Ustad Alam Khan, son and disciple of illustrious Ustad Ali Akbar Khan gave a scintillating Sarod recital for the benefit of a limited number of Hindustani aficionados. He is accompanied by Subhankar Banerjee on the tabla and his young brother Manik on the tanpura. Alam Khan presented a bouquet of melodic and expressive raags. Opening with raag Yaman Kalyan and after touching the slow and swift ranges of it, he shifted to Behag. This carried a gaat in teen taal; again starting in a supple and sedate form in building vilambit kaal, the tempo gradually transformed into the durit, the accelerated mode covering surfeit of sangatis leading to a classical crescendo. If Yaman Kalyan was tantalising, Behag was soft and feisty. Listening to the fast moving segments created the impression of several musical bells chiming at the same time.
His second offering was in Misra Kapi. The raga gave the freedom of many colourful combinations of swaras and thereby numerous impressive passages. Alam Khan confided the gaat is always improvised at the moment of the performance based on the mood the raga sets on the performer. Here the taal was fixed on rupakam. Alam Khan laced this one with raagmala including more melodies with full force.
Subhankar Banerjee’s tabla beats varied from soft, subtle, sharp to strong ones adding extra magic to the main sarod.
The soft and soothing concert carried Manj Khamaj raag as the concluding part.
