Reigning rhythms
JITENDRA PRATAP
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The Classics of Kolkata delighted Delhi audiences with a mega festival of music and dance.
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Rich voice Saswati Bagchi in performance.
One did miss the usual inaugural renderings of devotional music by the young and talented singer Parnika Kaura, who could not perform at the mega festival of music and dance organised by the Classics in the Capital the other day. At the last moment s
he was obliged to call it a day owing to her sore throat.
The next to perform was the highly talented and well-trained vocalist from Kolkata, Saswati Bagchi, who regaled listeners with her tuneful renderings of khayals in raga Bahar sung with her rich and powerful voice, thereby releasing scores of highly improvised variations in alap, badhat, sargams and bol-taans. The slow-tempo composition “Nayee ritu nayee bel” set to the 12-beat Ek tala was given a most befitting handling, with reposeful alap, badhat, sargams and bol-taans with tuneful phrasings and refreshingly deployed variations. The fast-tempo Teen tala composition “Balama sarson lagayee lo” was embellished with liltingly conceived phrasings, thereby releasing the raga’s gay and colourful contents with pleasing effect.
The thumri in Manjh-Khamaj and the Bangla song in Mishra Pilu came as a befitting finale to Saswati’s impressive performance, for which she had commendable accompaniment on the harmonium by Kanta Prashad Mishra and on the tabla by Vijay Kumar Mishra.
Rich-toned shehnai
The evening concluded with a vibrant and rich-toned shehnai recital by Pandit Rajendra Prasanna and party with the melodic sound of their renderings in the good old time melody of raga Kamod echoing from each and every nook and corner of the auditorium. The raga’s rich format and its lively texture was meticulously handled in all the stages of alap-badhat and the gat-toda sequences. The concluding dhun, more like a chaiti, was given a most lively handling. Mangal Prashad on the khurdak, a special form of drum for shehnai recitals, provided a constant and steady rhythmic accompaniment to the shehnai players.
The next evenings had a very pleasant opening with Anjana Bhattacharya’s tunefully rendered Guru Vandana and two Kabirdas bhajans, which impressed for the rich devotional fervour and melodic appeal. She had excellent accompaniment on the sarangi by Ghulam Mohammed and on the tabla by Pradeep Chatterjee.
It was a highly colourful Kathak dance recital by the young and petit Anupama Ghosh who commenced with an impressive vandana based on the famous Jhap tala composition in the raga Bhairavi, “Bhawani Dayani, Maha Vaak Vani”. After this, she switched over to the traditional Kathak repertoire comprising thaat, aamad, tukdaas, parans and the ladis, gintees, etc. She concluded with a charmingly rendered thumri, “Kaahe khelat Nandalal”. She impressed with her expression of bhava and very neatly executed body and footwork. While Rahul Pawar gave verbal accompaniment with good fluency, with the able sarangi accompaniment by Ghulam Mohammed, it was the ace percussionist from Kolkata, Biswajit Deb, who added immense charm to Anupama’s performance.
The evening concluded with the Benares gharana maestro Pandit Pashupatinath Mishra’s vibrant and scholastic renderings of slow and fast tempo khayals in the pentatonic raga Jog, a creation of the late legend who is none other than the Aftaab-e-Musiqi Ustad Fayaz Khan of Baroda. There were scores of intensely pleasing sequences in his renderings that were typical only of the old guard and scholars.
While Kedarnath Mishra was steady with the rhythm on the tabla, Pandit Pashupatinath Mishra’s younger son regaled the audience with his commendable violin accompaniment.
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