The connoisseurs of Bangalore had the opportunity of listening to an excellent tabla solo performance by Pandit Vishwanath Nakod at Sapthak's annual music festival in Bangaliore. Vishwanath Nakod, a familiar presence on the concert podiums of the city demonstrated his prowess as a tabla soloist par excellence. In his expert hands the tabla emerged not only as a consummate percussive instrument, but also a melodic instrument. Vishwanath Nakod commenced his tabla solo with vilambit teental, a rhythmic cycle of 16 beats. Melancholy strains of raag Keerwani played by Vidwan Chandrashekhar on the violin provided a highly pleasing lehra accompaniment to the tabla solo. Nakod meticulously accentuated all the four essential constituents of a traditional tabla solo: uthan and peshkar, kayada, chakradhar, and rela. He began with uthan. His pehskar showed his rhythmic prowess and spontaneity.In the second movement of traditional kayadas, Nakod focused on essential finger techniques. He played “Farukabad Kayadas”, “Purab Kayadas”, thereby intermingling various elements of different tabla gharanas. The speed and clarity of his sound production set the tone and tenor of the performance. His peshkar and kayadas were fluid and brilliantly imaginative extendable compositions that revealed his musical maturity.
The third part of the tabla solo was an astonishing array of intricate chakradhars like “Farmayishi Chakradhar”, “Tukda”, “Paran”, “Tipali”, “Chaupali” and “Punjabi”. While playing these compositions, Nakod made a rich use of varied syllables, exposing the wide spectrum of the varied sounds and moods that can be created by the use of eight fingers. The climax of the tabla solo was the rela portion of the performance in drut teental. Nakod's “Adha ang” and “Misra Ang relas” with resounding tihais characterised by tremendous speed, vibrancy and finger dexterity formed the climax of his performance.
***
The second programme of the evening was the Hindustani classical vocal recital by Anuradha Kuber from Pune, an exponent of the Bhindi Bazaar Gharana and a disciple of Pandit T.D. Janorikar and harmonium maestro Arvind Thatte. Anuradha began her recital with a vilambit teen tal traditional bandish “Bajari mori payal jhanan, kaise avu tore pas” in raag Bihag, a raag of audav sampoorna jati, characterised by the use of both shuddha and teevra madhyama notes.
In her delineation of the vilambit bandish, Anuradha faithfully adhered to the salient features of her gharana like the Merukhand alap marked by a leisurely, slow alap sequence, smooth melodious meends, a systematic methodology of improvisation and clear intonation.
In her rendition of the drut teen tal bandish “Langar dheet rokat hai barjori sajani”, Anuradha captivated the audience with her gamak and vakra taans. The melodious appeal was enhanced by the harmonium accompaniment provided by Vyasmurthy Katti. This was followed by a beautiful night melody raag Jog. Anuradha's serene and imaginative exploration of this raga unfolded through the rendition of three compositions in this raga: “Eiso banvari mayi” composed by Aman Ali Khan, “Bhasma bhuta Shiva, gale shoat rundamal”, culminating in a lilting fast-paced “Banara ban ayo raj dular”. Uday Raj Karpur's tabla accompaniment was noteworthy for its poise and and maturity.
Anuradha concluded her recital with a taranacomposition of her guru Arvind Thatte in raga Bhairavi.
K.S. VAISHALI
