Sangeetam has been holding classical music festivals for the past 18 years in Delhi. Brainchild of Pt Arun Chatterji, a disciple of the Kairana gharana, the festival is now being run by his son Banaras gharana vocalist Pt Sarathy Chatterji (incidentally,Pt Arun Chatterji apparently met the doyen and founder of the gharana Ustad Abdul Karim Khan himself once). It was heartening to see the likes of Pt Rajan Mishra and other senior artists attend all the concerts, encouraging the young performers; sadly this age old tradition is becoming increasingly rare.
The three-day festival opened with the vocal recital of Ahmedabad-based Dr Viraj Amar. Currently training under Pts Rajan Sajan Mishra, Dr Viraj sung with maturity, a measured and satisfying presentation. Her gharana has always specialised in singing a “bandish” in its fullest aspect, bringing out every nuance and carefully giving it the attention it deserves as the central focus of the presentation; Viraj has absorbed this aspect fully.
Excellent rendering
Her raga Gaoti, a somewhat unusual choice for a vocalist, was rendered well, keeping its unique structure beautifully intact. Her “barhat” (progression) speaks of solid training and is unhurried and sequential which is extremely pleasing. Her sense of proportion is admirable. The next rare raga Hanskankini did not maybe grip as much as did her Gaoti; as Viraj explained she was rendering it for the first time as she had recently learnt it. The “bandish” was in “jhaptaal”. On the tabla was Ajjrara gharana disciple Saptak Sharma and on harmonium, the lyrical Sumit Mishra. All in all it was a pleasure to hear Dr Viraj Amar; one wishes organisers would invite such rarely heard, extremely competent artists more.
The next day started with the sitar recital of 20-year -old Mehtab Ali Niyazi. Trained, surprisingly, in the vocal Bhendi Bazar gharana (his father Mohsin Ali Niyazi is a nephew of Ustad Aman Ali Khan), Mehtab is extremely well practised and shows great potential. His unerringly accurate long “meends”, clear “sapaat” taans, fantastic “chaar bol seedha jhala” speak of hours of painstaking riyaaz. Starting with raga Sham Kalyan, in which, using the limited time he had to the best, he cleverly played only a short “auchaar”, before moving onto the “gats”. On the tabla was Parvez Hussain, disciple of the legendary Ustad Habibuddin Khan’s son, Ustad Mauju Khan (Ajjrara gharana). Parvez was impressive and one was surprised to learn he rarely accompanies classical musicians, preferring to stick to ghazal accompaniment and solos. Mehtab ended his recital daringly with a “drut” rendition of raga Basant Bahar in Teen taal. His intricate taans in which he handled the complex note structure of both ragas were laudable.
Tabla jugalbandi
Ending the evening was Bhuvanesh Komkali who as they say, is steadily maturing like old wine. His raga Nand was impressive, the slow systematic build up of the raga well planned. His beautiful honed voice skims with ease over notes; his handling is mature and stable. All three of his khayals were in Teen taal, the last “raajan ab to aaja” composed by his late grandfather the iconic Pt Kumar Gandharva. The next raga he sang had been composed by Kumar ji – a combination of Kedara and Basant but different in construction to the Jaipur Attrauli gharana’s Basanti Kedar. Termed Jaladhari Kedara, this raga used more Kedara. Bhuvanesh feelingly sang two compositions in this, and then ended with a bhajan. Ably accompanying him on the tabla was Shambhunath Bhattacharya, on the harmonium was Chetan Kumar.
Saptak Chatterji
The last day of the festival started with a vocal recital by Banaras gharana’s young Saptak Chatterji. His powerful well-trained baritone is a delight, clearly he enjoys singing and the rigours it entails. Starting with raga Rageshwari, Saptak outlined the raga at length, perhaps a tad longer than was necessary. He sang three compositions, ending in a “tarana” in Ek taal. His vocal command is impressive with several intricate taans delivered at great speed. Saptak ended his recital on request with a bhajan composed by his grandfather Pt Arun Chatterji in Mishra Ahir Bhairav, involving the use of both “Dha’s”, he later explained. Again, he is an artist to watch out for. On the tabla was Saptak Sharma and harmonium Sumit Mishra.
The festival ended with a tabla jugalbandi by Ajjrara gharana’s Ustad Akram Khan, and Farrukhabad’s Pt Parimal Chakravorty (he is a disciple of Pt Shankar Ghosh). Accompanying them on the sarangi was none other than Ustad Murad Ali Khan. The extremely good chemistry between both tabla exponents was clearly visable; with no attempt at oneupmanship. Parimal seemed to be more lyrical while Akram was more dexterous. Both have enviable repertoires.
