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The most thrilling recording revealed Vilayat Khan as a vocalist, where he was captured teaching a thumri to Begum Akhtar.

Different beats Panchali Nandi and Neelranjan Mukherjee at the concert.

Ustad Vilayat Khan pioneered a unique style. The opening stroke played on a sitar is enough to decipher it. The ‘gayaki ang’ which is a prominent feature of his style, doesn’t reproduce vocals but the vocalised form. The ‘gayaki ang’ in his alap, for instance, is like storytelling that is enriched with an emotional element. There are six basic tenets of his style, like how he used the chikaari, or what were the physical changes he re-engineered in the sitar to suit his style, for example by increasing the thickness of the tabali and taar-gahan and removing the mandra Pancham string and replacing it with Gandhar that created a chord-like effect. These are some of the facts about the ustad and his music that were made clear by Arvind, a leading sitarist and the senior-most disciple of the late ustad.

To make his points clear, Arvind played excerpts from his recordings. There was raga Pilu that exemplified Khan saheb’s mastery in conveying poignant human emotions, Bihagada that showed how the alap went along with the theka, Yaman which explained the architectural progress of the raga stage by stage, and Darbari that illustrated the gayaki ang in the jod section. Raga Purva was played to illustrate his command over the sur bahar, and Bhathiali showcased the folk elements his versatile music was endowed with.

The most thrilling recording revealed Vilayat Khan as a vocalist, where he was captured teaching a thumri to Begum Akhtar. He sang the difficult phrase and made his gifted disciple repeat it till she got it right, which was followed by her tinkling giggle. Arvind has won critical acclaim in India and abroad as a profound performer, a knowledgeable musicologist and a dedicated teacher but this was definitely a memorable evening with him.

Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan Centre for Culture (UMAK) organised a sitar and guitar duet by Panchali Nandi and Neelranjan Mukherjee at the India Habitat Centre. Both the youngsters are disciples of Pandit Debu Chaudhury. They played a detailed alap-jod-jhala and two compositions in raga Yaman. The way the two complemented each other while elaborating the raga was remarkable. If one made a statement in the middle octave, the other would juxtapose it in the lower or upper octave, creating a lovely symmetry. Their melodic approach matched their rhythmic prowess, which spoke highly of their training and practice.

Iqbal Ahmad Khan.

This was followed by a vocal recital by Ustad Iqbal Ahmad Khan, the khalifa of the Dilli gharana which boast an affiliation to the renowned composer Hazrat Amir Khusrau and an unbroken lineage thereafter.

A gifted disciple of the legendary Ustad Chand Khan, Iqbal Ahmad has a rich repertoire of unique compositions. This evening he treated the audience to some rare compositions of Khusrau, not only in Khayal but also a bouquet of forms such as chaturang, trivat, tarana, naksh-o-gul and qaul qualbana.

He also sang a composition whose four segments were set to four different talas.

He was ably accompanied on the harmonium by Mehmood Dhaulpuri and Akhtar Hasan on the tabla.

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