on the sitar by Chetana Sud in the raga Bhairavi was followed by a competently rendered Dhamar in raga Lalit by Prabhakar Narayan. On the whole, it was a delightful occasion with an equal and joyful participation by the teachers and the taught.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
