Swara Samrat Festival, presented by Sreeranjini and Behala Sanskritik Sammilani, was a four-day musical journey that offered different shades of classical music to the music lovers of the city. The programme was inaugurated by Shubha Mudgal's vocal recital in Raga Shree. She sang the vilambit kheyal well but it would had been better if she had softened her powerful singing style with the melody and variety of vistaars. Her drut kheyal in teentaal was more enjoyable. She also presented thumris based on Mishra Kafi and Mishra Piloo.
Shubha's performance was followed by the performance of sitarist Shahid Parvez. Shahid played an arresting alaap, jor and jhala in Bageshree. With his mirs and intricate vistaars as well as his taans in three octaves, his gat was excellent but a little mechanical. Shubhajyoti Guha accompanied him on tabla. Kalamandalam troupe gave a captivating dance performance the next day. In spite of some distractions, Manasi Majumdar tried to give a good performance, accompanied by the tabla of Shubhankar Banerjee in Raga Kedar. She also sang some thumris and kajris. The duet of santoor and flute by Tarun Bhattacharya and Praveen Godkhindi respectively in Raga Ragheshree was attractive. The chemistry between the artists made the raga flourish. There were some exceptional touches by Praveen Godkhindi.
Venkatesh Kumar enthralled the audience when he took the stage on the third evening of the festival. Vilambit and drut kheyals in Puriya, a madhyalay kheyal in Hameer and a drut kheyal in Bahar were presented with his signature embellishments. Samar Saha (on tabla) and Rupasree Bhattacharya (on harmonium) gave him perfect support. Kaushiki Chakrabarty teamed up with Brajeswar Mukherjee in vocal and Sandip Ghosh in tabla to present traditional ragas in a fusion style. In spite of some weaknesses, Kaushiki's and Brajeswar's voices made their performance enjoyable.
The stage was graced by Tejendranarayan Majumder in sarod and Ustad Zakir Hussain in tabla (picture, right) on the final day of the programme. The artist commenced with Raga Yaman Kalyan. After a beautiful alaap, jor and jhala, he presented Hindol hem with an aochar as well as gats (in jhamptaal and teentaal), followed by an attractive rendition of Jayajayanti. The artist carried on with Raga Madhumalati and a dhun in Mishra Kafi. The whole performance was enjoyable. The sparks of the tabla maestro in jhamptaal and teentaal seemed like lahara.
Vasanta Utsav, a two-day music festival organized by All India Radio, Calcutta, and Doordarshan, Calcutta, in association with Rabindra Bharati University, took place in Jorasanko Thakurbari. It presented a completely different flavour of spring and Holi. In sarod, Abhisek Lahiri spread the first splash of gulaal with his compact and melodic rendition of Bhimpalashree in the alaap, jor and jhala as well as in two gats in madhyalay jhamptaal and drut teentaal. Raga Vasant, through an aochar and an ektaal gat, flourished in all its beauty through the innovative renditions of madhyams and komal re.
The mood set by the artist was enhanced by the violin of L. Subramaniam, who enchanted his listeners with his exquisite presentation of a Ganapati kriti on Raga Hamsadhwani. The intricate taan and vistaars of the raga followed by Kafi and Ragmala moved the audience.
Ambi Subramaniam skilfully assisted his father while V.V. Ramanamurthy in mridangam, N, Radhakrishnan in ghatam and Ghantasala Satya Sai in morsing were perfect. The talvadya presentation by Abhijit Bandyopadhyay on tabla, Akhilesh Gundecha on pakhwaj and Suresh Vaidyanathan on ghatam was attractive. On the basis of teentaal, the artists sculpted their talents which became more interesting with the addition of morsing played by Bengaluru B. Raja Shekar.
Rajashree Pathak mainly presented the popular classical genre with the tabla of Samar Saha and harmonium of Hiranmoy Mitra. Preeti Mishra also focused on the same genre and presented thumri hori, dadra chaiti as well as raag pradhans. The voices of both the artists were sweet but their presentation could have been more attractive.
The alaap, jor and jhala of sitarist Purbayan Chattopadhyay's intense presentation of Marwa were arresting and skilful. But a hidden hurry disturbed the reserved mood of the raga at times. However, his rupak gat was enjoyable and Arup Chatterjee on tabla accompanied him perfectly. The vocal recital by Madhup Mudgal was quite disappointing, especially in the vilambit and drut kheyal of Jayajayanti. His Kedar and Kafi tarana was interesting though.
Although heard rather too much, Pandit Hariprasad Chourasia's (picture, left) rendition of Bhupali ( alaap, jor, jhala, gats in rupak and teentaal) with the skilful tabla of Shubhankar Banerjee changed the ambience of the final evening. The flute sounded still fresh in the Raga Hamsadhwani tune, " Laagi lagan". He brought out the essence of musical melody with brief presentations of Raga Desh, Pahari, Shivranjani, dhuns of kirtaan and thumri and also a Rabindrasangeet tune. The conclusion of this offbeat music festival could not have been better than this.
