Four maestros: Kishan Maharaj, Girija Devi, Birju Maharaj and Ramesh Mishra

A arousing recital featuring three veteran stalwarts, Girija Devi, Birju Maharaj and Pandit Kishen Maharaj, was the high point of the programme organised to celebrate the 75th birthday of Vijay Kumar Kichlu at G.D. Birla Sabhagar last Friday. The recital peaked when Girija Devi sang a medium tempo trital khayal in the raga Desh, with famed kathak dancer Birju Maharaj not only demonstrating the bhav of the lyrics in kathak-style, but also reciting appropriate syllabic compo-sitions of kathak as appropriate interludes in the manner of tabla breaks. The recitation triggered old-style Banarasi saath sangat and jawabi gat-parans from Pandit Kishen Maharaj’s tabla. With the tabla moving out of theka and joining in, the melodic and rhythmic movements came to a full circle.

Interestingly enough, Birju Maharaj was absent from the dais when Girija Devi sang her first item, a bandishi thumri in Mishra Bihag set to sitarkhani tala. Kathak bhav is normally performed to such thumris or compositions resembling them. One had expected Girija Devi to start with a khayal the way she usually does with Birju Maharaj joining in when the thumris and the like started. The wail of Ramesh Mishra’s sarangi set the mood for this thumri in a manner now rarely heard because of the disappearance of this in-strument from the concert scene. Girija Devi sang it in her characteristic manner, but with a firm reign on expansive movements, possibly because of time restrictions. Pandit Kishen Maharaj’s laggi was rather sedate and did not climb to a climax the way it does in the hands of experts. This, however, was not unexpected, he has specialised in accompanying the sitar and the sarod. Playing the tabla with vocal music and especially thumris is a different cup of tea. Very few tabla players are good at both. The late Ustad Keramatullah Khan was one of the few, and so was Pandit Shankar Ghosh, who no longer functions as an accompanist.

To return to khayal, Desh, de-spite its soothing emotive effect, belongs to the monsoon raga category. So many khayal composi-tions in it have lyrics that are often full of rain, lightning, thunder and cyclonic storms. Birju Maharaj excelled in enacting the monsoon phenomena with characteristic verve. Often he would provide a new enactment each time a particular line was repeated.

A point to note is that he did all this with hand, eye, head and torso movements and facial expressions while sitting on the dais. His delivery of thunderous syllabic Kathak compositions complemented the monsoon mood and so did the tabla compositions played by Pandit Kishen Maharaj.

Earlier, santoor maestro Shiv Kumar Sharma played alap, jod and gatkari in raga Bhupali. The rhythmic movements of the jod and the jhaptal gatkari were the highlights of the recital. The rapid stroke work or bolkari in the drut and ati drut trital gatkari was packed with skill and artistry. Anindo Chatterjee provided ap-propriate, but not really striking, tabla accompaniment.

In the first half of the pro-gramme, Mr Buddhadeb Bhat-tacharjee, state chief minister, presented shawls, mementos and flowers to 17 musicians (some in absentia) on behalf of Vijay Kichlu. Of them 13 were honoured for bringing fame to West Bengal.