Sandip and (right) Srijit Chatterjee perform at Rabindra Mandap in Bhubaneswar on Sunday. Telegraph pictures

Bhubaneswar, June 16: Beautiful renditions of tabla and vocal recitals regaled music lovers at Rabindra Mandap yesterday evening. The musical evening was organised by Bhubaneswar Music Circle.

Yesterday, which also happened to be Father’s Day, saw a sterling display of musical excellence of a father-son duo. Sandip and Srijit Chatterjee mesmerised one and all with their sheer command over the tabla. They weaved an aura of serenity with their beats on the percussion instrument while commencing the event with a duet. The amazing co-ordination between the two artistes was exemplary. Akash Ranjit, who accompanied them on harmonium, also did a commendable job.

Sandip was introduced to the art of playing the tabla at the age of five years by his maternal uncle Kantilal Banerjee of Farukhabad gharana. Sandip later trained under the great tabla maestro Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri of Lucknow gharana for almost two decades. He has a great control on the syaahi based compositions of the tabla such as dhin gin and dhir kit and on compositions such as laggi lari, tukras and chakradhars. For the last 30 years, he has been continuously experimenting on the various patterns of difficult compositions and contributed a lot by creating many impressive compositions.

Like his father, Srijit is also a well-trained artiste who is also a Sangeet Prabhakar, Sangeet Visharad and Sangeet Vibhakar with distinction in practical examinations. He is known for his characteristic use of the deep rich bass.

After a praiseworthy performance, both the father and son passed on the baton to Pandit Rana Jha whose mellifluous voice could stir souls. The sonorous singer is currently an examiner for Pracheen Kala Kendra, Chandigarh. His Hindustani classical recitals spoke of human virtues and vices.

The organisers were pleased with the turnout. Even the audience members were all praise for the performing artistes.

“I believed that there are very few people left who appreciate anything classical. But such notions disappeared when I saw a massive crowd applauding the recitals,” said Ashuman Das, an engineer who was in the audience.