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WORLD'S BIGGEST CLASSICAL MUSIC FEST

A grand celebration of melody

Sadya Afreen Mallick
The sun was just slipping into darkness when our small entourage reached the zamindar palace at Gouripur, Mymensingh. Travelling with us was Irshad Khan, the noted surbahar player of this generation and descendant of the Khan gharana, the legendary court musicians who performed for the royalty in the courts at Gouripur.
As we walked the palace ground ruins, an anticlimactic feeling descended on the group. The dilapidated courtyard looked a forlorn collage of weeds, crumbling walls and faded paint. It seemed as if a proud symbol of heritage and power had been allowed to die an agonised death.
The silent courtyard spoke of the fate of practicing the classical arts in East Bengal, now Bangladesh. What had been the masterful pitch of Ustads reverberating across Mukhtagacha, Gouripur, Dhaka, Comilla, Barisal, Rajshahi and Ghittagong had slowly ebbed into hushed echoes. The sitar, pakhwaj, and esraj that had strummed so feverishly side by side with the vocalists had inevitably been orphaned to stillness.
I tried to visualise sitar maestro Ustad Enayet Khan (Irshad Khan's grand-father), legendary Ustad Vilayet Khan's father - the last ofTansen gharana - playing a soothing raga for Zamindar Kishore Rai Chowdhury of Gouripur. Tabla maestro Ustad Keramatullah's father and Ustad Wazir Khan - mentor of Ustad Allauddin Khan and Hafiz Ali Khan, all permanently trained at Gouripur, would doubtless perform with the I Istads also.
With the fall of the zamindari system, classical musicians lost much of their patronage. Many predicted an untimely demise of the art. In India, to counter this fate, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru - a music lover himself - made it mandatory to air six hours of classical music on radio everyday. Classical music in Bangladesh was less fortunate. Over decades, the classical arts suffered from lack of patronage and promotion. Slowly, the practice lost its popular appeal and was pushed into the confines of a somewhat elitist circle.
Against this backdrop, the unprecedented warm response to Bengal Foundation's Classical Concert in 2012 caught many by surprise.
Thousands of enthusiasts of all ages descended upon the Army Stadium to listen to all-night performances by the maestros of music, dance and classical instruments. All four nights in a row, not a single seat was left unoccupied.
Bengal's 15 year contract with the leading Indian classical training institute - ITC Sangeet Research Academy - was greeted with mild incredulity when it was signed in 2011. The logistics of providing free admission to fill a 20,000 seat stadium with music lovers listen to an open air performance by over 100 artistes from home and abroad seemed an ambition too far. The success of 2012 was proof of the deep love we seem to have preserved solely for music.
The visionary behind the event, Abul Khair Litu, Chairman of Bengal Foundation, is, as
expected, excited on the eve of the second such Musical Festival to be hosted in Dhaka from November 28-Dec 1. Bengal's vision, according to him, is to embrace classical music in its various forms and make it accessible to all. In short, spark a musical revolution.
The Army Stadium as a venue proved to be a stroke of genius. With its well maintained grounds, huge canopy and on-ground security, it convinced even first timers to make the journey from all parts of the city. An international food court and a well organised staff added to the overall enjoyment.
In many ways, the stadium dons an air of royalty as the concert preparations start again. Gone are the lost empires and courts. Enter the new generation of patrons and music lovers. All one needs is the mindset to immerse oneself in
the sea of music of the ages and be part of the experience as classical maestros at their peak perform their art.
Close your eyes as you listen to Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia draw an image of Krishna on a riverbank playing the tune of eternal love on his flute. Or watch Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma on the Santoor from the Kashmir valleys, strumming the soft sound of water as it glides from the waterfall on to the rugged hilly road.
For those who enjoy vocals, experience the mastery of the open, powerful voice, the broad gamaks, the lightening taans, mellifluous quality of phrasing and the typical style of khayal and thumri execution of Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarti and Ustad Rashid Khan. The enjoyment of listening to the romantic thumri by octogenarian Vidushi Girija Devi under a moon-
lit sky is second to none.
Luva Nahid Ghoudhury, Director General of Bengal Foundation, has been tirelessly leading the organisational and logistical aspects of the concert. She hopes that the event will provide a much needed exposure to classical music and reignite interest amongst our budding artistes in the art form. With Bengal's push to open music training centers, she hopes the initiative will provide a strong support to students of classical music in the country.
Last year's concert went a long way to diminishing the harsh image of the Gouripur ruins from my mind. The electrifying atmosphere and the raw passion I witnessed amongst the performers and the listeners give me hope for the future. Let us put our hands together and welcome the musical greats into our royal courts.