The annual session of Paramparik enabled music lovers to appreciate Indian classical music during winter in the city. The programme started with Arnab Chatterjee's presentation of Raga Multani. His commencement with vilambit khayal was promising. Yet the beauty of the raga failed to blossom completely. Chatterjee also sang a thumri.
The grandeur of the concert returned in the powerful footsteps of the young and talented Kathak dancer, Vishal Krishna, a sincere follower of the Benaras gharana. The beginning with the ardhanarishwar concept of Adi Shankaracharya was arresting, followed by tukras, paran and tihais in chowtaal. Krishna went on with gat and tatkar in teentaal, and presented a composition of Surdas with correct expressions and body language.
Kala Ramnath's violin was disappointing in her first presentation, Raga Madhuvanti. After a short aochar, she started a gat in madhyalay ektaal and followed it up with a drut gat in teentaal. But her performance was scattered. Her next presentation, Raga Bihagda, was compact and appealing. Some unconventional touches in the rupak and teentaal gats made them interesting to listeners. She played a well-known chaiti at the end.
The evening had a graceful conclusion with the vocal recital of Venkatesh Kumar (picture). Raga Puriya Dhanashree was presented with full flourish with vilambit and drut khayals. Kumar's strength is to make conventional compositions special. He achieved this with his usual flair. The captivating manner in which Kumar presented his vistaars and taans enthralled the audience. His next presentation of khayals in madhyalay jhamptaal and drut teentaal captured the quintessence of Raga Jaijaivanti. The artist's control on his generous voice in the upper octave was remarkable. He helped sustain the enjoyable mood with a Durga Stuti in Raga Durga and a bhajan in Bhairavi. The able accompaniments of Ashok Mukherjee, Abhijit Banerjee, Samar Saha and Kushal Krishna on the tabla as well as Anirban Chakraborty and Hiranmoy Mitra on the harmonium made the performances scintillating.
Guruguha Gana Vidyalaya organized a veena recital by Revathi Sadasivam at the Birla Academy recently. She began her concert with the rare Raga Nattai Varnam, a composition by Parameswara Bhagavathar and continued with the kriti in Raga Hamsadhwani as an invocation to Lord Ganesha. Her neat rendition of the kriti in Raga Nalinakanthi by Saint Thyagaraja was followed by the elaborate Raga Sankarabharanam as a prelude to the famous kriti, Akshayalingavibho, by Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar. S. Aravind played an interesting tani (mridangam) in misra chapu tala. Revathi chose Raga Vrindavani Sarang for the traditional presentation of ragam taanam and pallavi and weaved her charm with clarity and smoothness. She also played the ragas, Revathi and Ranjani. She concluded her recital with tillana in Raga Dhanashri as well as a well-known Carnatic composition in Raga Madhyamavathi.
The audience at Rabindra Sadan witnessed a programme dedicated to the memory of the late Shankar Ghosh that was organized by Mangalacharan. The programme commenced with Shankar Dhwani by 12 disciples and included some of Ghosh's unique compositions. (Apurba Mukherjee and Amar Seth created the script and the concept.) Among them were khanda jaati, kayda, rela, laggi, tukra, chakardhar and so on. Shuchisree Roy's thumri dadra was sweet to the ears, especially the rare dadra in Gara and a hori in Mishra Khamaj. The vocal recital of Raga Saraswati Sarang by Ram Shankar was good in a short span. He also sang a tappa in Kafi and a thumri in Pilu. He was assisted by Ashok Dutta on the tabla and Hiranmoy Mitra on harmonium. The sarod and sitar presentation by Joydeep Ghosh and Sugato Nag started with Raga Patdeep. The performance could have been better, even though the rendition of Pilu gave a feeling of completeness. They were accompanied by Soumen Sarkar and Ujjwal Bharati on the tabla. Shirin Sengupta brought out the beauty of Raga Purva. The audience was also pleased with her rendition of adachowtaal bandish and tarana in Raga Yaman. Subrata Gupta (tabla) and Debashish Adhikari (harmonium) accompanied her well.
The beginning of Atul Upadhyay's violin with alaap, jor and jhala in Charukeshi was entertaining. Although he switched over to Madhuvanti abruptly, he managed to capture the mood with the gats in jhamptaal and teentaal. He also played a dadra in Manjh Khamaj. Parimal Chakraborty presented tabla lahara in teentaal with spontaneous ease. The final artist, Ajoy Chakraborty, elaborated the span of Raga Abhogi with vilambit, madhya and drut khayals with his usual expertise. He concluded his part with a brief Pahari. Gourab Chatterjee (harmonium) and Abhijit Banerjee (tabla) accompanied him ably.
