Playing at a programme organised by the Ustad Aziz Khan Memorial School of Music, set up by him to commemorate his father and guru, sitar maestro Shahid Parvez presented a 72-minute depiction of the raga Shyam Kalyan.

The 22-minute alap was neat and exhaustive at the same time as it used all possible phrases of the raga, including those that blur its structure somewhat. The resonant meends, sometimes sounding higher-octave harmonic shadows, gave substance to the phrase development. The 13-minute jod ended with his pupil, Subhranil Sarkar reproducing Shahid’s taans one by one as Shahid played them. The pupil showed signs of good training throughout the programme.

There was fine bol-vistar and taankari in the vilambit teental gatkari and this included a long chakradhar taan-tihai in quadruple time. The drut teental gatkari featured excellent mukhra elaboration and quadruple time taans to the mukhra. Equally good taankari was featured in the drut ektal and ati drut teental gatkari that ended with clear and melodious jhala. Young Anubrata Chatterjee provided crisp and lively tabla accompaniment.

Vilayat Khan’s immortal Shankara drut gat along with one the breathtaking taans was played in the final section and also gats in Bihagda and Nat Bihag.