On a Classical Note

Prabha Atre

A disciple of Pt Bhimsen Joshi from the year 1991 to the time of the maestro’s death, vocalist Vijay Rajput, made his debut at the 65th Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Mahotsav on Wednesday against the setting sun. He dedicated his performance to his late guru. Born in Delhi and now based in England where he teaches at the Newcastle University, Rajput recalled his years of training under the late master. “Performing on the stage of Sawai Gandharva festival is a rare honour,” he said. For his debut, he chose three compositions — the first in the melodic Puriya Kalyan usually played from evening to night and another in raag Pilu followed by a bhajan. But if there was an artiste who managed to really grasp the audience’s attention on the first day, it was Pt Debashish Bhattacharya on his chaturangi, a slide guitar with 24 strings.

Indian raga thrives on improvisations and during Bhattacharya’s performance there was no dearth of any. Introducing a new finger style as well as playing style combining the thumb and index finger, he produced the fast taans and a strong jhala. Bhattacharya, who performed on the prestigious stage for the first time, recalled his association with Joshi. He spoke about the first time he heard the maestro’s voice over the only transistor in his village, to the time he performed before the late artiste in a music festival in 1998. Later in the day, veteran vocalist duo of Benaras gharana,Pt Rajan and Sajan Mishra, took to the revered stage. The day ended with a mesmerising flute performance by Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia.

A mix of veteran and new artistes are a part of the festival this year. A total of 28 artistes will perform on the stage till Sunday including veterans and nine young artistes. These include Bhuvanesh Komkali, grandson of Kumar Gandharv; Kaushiki Chakraborty, disciple and daughter of Ajay Chakrabarty; veteran vocalist Pt Jasraj; Pt Ulhas Kashalkar; Jaipur-Atrauli gharana’s Aarti Ankalikar-Tikekar, and National Award-winning vocalist Mahesh Kale, and sitar player Ustad Shujaat Khan, among others. As per the tradition, the festival will end with a performance by veteran vocalist Prabha Atre of Kirana gharana.