Day 2 & 3 at the 37th Saptak Annual Music Festival 2017 in Ahmedabad

Day 2 at Saptak: Reflection of Brilliance

The second day of Saptak festival featured a brilliant sitar recital by Vidushi Smt.Manju Mehta and an enjoyable vocal recital by Smt. Shubha Mudgal.

Smt.Manju Mehta belongs to senia mahair ghrana. She is the senior most sitar player of the said gharana. Besides being an authentic performer in the gharana lineage she is also an excellent teacher.

The excellent display of highly potential raag ‘bageshri’ pleased one and all. The raag expresses joy and happiness. The performance evoked the aesthetic mood of the melody. The ace performer exploited the raagang couplets artistically that aroused the aesthetic feelings of the music lovers.

Smt. Manju who has inherited rich traditions in Indian classical music presented the most lovable of the raga system in a spectrum of ‘bageshri’. It was a splendid display of the inherent mood of love and happiness. It was a panorama of a detailed delineation of raga ‘bageshvari’ in two compositions in a slow tempo and fast tempo ‘teentaal’ preceded by an authentic’ drupad’ style ‘alap,jod,and jhala.’

Pt.Puran Maharaj provided an excellent percussion support. The performance of ‘sitar and table’ was highly appreciated by the audience.

The sitar concert was followed by an entertaining vocal recital by Smt. Shubha Mudgal. She is known for her virtuosity in presenting various forms of music- khayal, thumari and folk music.  She has ‘kharaj’ oriented voice, a rarity among female singers. The recital began with two wonderful compositions in ‘raaga bihag’. The slow tempo khayal  ‘lalan manamere mukhper shata shata madan chhabi’ was set to ektaal. She developed the mood of the raga by creating various phrases in the raga. ‘Bihag’ having a ‘bilaval’ parentage the ‘dha ga’ combination was presented in an artistic way. She has a clear flow of meaningful ‘taan’ patern. She concluded with a thumari ‘gujaria chali chalire nayanbhar kajara’. She was accompanied on table by Shri Aneesh Pradhan and on harmonium by Shri Sudhir Nayak.

Day 3 Highlight : Captivating performance by Pt. Ajoy Chakraborty

Pt. Ajoy Chakraborty is a versatile musician. A master of the various forms of music like drupad, khayal, thumari, gazal, devotional music and ravindra music belongs to Patiala gharana.

Pt. Ajoy began the concert with a khayal in raga ‘malkaunsa ‘ with a short ‘alap’ and gradually merged into presenting the composition ‘ jinake man ram biraje set to 14 beats of ‘zumara‘ taal .Though endowed with a exhaltinghigh qualityvoice he had the skill to bring out the most delicate swara combinations . He has acquired the most difficult musical phrases of Patiala gharana that brightens the beauty of khayal rendition. He has the skill and discipline of the ‘gharana’ and the cultural vision of  ‘bengal’. Having a butter like flexibility of voice range Ajoy renders the intricate the ‘ taan’  forms and ‘sargams’ with a master’s authority. He also presented glimpses of  Ustad Amir khan’s music by presenting ‘sargam phrases.’ He concluded the presentation of  ‘malkauns’ by presenting a composition in fast tempo ‘tritaal’ with ‘ ajab teri dunia allamiya’ . Ajoy concluded the concert with a composition  ‘aayo ri’ set to ‘jhaptal’, and a thumri.

The charm of multifaceted music, the enchanting voice and aesthetic perception of raaga coupled with performing skills captivated the audience, one and all..

Photographs: Aditya Sharma