Tunes of friendship

Tunes of friendship

MANJARI SINHA

The Friendship Concert struck all the right notes and a concert by debutants held promise.

IN HARMONY Violinist Anupriya Deotale and Ameer Khusro (below) during the "Friendship Concert" in New Delhi . PHOTOS: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and Ameer Khusro Centre for Music jointly organised a Friendship Concert at the Kamani Auditorium recently.

It was supposed to be a trio of musicians from Pakistan, Canada and India with vocal and instrumental music but Akbar Ali, the vocalist from Pakistan, could not make it. Hence, Anupriya Deotale from India and Anwar Khurshid from Canada presented an evening of instrumental music on violin and sitar.

Anupriya was initiated in to classical music by P.L. Dandwate. She learnt violin later under S.L. Kandara and Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and is presently training under Pandit Ram Narayan. Anwar Khurshid, the director of Sitar Institute, Toronto, on the other hand, started his vocal training under Arif Jaffery and performed from Radio Peshawar before switching over to sitar under Nasiruddin Khan. He also learnt tabla from Tufail Khan. Anwar is presently training under Ustad Shahid Parwez.

Both Anupriya and Anwar took their solo turns before concluding the Friendship Concert with a jugalbandi (duet) on violin and sitar .

Impressive

Anupriya opened the concert with raga Jhinjhoti, playing aalap, a slow composition in Jhap tala followed by two compositions in medium and fast tempo Teen tala. She impressed with her bowing technique, especially during the gamak ang taans. She also showed a good command over sur and laya which never missed its mark. Gyan Singh accompanied her on the tabla but most of the time his repartees had nothing to do with what Anupriya played on violin except for the tisra gati ka kaam.

Anwar Khurshid’s raga Desh on the sitar came as the second choice after Anupriya’s main raga Jhinjhoti. One could notice the rounded tonal quality of his guru Shahid Parvez’s sitar in his tuneful rendering of the melodious raga. The brief introductory aalap was followed by the masitkhani and razakhani gat compositions set to Teen tala. Anwar played the raga with repose, totally devoid of artifice or gimmicks, but the sense of spontaneity was missing and it sounded like a lesson learnt by heart. Jitendra Kumar Swain gave him commendable support on the tabla. The concert concluded with a jugalbandi in raga Kirwani where Anupriya overshadowed the guest artiste.

Debut concert

Amaltas auditorium at New Delhi’s India Habitat Centre recently saw the debut concert by the gifted disciples of Shubha Mudgal and Aneesh Pradhan. Called ‘Arambh’, the evening opened with the vocal recital of Shantanu Herelekar, a young disciple of Shubha, who presented raga Bihag with full confidence. Abhimanyu, the disciple of Pradhan, who also accompanied Shantanu, gave a tabla solo performance in Teen tala. The gifted adolescents Shantanu and Abhimanyu are siblings and are pursuing their chosen art forms with dedication.

Shweta Deshpande, who gave a vocal recital as the concluding performer, comes from a music-loving family of Nanded. She has been learning from Shubha for the past four years. Shweta has an open aakar and maintains a consistent tunefulness. She opened with the timely raga Yaman and gave it an orderly and artistic treatment during the slow Ek tala and madhya Teen tala compositions.

She concluded her vocal recital with a lilting Dadra in Pilu. Vinay Mishra on harmonium and Sandesh Raje on tabla gave her the most desired support.