Magan Mandir celebrated its annual classical music festival at the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Golpark. The event commenced with a beautiful choral performance of compositions by Pandit Chinmoy Lahiri, featuring ragas dedicated to early morning, noon, afternoon, dusk, evening and late night. The flautist, Indrajit Basu, chose Raga Bhimpalasi and was supported by Soumitrajit Chatterjee on the tabla. They concluded with a dhun based on Raga Manjh Khamaj.

In a special offering, Mandira Lahiri (picture, left) and her disciples, Anirban Das and Diptam Sinha Biswas, showcased various compositions by Chinmoy Lahiri. They started with a soulful Raga Sohini set to rupak taal, followed by an ektaal chaturang in Raga Hindol and skilfully concluded with Raga Kirwani set to the rare taal, trivat, set in 8.5 beats. Mandira Lahiri also performed Raga Lalita, a creation of Chinmoy Lahiri. Abir Mukherjee and Shubhrangshu Mukhopadhyay ably accompanied her on the tabla and the harmonium, respectively. Debojyoti Bose selected Raga Chhayanat for his sarod recital along with Tanmoy Bose on the tabla. Pandit Anindo Chatterjee’s expertise on the tabla was evident in his nuanced presentation of jhaptaal.

Behala Sanskriti Sammelan celebrated its annual, four-day music festival at the Behala Blind School ground; it was dedicated to the memory of Maestro Zakir Hussain. The vocalist, Gauri Pathare, inaugurated the show with a rendition of Raga Rageshree with expert accompaniment on the tabla by Samar Saha and followed it up with a bhajan. Jayanthi Kumaresh and R. Kumaresh, the Saraswati veena duo, enchanted the audience with assistance from Jaychandra Rao on the ghatam and Giridhar Udupa on the mridangam. Kalyan Majumdar’s sitar recital was of the melodious raga, Shyam Kalyan, with the talented Archik Banerjee beautifully supporting him on the tabla. Ojas Adhya’s tabla solo with Milind Kulkarni on the harmonium was enjoyable as well.

The Carnatic vocalist, Aruna Sairam, gave an interesting performance with Padma Shankar on the violin, Bickram Ghosh on the tabla, and Patri Satish on the mridangam. Paramananda Roy’s flute recital of Raga Shree had flourish. He was supported by Soumen Nandy on the tabla. Avishek Lahiri’s (picture, right) was the most striking performance of the evening with his enchanting and mellifluous sarod recital in Raga Shudh Kalyan, followed by Raga Janasammohani. He concluded with a dhun in Raga Piloo; Ojas Adhya kept perfect time with him on the tabla.

Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar was musicality personified while rendering the ragas, Kedar, Jog and Khamajh. Satyajit Talwalkar’s tabla accompaniment was an additional treat for the audience. The other vocalist who performed on the final day was Ghulam Hasan Khan, who made quite an impression with the ragas, Poorvi and Maru Behag, followed by the popular composition, “Yaad piya ki aaye”. Jyoti Goho on the harmonium and Ashok Mukhopadhyay on the tabla accompanied him skilfully. Abhay Rustum Sopori’s intricate recital on the santoor was enchanting; he was supported Satyajit Talwalkar on the tabla and Rishi Shankar Upadhyay on the pakhwaj. Shujaat Khan’s Raga Jhinjhoti was one of the primary attractions of the evening. A lifetime achievement award was given to the senior tabla exponent, Gobinda Bose.