Melodic Journey
GARIMELLA SUBRAMANIAM
|
It was a concert soaked in memories as Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and his sons, Amaan and Ayaan, played the sarod.
|
ECSTATIC WAY TO USHER IN THE NEW YEAR: Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. (Below) His sons Amaan and Ayaan. Photos: Shaju John.
Playing the New Year-eve concert on Saturday night, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and his sons poured forth mellifluous music soaked in memories and history. Featuring in the penultimate event at the Music Academy's 79th annual conference were sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan and his sons Amaan and Ayaan. It was a journey from the unfamiliar to the familiar, the melodic to the reflective and the solo to the jugalbandi and then the tigalbandi from the trio for the packed house for two-and-a-half hours.
Taking centre-stage in the first segment of the three-part recital was the ustad himself. Paying homage to the great doyens, M.S. Subbulakshmi and Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, and the grand tradition they shaped and represented.
The format was partly adapted in deference to an audience that is used to crisply rendered kritis rather than lengthy alaps. As the first strains of raga Shyamagowri filled the air in a brief alap, there was no easy clue to its genesis in one or the other of the canonical scales. Even as you began to realise its eclectic character, a composition in a 14-beat cycle ensued. Sudhir Pandey and Das took charge on the tabla.
Evocative of an abhang
You could broadly place the second composition in the YAmaan family. Raga Ganeshkalyan is one the ustad wrote years ago during the Ganesh Chaturti celebrations in Pune. Inevitably therefore, the piece was evocative of an abhang with a rhythmic pattern akin to the all-too-familiar teental.
Rag Darbari Kanada was the first encounter of the night with a bandish conforming strictly to the Hindustani Shaili.
An exquisite exposition in the alap led to a swift sequence of what would have been an elaborate jod.
It was nearly half-time when Ayaan, the younger of the siblings, came on stage with brother Amaan Ali Khan . Attired in deep-red sherwanis, the duo proved a formidable match to their father and guru even as they were conscious of the weighty lineage.
With two exuberant youngsters in the spotlight, there was some concern about maintaining flow and continuity in the recital. But the synchrony among the sarods was indeed striking.
When they commenced the popular rag Rageshri from the Khamaj family, the last thing you could spot was an overlap. Playing at times in tandem and then in turns, the alap soon progressed into a jod and a jhala.
In the vilambit composition, the brothers were backed by the two tablas, melding melody with rhythm. There was an evident camaraderie and respect among the instrumentalists and their percussion counterparts.
And in the madhyalay and the dhrut, the brothers skilfully demonstrated the art of improvisation — with one staying anchored in the composition and the other making forays into realms of the unknown. The quartet eventually reached the crescendo with gusto and in great style.
Once the father was back on stage, it was more than business as usual for the trio. To those familiar with Rabindranath Tagore's haunting melody, "Ekla Chalore," the close alignment with the lyrics in the sarod interpretation was noteworthy. The song soon merged into an Assamese folk tune.
The last composition of the night was in rag Mishrkirvani, adopted from the south Indian sampoorn raga Kiravani. The father led the way in the alap.
Then a sudden gush of phrases on the sarod developed into a dialogue in a brisk fast-tempo dhrut. You could liken the spell on the tabla to a tani avartanam with the sarod continuing to sing in the background. When the performance reached a climax, it was an ecstatic way to bid farewell to 2005.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Music Season
