Anubrata Chatterjee on tabla (Picture by Shambhu Hazra)

Sangeet Piyasi’s ninth annual music conference, organised by tabla exponent Samar Saha as homage to his guru Natubabu’s memory, presented a clutch of young talents before a discerning audience at Uttam Mancha on August 14.

The solo tabla recital of teenage exponent Anubrata Chatterjee, son and disciple of Pandit Anindo Chatterjee, turned into sheer poetry with a carefully chosen bol — dominated by relas, kayedas and parans in teental, which concentrated either on the lau or kinaar of the tabla, and bayaan keeping an eye on their distinctly diverse auditory impact. The steady lahara of Sanatan Goswami’s harmonium helped him make the most of his command on laya and technical prowess.

The regal stance of Bharatanatyam, with its straight geometrical lines melting and adopting the sea-waves-like movements, becomes the curvaceous tribhangi in Odissi. Sanchita Banerjee, the first artiste of the evening, had all this and more. Her footwork and restrained abhinaya, barring the arched left eyebrow that suites Kathak, made each item a real treat.

Sangeeta Banerjee brought out the essence of the raga Lalit around 3 am. Her badhat relied on heavy gamak-tans as vital links between notes or phrases. This made her mellifluous voice acquire unbalanced weight. Accompanied by Dilip Mukherjee on the tabla and Rupashri Bhattacharya on the harmonium, she presented well-constructed tans of sargam, aakar and bol varieties with good taiyari. She concluded with a dadra in Bhairavi.

Thrilling speed and brilliant technicality sans any melodic respite marked the sitar recital of young Bijoyaditya Mukherjee. After a brief alap in Rage-shri his gatkari, accompanied by Sumantra Guha on the tabla, flew to the overstretched climax of fast running tan-todas and tehais punctuated by innumerable thonks.

Serenity, personified by pure, direct and simple melody of a major raga, is usually preferred at daybreak. Bhairav Bahar, the choice of concluding artiste Anirban Dasgupta for his sarod recital, therefore, came as a surprise. The complex gait of the ra-ga, delineated with mechanical honesty through complicated phrases, lacked spontaneity during the gatkari. Soumen Sarkar’s supportive tabla was reassuring. The Bhairavi gat-bandishes were well rendered.