Spring having inspired Tagore to compose a large body of songs, soirees of the poet’s vernal songs have become a staple for this time of the year. On April 6, Rabinandan presented an evening of Rabindrasangeet, titled Chaitra Pabane, at the Tagore Research Institute. The songs were culled from the “Basanta” and “Prem” sections of the Gitabitan.

The evening began with two solo songs — Akash bhora shurjo tara and Arup tomar bani — by Bidisha Banerjee, who could not get into the spirit of either. Members of Rabinandan presented a cluster of choral songs, which could have done with better synchronization. Songs like Phaguner nobin anande, O manjari, O chand tomay dola and Rangiye diye jao were a little more impressive than Basante aj dharar chitto holo utala. Mrinal Choudhury gave a competent rendition of Phagun haowaye ronge ronge. Kaveri Dasgupta sang Kar jeno ei moner bedon with feeling. Jayasree Das tried to sing a difficult composition like Aji kamala-mukula dal khulilo to the best of her ability, which, sadly, was not good enough. Esha Mitra (Baje korun sure and Labonye purna praan) tries too hard to sound like Kanika Bandyopadhyay.

The second session was given over to Aniruddha Sinha. He started with Basanti hey bhubanamohini, negotiating the Carnatic elements of the composition well, though one could detect some unevenness. Sinha is one of the few exponents of Rabindrasangeet who has remained largely untouched by the glamourization of the art. Aji dokkhino pabane was his best offering of the evening, bringing together his powerful tonal quality and a clean gayaki. Slower and mellower compositions such as Nishitho rater pran, Likhono tomar dhulay hoyechhe dhuli and Kakhon basanta gelo chole managed to touch something deep within the listeners. However, in Amar praner pore chole gelo ke, a song about nature reflecting the poet’s personal loss, the variation in the tempo did not succeed in enhancing the effect of the song to any great extent. Jhora pata go and Ei udashi haowar pathe pathe, songs of fading spring, left their strains with the listeners for a long time after the artist had concluded his performance. The singers got able support from Shiuli Basu on the esraj, Samar Banerjee on the tabla and Rupak Mukherjee on the mandira.