Day 4 - (Almost) Live from Sawai Gandharva Sangeet Mahotsav 2008

Namaskar!

 

After the late night completion of day 3, it was no easy feat, but I managed to reach the venue with the better half and the kids in toe for the 8:00 AM start of day 4 morning session.

 

Pt. Vinayak Torvi (Vocal)

Tabla: Gurumurthy Vaidya, Harmonium: Sudhir Nayak

 

Vinayakji began with raga Ramakali (khyal in vilambit ektaal - aaj radhe tore, bandish in teen taal - sagari raina ke jaage followed by another bandish in teen taal - hari hari hari japana). The swara vistar was unhurried, tuneful and rich with careful and measured appearance of tivara madhyam and komal nishad. The taans were full throated. After Ramakali, Panditji sang a teentaal bandish in raga Alhaiyya Bilwal. This was followed by Marathi bhajan/song - jhala mahar pandhari natha adopted by Panditji for a classical style rendering. Panditji sang a Kannada bhajan - yalle mana murari on a "one more" request from the audience.

 

I admire Panditji's planning and preparation - which I am sure was done specifically for this performance resulting in superb execution. I wish other musicians follow this example.

 

Gurumurthy Vaidya and Sudhir Nayak provided appropriate sangat.

 

Pt. Ronu Mujumdar (Bansuri)

Tabla: Ramdas Palsule

 

Ronuji started his concert with Mangal Bhairav (aalaap, jod, jhala followed by gats in Jhaptaal, addha teen taal and teen taal). The aalaap was quite elaborate and included use of bass bansuri for lower notes. I heard Mangal Bhairav for the first time. It is a beautiful raga with S r M P D S, S D P M r S as aroha-awaroha (a murchhana of raga bhupakali - or bhupashree which goes S R G P d S, S d P G R S). The swara lagav and meends were very well executed and true to the haunting nature of the raga. Ronuji followed this with the bhajan - thumak chalat ramchandra.

 

A very good and measured performance. While there were some tabla solos - they were quite controlled and in fact very enjoyable.

 

Ramdas Palsule's tabla playing was crisp and non-intrusive!

 

Pt. Jasraj (Vocal)

Tabla: Vijay Ghate, Harmonium: Mukund Petkar

 

Panditji started the concert with raga Shuddha Sarang (khyal in vilambit ektaal - sakal bana laagi followed by bandish in drut teen taal - jaoji jao shyam). His voice sounded slightly shaky for about 10 minutes but then warmed up beautifully. His meends in Shuddha Sarang are to die for! Also the subtle, tuneful swara lagav was lajawab as usual! The great part I like is that the range and tonal quality of Panditji's voice is as good and as tuneful as ever. I am a great fan of Panditji's Shuddha Sarang (especially the old recording with Zakir Hussain on tabla and a different one recorded by my brother from an AIR broadcast). After Shuddha Sarang Panditji sang three bhajans (two in Sanskrit and one in Hindi) - prabho prananatham, mero man, govindam gokulavandam gopalam.

 

I enjoyed Pt. Jasraj's concert (I have developed the right filters over many years of patient practice). Panditji had a lot of vocal support - to use his own words, he had brought the whole of school (when Anand Deshmukh started announcing all the names, Panditji commented - sagali shalach gheun aalo). But we missed Punyacha suputra Pt. Sanjiv Abhyankar. The good news is that after some on-stage tutoring a member of the school got the shadja right! But despite their guru singing so tunefully right next to them, none could sing a good nishad in a full fledged one hour rendering of Shuddha Sarang.

 

Mukund Petkar provided very good harmonium sangat. Vijay Ghate's tabla accompaniment always belongs to its own class.

 

This concluded the morning session of day 4. It was already 1:30 PM and it took half an hour more to exit the pandal. I decided to drop the idea of going home for lunch, ate at a nearby restaurant and got back to the pandal by about 3:00 PM to retain my good old seat.

 

The afternoon proceedings started slightly earlier to 4:00 PM. In fact the artists were already on stage tuning their instruments well before the clapping alarm!

 

Smt. Madhuri Dandge (Vocal)

Tabla: Bharat Kamat, Harmonium: Suyog Kundalkar

 

Madhuritai started her concert with raga Puriya Dhanashree (khyal in vilambit ektaal - murali bajayee followed by bandish in drut ektaal - mai to jaan tumari re). After Puriya Dhanashree she sang a bhajan (I think in raga Kalingada) by Surdas followed by a "tribute to Bharat Ratna Bhimsenji" in raga Deskar set to teentaal.

 

Madhyalaya Talavadya Kacheri

Pakhawaj: Akhilesh Gundecha

Dholak, Bamboo, Dafali, Hudka: Anup Singh

Tabla: Himanshu Mahant

Daf, Djembe (African Drum): Manoj Singh

Sarangi: Sharvar Hussain

This is a group led by Akhilesh Gundecha. Akhileshji explained that they call themselves Madhyalaya Talavadya Kacheri as they belong to Ujjain area in Madhya Pradesh.

 

They started their concert with Mahakal Vandana - a composition containing Sanskrit Shloka's and pkhawaj/tabla bols. It was a very beautiful short piece.

This was followed by Teen Taal in the accompaniment of a beautiful nagma in Kaushikdhwani on Sarangi  with vilambit, madhyalaya and drut round of solo portions followed by a few minutes of joint playing.

Sharvar Hussain played madhyalaya Kaushikdhwani beautifully for a few minutes.

 

What a performance! The conception, planning, preparation, coordination and execution was fantastic. Even with such a varied variety of instruments put together in an innovative way, the classical dignity was totally and completely preserved. There was no attempt made to jazz up. All the playing was beautiful, measured, controlled without ever being overboard - a tight rope walk indeed with this lineup of instruments. Hats off to all of these people.

 

Shrinivas Joshi (Vocal)

Tabla: Prashant Pandav, Harmonium: Avinash Dighe

 

Shrinivasji started his performance with raga Bihag (khyal in vilambit ektaal - mora mana lage, drut teen taal - aali ri alabeli sundara nar followed by hori in teen taal - khelo nandalala sanga aaja hori). He sang a thumari in Khmaj (chhab dikhalaja dhyan lage mohe tora) and an abhang (kanhoba tujhi ghongadi).

 

Pt. Bhimsenji's car came near the stage. Panditji listened to his son's performance and remarked that it had been excellent (karyakram uttam jhala).

 

Smt. Aruna Sairam (Carnatic vocal)

Mridangam: J. Vaidyanathan, Ghatam: S. V. Ramani, Violin: Lalgudi Smt. Vijayalaxmi

(Note: Earlier disclaimers about my exposure to Carnatic music are very much in effect here as well)

 

Arunaji began her performance with a composition of Muthuswami Dikshitar in raga Vrindavani Sarang in aaditaal. After this she performed detailed rendering of Carnatic raga Todi in ragam, tanam, pallavi format. She followed this up with her adaptations of Marathi abhang tirth vitthala kshetra vitthala and on kannada bhajan bhagyada laxmi parama on a "one more" request from the public (both originally sung by Pt. Bhimsenji). There was yet another cry of "one more" when Arunaji sang a tillana by Venkata Subbayya in aaditaal (which interestingly had prose in addition to song) to conclude her performance.

 

On the whole Arunaji's was an excellent performance that was thoroughly enjoyed by the audience (and yours truly). Powerful voice, full throated and tuneful swara lagav and most importantly fantastic planning - taking into account the psychology of the audience - were the main features of her performance. Superb! A very minor complaint - while Arunaji ably sang both of Pt. Bhimsenji's bhajan's very well, the laya for both the songs in original recordings is much faster. This could have been very easily addressed.

 

Tejendra Mujumdar (Sarod)

Tabla: Vijay Ghate

 

Tejendraji started his recital with raga Kedar (aalaap, jod, jhala, vilambit and drut gats in teen taal). His aalaaps were true to the sublime nature of the raga - very tuneful, contained excellent meend work. His treatment of tivra madhyam and komal nishad was delicate and subtle - kyaa baat hai! The gats were presented quite well. Tejendraji played a dhun in Mishra Mand set to deepchandi for a "one more" request.

 

Excellent Sarod performance! A couple of observations - some of the sessions with tabla were a bit noisy  (what's new?) and more importantly a couple of longish tihai sessions during the madhyalaya gat that ended on tara shadja were grossly out of tune (much sharper) unlike the rest of the performance which was very tuneful.

 

Vijay Ghate's tabla accompaniment always belongs to its own class.

 

Smt. Prabha Atre (Vocal)

Tabla: Mukundraj Deo, Harmonium: Suyog Kundalkar

 

This time the honor of concluding 56th Sawai Gandharva Sangeet Mahotsav was given to Smt. Prabha Atre. Prabhaji began her concert with raga Madhukauns (khyal in vilambit ektaal - mohan shyam salona followed by bandish in drut teen taal - manena manena manena). Prabhaji captivated the audience right at onset. The raga vistaar was very carefully and aesthetically done. The taans were crisp and clear. Prabhaji followed Madhukauns with Chandrakauns (bandish in madhyalaya ektaal - saguna sarup nandalala followed by a tarana in drut teen taal). Prabhaji concluded her performance with a bhairavi dara (mori maili ho gayee re chunariya kaise jaun mai piki nagariya) and bhajan (jagat janani bhavatarini mohini tu navadurga).

 

Excellent performance loved by all (and yours truly)! It was quite evident that Prabhaji and her students who provided vocal support had warmed up their voices in the greenroom. This must be applauded as it shows professionalism and should be practiced by all artists. The quality of vocal support artists singing was excellent. The coordination was superb - an indicator of careful planning and preparation. The choice of bandishes and attention to lyrics was remarkable. Now some complaints… lack of antara in vilambit khyal as well as absence of full throated tara shadja (or even pancham in case of Madhukauns). These are missed - exactly the way absence of rice along with katachi aamti is missed at the end of a meal featuring excellent puran poli! Note that the absence of rice has no bearing on the quality of puran poli - but the meal feels incomplete.

 

Mukundraj Deo and Suyog Kundalkar provided appropriate saath sangat.

 

After this as is customary the 56th Sawai Gandharva Sangeet Mahotsav proceedings concluded with a recording of Sawai Gandharva's rendering of bhairavi thumri being played while the audience stood in his honor.

Thank you!

Warm regards,

Bansuriwala