The four-day-long Behala Classical Festival has become an annual attraction for music lovers. The programme commenced with a recital by Mormukut Kedia (sitar) and Manoj Kedia (sarod) in Raga Jhinjhoti. The traditional presentation of alaap, jor and jhala was followed by gats. They were accompanied by Prasenjit Poddar on the tabla. The vocalist, Harish Tiwari, entertained listeners with Raga Puriya Dhanashree, with Vinod Lele on the tabla and Jyoti Goho on the harmonium. U. Rajesh on the mandolin and Partho Sarothy on the sarod created a blend of Carnatic and Hindustani styles in the ragas, Jog and Kirwani. Subhen Chatterjee on the tabla and Shankar Narayanswami on the mridangam accompanied the artists.
Suryadipta Bhattacharya on the slide guitar along with Rohen Bose on the tabla captured the essence of Raga Bhupali the next day. This was followed by a traditional presentation of Raga Yaman by the vocalist, Pravin Gaonkar, accompanied by Ashoke Mukherjee on the tabla, Pradip Palit on the harmonium and Sangeet Mishra on the sarangi. Rahul Sharma’s santoor recital enchanted the audience with its sweetness in Raga Gorakh Kalyan and a brief Raga Pahadi. Ishaan Ghosh was perfect in his accompaniment to Sharma. The senior vocalist, Ajoy Chakraborty, chose Raga Gaoti and the famous Raga Bharavi composition, “Kya karu sajni”, which was touching. He also sang “Man chalo nijniketane” with Jyotirmoy Banerjee playing the harmonium.
Debashish Bhattacharya Payel Sengupta
The third session began with the young vocalist, Suparno Bhowmick, who presented Raga Madhuwanti with Pranay Chatterjee on the tabla and Kamalaksha Mukherjee on the harmonium. The sarod recital by Abhishek Borkar expressed the essence of Raga Gaoti with Yahwant Vaishnav on the tabla. The vocal recital by Supriyo Dutta in Raga Shuddh Kalyan was melodious and followed by a tarana. Aarchik Banerjee’s able support on the tabla enhanced the musicality of the performance. Purbayan Chatterjee’s sitar and Ambi Subramaniam’s violin recital started with the famous composition, “Vatapi ganapatim”, in Raga Hamsadhwani, going through the ragam, tanam and pallavi in an enchanting way; they concluded with Raga Bhairavi.
In the final session, Tejaswini D. Vernekar’s Raga Shree was sweet as was the Meerabhajan along with Bishwajit Dev on the tabla and Sanatan Goswami on the harmonium. The expertise and clarity of the sitarist, Shubhendra Rao (picture, left), in Raga Tilak Shyam were enjoyable. Shashwati Mandal sang compositions in Raga Jhinjhoti and a tappa, along with Sanjay Adhikari on the tabla. The melodic flute recital by Rakesh Chaurasia included an alaap, jor and jhala in Raga Bageshree and an interesting composition set to rupaktaal. Ojas Adhya accompanied him on the tabla.
The Akhil Bharatiya Sangeet Kala Ratna Sabha organised a tribute to Manjusree Bhattacharya, the mother of the artist, Debashish Bhattacharya. Tarun Bhattacharya played Raga Yaman on the santoor, capturing the core essence with gats in jhamptaal and teentaal with Jyotirmoy Roychowdhury on the tabla. Swapan Chowdhury — he received a lifetime achievement award — presented a solo performance in teentaal enriched with complex and exceptional bols, tukras, relas, chakradhaars and so on. Hiranmay Mitra on the harmonium made this performance even more resonant. Debashish Bhattacharya (picture, right) concluded the evening with a charming rendition of Raga Behaag on his chaturang guitar. Alongside Yogesh Samsi on the tabla, he also played Raga Darbari Kanada on the pushpaveena in an innovative style.
