A splash of spring might touch the city in this sultry summer if we go back to the premises of the Jorasanko Thakurbari, where the Basant Utsav was organized by Rabindra Bharati University in association with the Calcutta units of All India Radio and Doordarshan Kendra. The inaugural shehnai of Hassan Haider Khan and his troupe was melodious. Bhimpalasree bloomed with its soft, jovial traits in the alaap, followed by gat. The vocalist, Venkatesh Kumar, enthralled his listeners with his natural expertise. The vilambit and drut kheyals in Marwa were full of virtuosity. His exquisite aochar of Basant Bahar was followed by a beautiful ektaal composition. Although a little repetitive, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt's rendition of Shyam Kalyan on the mohan veena enchanted the audience. The artists were well accompanied on the tabla by Kumar Bose, Samar Saha and Debasish Sarkar and on the harmonium by Rupashree Bhattacharya.

Tejendra Narayan Majumdar wonderfully brought out the essence of the Raga Shuddha Basant on the sarod, especially in dhamaar gat, with the amalgamation of a Tagore song. He was charming in his brief Zila Kafi with the enjoyable tabla of Yogesh Samsi. Ashwini Bhide Deshpande wove the threads of both Vasant and Kedar skilfuly in her first vocal presentation in Vasant Kedar. She was also fascinating in Bhoop Kalyan. Yati Sunil Bhagwat (tabla) and Hiranmoy Mitra (harmonium) accompanied her ably.

Shashank Subramanyam, the flute artist, enthralled the audience with his energy, skill and innovation. He started with Vagadheeswari, a combination of Jog and Bageshree. The mood was enhanced through the ragam, tanam and pallavi, with the alluring mridangam of Patri Satish Kumar and the tabla of Abhijeet Banerjee. The onstage coordination with the violinist, Akkrai Subhalakshmi, who truly proved her talent on that evening, was praiseworthy. Shashank went on with the ragamalika and the festival finally came to an end with his rendition of a famous kriti, "Vatapi Ganapatim".

The music festival organized by Sangeet Ashram started with the captivating performance of a young Kathak star, Vishal Krishna. The talented Pratik Shrivastava tried to create the vast canvas of the Raga Shree with his sarod, accompanied by Soumen Nandy (tabla). Ram Deshpande's vocal performance of Behag and Paraj Kalingda spread joy among the listeners. Samar Saha and Jyoti Goho ably assisted him on the tabla and harmonium. Ashwini Bhide Deshpande gave a remarkable performance in Bihagda and Manikaus, with Rupashree Bhattacharya (harmonium) and Sanjoy Adhikari (tabla). On the sitar, Irshad Khan, the nephew of Vilayat Khan, presented the finest intricacies of Malkauns; it reminded listeners of his heritage. He brought out the purity of the Raga Tilak Kamod as well. He played the concluding note in Bhairavi, with Arup Chattopadhyay on the tabla.