Prattyush Banerjee showed maturity

Sangeetacharya Radhika Mohan Maitreya followed the age-old tradition of bringing young disciples under the arclight of centre stage. Ballygunge Maitreya Music Circle, under the direction of Pandit Buddhadeb Dasgupta, continues to do so. Going by the performances by his young and matured 15 musicians, regardless of their gharana, one can say that classical music has a bright future. But most of them received little response from an empty Madhusudan Mancha (January 7-9). The 9 am-9 pm schedule, sans a fete-like environ, proved to be a dampener.

If Prattyush Banerjee was lucky to have a packed auditorium thanks to Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty, he made the best of it. The young sarodiya delineated Shyam Kalyan with the maturity of a seasoned musician. The genteel gliding feather-like strokes opened the raga petal by petal with utmost care in the alaap and then started decking it up in the jod segment, and finally culminated in the jhala which sheathed four to seven strokes in one beat.

The equally gentle treatment of gat-bandishes in slow jhaptal and medium teental favouring ekhara taans did not care for a very fast tempo. A superb Khamaj tappa, with all its characteristic zamzama and complex taans, was followed by a teental gat composed by Radhika Mohan Maitreya. The insistent tabla of Tanmay Bose cajoled him into a fast jhala for a thrilling climax.

Later, Chakrabarty regaled the audience with a rarely-heard raga, Koheri Kalyan ? a heady blend of Bhupali and Kalawati. Flanked by Samar Saha and Jyoti Goho, he also presented raga Hamir, stretched flamboyantly over three octaves. The evergreen thumri Aye na Balam came as the finale but sporting a neo-ghazal-like garb.

Young Shahana Banerjee?s sitar sprang a pleasant surprise for those who came attracted by Shubha Mudgal on the first evening.

The aesthetic blend of gayaki and tantrakari ably supported by Sujit Saha on the tabla made her Yaman and a lilting Pilu daadra extremely beautiful. A subdued Mudgal presented a majestic chaturang replete with Sanskrit shlokas in Sidhura after her dull Bihag.

Ustad Ashish Khan (sarod), Pandit Anindo Chatterjee with son Anubroto (tabla), Buddhadev Das (esraj), Partha Sarathy (sarod), Arnab Chatterjee (vocal) and Ramprapanna Bhattacharya (sitar) were inspiring too.