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A garland of ragas

Bengal Classical Music Fest ends on a high note

Aloke Kumar Sen and Zahangir Alom
The third Bengal Classical Music Festival wrapped up on a high note, with Dhaka music lovers looking forward to the return of the world's biggest classical musical extravaganza in 2015.
The five-day long festival brought together many evocative features. The creation of history in terms of the largest gathering (over 55,000) on the penultimate day excelled the prestige and gravity of the festival. The exit of a sublime soul (the eminent Qayyum Chowdhury) left us in tears. Legendary sarod maestroUstad Amjad Ali Khan augmented that pathos paying rich tribute to the revered artist through styling gamak-based moaning melody.
The maestro started off with offering Raga Khamaj. The sweetness of his recital mingled with the tunes Of Tagore song and a folk dhun that kept the audience rapt. Next, starting with raga Bhairavi, the maestro played Bilashkhani-ang alap for five
minutes. It's thought that the legendary Bilash Khan made his father Mian Tansen come alive for a while from death through rendering the raga. So, Amjad Ali Khan's recital of the raga might be thought as an effort to soul-searching for Qayyum Chowdhury. He later returned to playing raga Bhairavi and recited a gat set on Raga Todi on teentaal anddrutektaal.
The sarodia fashioned a musical high through weaving a garland of melodies with several ragas - Jogia, Gunkeli, Lalit, Bhupal Todi, Bairagi and Anand Bhairavi. The performance appeared transcendental as tabla artiste Satyajit Talwalkar and pakhawaj artsite Pt. Fateh Singh Gangani generated divine rhythms. Ustad Amjad Ali Khan instigated the percussionist duo in styling torrents of beats. Later, the trio created a musical mahol following jugalbandi and a sawal-jawab recital. The audience was bound to immerse in the melodic bliss.
Pandit Uday Bhawalkar performed an immaculate dhrupad based on a romantic raga Behag. "Kaha Se Turn Mad Pi Aaye Ho” were the words of the dhrupad bandish. Pratap Awad accompanied the performance on dhamar taal. His second rendition of the bandish "Madhav Maan Bhayo" was on sur-phank-taal.
Vidushi Ashwini Bhide Deshpande mesmerised the crowd with her presentation of Raga Jog. The renowned vocalist
used both komal and shudh nishad in rendering the raga.
The devotional bandish "Pratham Maan Allah Jinhe Racho Hain Noor-e Paak Nabijee Pe Rakh Iman" (on vilambit teentaal) presentation earned her accolades. Ashwini Deshpande beautified her offerings with precise murki, pukar, boltaan, aakar, bahelawa and off beat taan. She later performed a tarana "Tana Dere Na Tare Dani" on drut teentaal and wrapped up her part performing Raga Paraj. Pandit Yogesh Samsi on tabla and Gourab Chatterjee on harmonium accompanied the vocalist.
Bangladeshi artiste M. Maniruzzaman superbly presented Raga Bageshree on his flute. He evoked the desired mood of the raga. The artiste earned applause reciting several speedy yet sweet tehai. Iftekhar Alam Pradhan on tabla and Sushen Kumar Roy on pakhawaj accompanied the flautist while Shari ar Zaman was on surmandal and Moumita Zaman wasontanpura.
Vidushi Kishori Amonkar started off her maiden performance in the prestigious festival through rendering raga Kedar. Bharat Kamat on tabla, Milind Raikar on violin, Suyog Kundalkar on harmonium and Tejashree Bibhas Amonkar and Nandini Bedekar on tanpura and vocal support accompanied the eminent vocalist. The artiste's presentation of ektaal
bandish was "Raam Naam Dhan" while vilambit teentaal bandish was "Payo Payo Re Morey". Through styling outstanding ragdari vistar, bol-bahelawa, pukar together with beautiful gamak and some harmonised musical phrases, she won the hearts of music lovers. Later, she presented another bandish “Jhanaka Jhanaka Payal Mori" at the festival.
Prior to that, a number of eminent Bangladeshi artistes rendered three songs in chorus to set off the closing day's performances, singing "Amar Bhai'er Rokte Rangano", "Dhonyo Dhonyo Boli Taare" and "Ei Padma Ei Meghna". Kathak prodigy Vishal Krishna was next, enthralling the audience in a scintillating display of visual poetry with fluidity, speed and grace as he performed Shiv Bandana, different paran, ladi, chakradar, tehai and compositions.
The Bengal Classical Music Festival Bangaldesh 2014, presented by Square Group, spanned 55 hours over five nights from November 27 and hosted some of the most revered names of Hindustani and Carnatic classical music. Tens of thousands, from all ages and strata swarmed the magnificent event every night.
The Daily Star was a strategic partner to the event, alongside The Daily Prothom Alo. Brae Bank supported the initiative.