Srinibas Satpathy on the flute and M Simadri on the saxophone perform at the Barsha festival in Bhubaneswar. Pictures by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 28: The Barsha festival of music and dance, organised by the cultural forum Chinta O Chetana at Rabindra Mandap here, featured some unique performances on Monday. For the past 33 years, this event is being held to eulogise the monsoon.

Music enthusiasts got an opportunity to witness a jugalbandi between instrumentalists M. Simadri and Srinibas Satpathy. Their performance was enjoyable for some time, but then it appeared to be a solo performance for the most part of the show. Though the waves of melody from the flute were pleasant at the beginning, flautist Satpathy seemed to take over the stage and the balance of a jugalbandi went missing.

The flautist’s calibre was evident from the variety he played, but it might have been saved for another day as he lengthened the show after his fellow artistes had bid farewell by announcing he would play Mishra Kaafi. Even though it prolonged the event, the segment made for a delightful recital. Sadly, the sound of the saxophone — an instrument the Bhubaneswar audience would love to listen to more often — was lost under the shrill notes of the flute.

Whenever he played, Simadri was impressive. Tabla maestro Kulamani Sahoo was brilliant, as usual, as the accompanist.

The audience gave an enthusiastic response to the jugalbandi with many rounds of applause. “Had it not been prolonged and had we heard more of the saxophone, it would have been a memorable performance. The effort to bring two wind instrumentalists together was praiseworthy,” said Sushant, a viewer.

The second performance of the evening was a group Odissi recital by the dancers from Utkal University of Culture.

The young artistes depicted the tales of love that poets have written with monsoon as the backdrop. In a medley of classical music composed by Guru Ramhari Das, the dancers enacted episodes from works of poets such as Kalidas, Jayadev and Upendra Bhanja. The dance sequence choreographed by Kishore Mishra and Lingaraj Swain was interesting. The three-day festival is on till August 29.