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“I think and feel in this beautifully evolved music system. My endeavour is to spread the perfume of its deeper ambience,” he says.

This Sunday evening, Shashi Kumar performed on a prestigious platform, the Sangit Sabha organised by Puran Maharaj at the residence of Pandit Kishan Maharaj. The vocalist started with Ganesh vandana in Ek tala. He enunciated his first detailed raga, Vageeshvari, in the tala Rupakam. Bageshri is a raga originally from North Indian classical music, but Vageeshvari is a modern raga of the Carnatic system. It has the notes Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Sa in its aaroh (ascent).

In the Carnatic system, gitas are usually composed in Sanskrit and Kannada, and a few in Telugu. His renditions of gita and pada in Vageeshvari were beautiful. Perhaps because he also accompanies dancers in various South Indian forms, he also sang a jatiswaram, commonly danced in Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi, but rarely sung in a vocal recital, though it is essentially a vocal composition.

After completing this raga in a lucid manner, he sang another popular raga, Shanamukhapriya, lesser known in North India.

Shashi Kumar makes fine use of sangatis and gamakas, the major tools of embellishment in Carnatic music. His delicate nuances and shades distinguish the young vocalist from others. At the end, he presented a bhajan in raga Tilak composed by Purandaradasa, known as the father of Carnatic music.

Before his recital, there were two other performances. One was a Kathak recital and the other a tabla solo. Neither was up to the mark, with the result that they detracted from the grace of the occasion.

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