After a long gap, classical music lovers of the city got a chance to be enthralled by the purity of music. The complete tableau and grandeur of monsoon were celebrated at Kalamandir with the strings of Amaan Ali Khan [picture, top], in a programme organized by the Institute of Child Health. His sarod tells a story hidden in the music - this programme was not an exception. Amaan set the atmosphere with Miyan Ki Malhar. He played an intricate pattern instead of following the traditional long format of alaap, jor and jhala. It was a perfect blend of creativity and imagination. The style of his playing was unique and sparkling.

He played two gats in the raga and his vistaars and taans unfolded a different aspect of the rendition. Amaan's effortless move from lower octave to upper octave, keeping the flavour of the movements of the keynotes intact, was praiseworthy. With the gorgeous tabla of Shubhankar Banerjee, he created many enjoyable moments.

His next choice was a popular raga, Desh. He was more intense and generous in this raga. From the very beginning, his rendition created a different vibration. Amaan mainly focused on the lower and middle octaves. He brought out a different essence of the delightful Desh. The gats of madhyalaya jhamptaal and drut teentaal were beautiful.

Amaan surprised the audience with his unpredictable movements in the drut teentaal gat. As he progressed, his spontaneity and expertise elevated the mood of the audience. He did not put any extra effort, nor did he slacken. Amaan Ali Khan proved that an honest effort could merge the gap between a connoisseur and a casual listener and make Indian classical music appreciable to different people having different ideas or tastes.

To listen to Amaan's Hansadhwani was a refreshing experience for the audience. He presented a brief but arresting rendition of the raga. In his ektaal gat, Amaan was charming and soulful. His swift, sudden and interesting shift to Raga Durga from Hansadhwani surprised and moved the audience. The famous teentaal gat in this raga became charismatic with the intelligent and spontaneous touches of the artist. Amaan was fast and smooth in the complicated taans. He also maintained the quintessence of melody. His expert fingers were able to produce the maximum diversity within limitation. He continued the jovial mood with a wonderful dhun in Kirwani. Smart and innovative Amaan left the thirsty souls in the audience with a feeling of pure and refined tenderness. It was hard to get out of the spell even after the programme had ended.

It is always a pleasure to get a taste of the style and attributes of Agra Gharana. The programme organized by Sangeet Ashram in G.D. Birla Sabhagar gave ample evidence of this flavour. Senior vocalist Yashpaul [picture, left] entertained the audience with different moods of the ragas. In spite of some sluggishness, the artist was bold. His forceful voice was able to bring out the characteristics of a number of ragas.

He commenced with raga Madhuvanti and sang a vilambit kheyal. Although he could have put more variety in his vistaars and taans, he was sharp on his notes and avoided unwanted complications. He ornamented his presentation with small but tangled taans and vistaars. The artist created the ambience of joy with a brief but attractive rendition of Adana in teentaal.

His sombre presentation of Raga Sohini in both ardha and teentaal sounded charming to the audience. The unique performance of a bandish in Punjabi in Raga Malkauns composed by Shagun Piya (the pen name of the artist) was an enjoyable experience for the audience.

The artist was perfectly accompanied by Anandagopal Bandyopadhyay on tabla and Roshan Ali on sarengi.