Ranchi, Sept. 19: Grammy award winning musician Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt enthralled a lucky audience in Ranchi yesterday, playing his signature instrument, the Mohan Veena, on the first day of the two-day Rashtriya Sangeet Samaroh-2015, organised by the state art and culture department at Aryabhatt auditorium of Ranchi University.
He began his recital with an elaborate presentation of raga Viswaranjani, his own composition blending two ragas - Shivaranjani and Madhumanti. Accompanied on the tabla by Himangshu Mahant, Bhatt played the string instrument to present alap, jod and jhala in both bilambit and drut laya set in teen taal.
"Music is the language of God created for the benefit of mankind," the Pandit said, adding that its promotion would "help save the culture of our country".
He then went on to illustrate its universality by singing a few lines from a Bengali song, Ore majhi, ore majhi, ore majhi re, and following it up by O keshariya balam, padharo mora desh, a popular song from his own native state of Rajasthan.
A disciple of Pandit Ravi Shankar, Bhatt developed the Mohan Veena by improvising on a Hawaiian guitar, and ending up assimilating in it the essential elements of sitar, sarod and veena.
To wind up his set-list, Bhatt played a tune from his album, A Meeting by the River, that earned him and his musical collaborator, the legendary Ry Cooder, a Grammy in 1994 for the Best World Music Album.
The evening's programme began with a jugalbandi by Kedia brothers of Giridih. Mor Mukut Kedia on sitar and his brother, Manoj, on sarod performed before a select audience that comprised, among others, Governor Droupadi Murmu, state urban development minister C.P. Singh and art and culture minister Amar Kumar Bauri and senior officials.
The Kedia brothers played raga Desh, accompanied by Somenath Roy on ghattam and Ramkrishna on tabla. Their 76-year-old father, Sambhu Dayal Kedia (tabla), and Dutch saxophonist Maarten Visser joined them later.
The last artiste of the evening was vocalist Shyama Prasad Niyogi, a staff artist of the local AIR station.
The music festival concluded today with performances by Rajasthan vocalist Md Aman Khan, well-known santoor player Tarun Bhattacharya and director of Kathak Kendra-New Delhi Sushmita Ghosh.
