Video of Sitar recital by Sayani Basu

During the memorial event for Late Prof Badal Das, Denner Milan Basu’s younger daughter Sayani Basu gave her first public performance on Sitar recital.

This is the recital’s video.

All are encouraged to watch it and comment on her performance.

A Memorial event for Late Prof Badal Das

On 1st December 2012, a small memorial event was organized by the disciples and students of Late Prof Badal Das, who passed away on 16th August 2012, at his home in Manoharpukur Road. Denner Milan Basu , who was one of his students, was actively involved in organizing the event. As a tribute to him, Milan says:

Prof Badal Das was a Sitarist of yesteryear. He was trained under the famous Surbahar and Sitar maestro Pandit Laxman Bhattacharya.

As a true artist and creative person, he was not only an accomplished Sitar player but was also proficient in painting, playing flute and singing Kali Kirtan and has passed on his legacy to a number of disciples and students he has left behind. He was also an excellent cook and not many people know that he used to spend a lot of time in kitchen experimenting with different recipes.

He was well known as a very kind hearted man and despite being a multifaceted talent, he had shunned popularity all his life and was very averse to self promotions.

He was also very fond of Pandit Nikhil Banerjee, while at the same time Pandit Nikhil Banerjee was also an admirer of Prof. Das’s music. It was a relation of elder and younger brothers between them.

Between the period 1970 to 1985, Prof Das was a regular performer in a number of classical music concerts. The last time he performed publicly was at Surya Sen Manch in Calcutta in the year 2003 for the “All India Music Festival”, where he played a brilliant raaga Bhimpalasi, accompanied by today’s famous Tabla player Sri Biplab Bhattacharya.

He left for his heavenly abode at a ripe age of 93 years on 16th August 2012. May his soul rest in peace.

Here is the photo album for the event if you are interested.

The second evening of Purav Ang Gayaki Utsav 2012 – 2013

In continuation of our last post reporting the first evening of Purav Ang Gayaki Utsav 2012 – 2013, let us now proceed to the second evening of the festival, held on 28th October 2012 at Chowdhury House, Calcutta.

The first participant of this evening was Smt Pallabi Ghatak, who started her presentation with a thumri on raaga Mishra Bhairavi (bansuria kaisi bajai ri) and next switched to a dadra on raaga Pilu (nath bisar balam).

Smt Santa Kundu was the next participant and she opened with a thumri on raaga Desh (mora saiyyan bulawe). Her second presentation was a dadra on raaga Majh Khamaj (aisi bedarda se).

The third participant was Smt Sohini Roy Chakraborty, who started with a thumri on raaga Mishra Khamaj (mori maano batiyaan) and then presented a dadra on raaga Kaushiddhwani (shyam tohe najaria).

The last participant, Smt Nandini Chakrabarty, a deciple of Smt Poornima Chaudhuri, presented a thumri on raaga Majh Khamaj (ab ke sawan ghar aa jaa) and ended the evening’s program with a dadra on raaga Bhairavi (jao main tose nahin bolun).

Throughout the two days covered by the festival, the accompanists Sri Jayshankar Mishra (tabla) and Smt Paromita Mukherjee (harmonium) worked tirelessly and brilliantly with all the eight participants.

A word on the Mrs Paromita Mukherjee – she was so magnificent at her harmonium skills that some of the alankars sounded more like being played on a flute rather than a harmonium! A disciple of late violinist Sri V G Jog, she left Calcutta a while back and now lives in Delhi. While Bengal should mourn losing her, we should be equally proud of her as a great Bengali artiste.

As in the past, the VSK Baithak 2012 – 2013 at the Chowdhury House was a delight for the audience. Superb aesthetics, great hospitality, attractive floral appointments and closeness to the artistes created a warm, cozy and homely atmosphere.

To illustrate, here’s a photo of the auditorium. This photo is a bigger one than the rest and was created by joining three normal photos. Click on the photo if you want to see its bigger version.

VSK Baithak Purab Ang Gayaki Utsav 2012 – 2013 being at Chowdhury House, Calcutta

We wish luck to all the participants and congratulate Sri V S Kapur on his sincere efforts to revive this particular tradition of Indian classical music. Hope to see you all next year!

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Update (05 Nov 12):

The photo of the auditorium is not being displayed for some reason unknown. This may be because of a WordPress bug which can’t resolve different formats of posts (Standard, Gallery etc.). However, here is a separate link for the photo if you want to have a look.

An evening of classical music with Sugata Marjit

Sitar recital by Saptarshi Hazra accompanied by Shankar Prosad Chowdhury

Sitar recital by Saptarshi Hazra accompanied by Shankar Prosad Chowdhury

Debu’da and Milan in front of Shishir Mancha

Debu’da with his friends and Milan in front of Shishir Mancha

Debu’da chatting with Milan in front of Shishir Mancha

Kheyal recital by Sugata Marjit

Kheyal recital by Sugata Marjit accompanied by Aurobinda Bhattacharjee

Kheyal recital by Sugata Marjit

Kheyal recital by Sugata Marjit accompanied by Aurobinda Bhattacharjee

In memory of the great music exponent late Krishna Chandra Banerjee, Sangeet Darbar arranged an evening of Indian classical music at Shishir Mancha last evening.

The program started with a sitar recital by Saptarshi Hazra. He was accompanied on the tabla by Shankar Prosad Chowdhury.

The next (and last) performer was Sugata Marjit (a disciple of late Krishna Chandra Banerjee, popularly known as “Keshto Babu”), for whom this performance was a tribute to his former teacher.

He started his repertoire of kheyals with raag Shankara (“Vamana Devata“) and followed it up with raag Chhayanat (“Jhana Nana“) and an excellent piece on raag Bahar.

Later he switched to raagpradhan Bengali songs (light classical / songs based ob raagas) and rendered three songs based on raag Nandkosh, raag Surdasi Malhar and raag Bhairavi.

He ended the evening’s performance with a short kheyal on raag Vasant on requests from the audience.

He was accompanied quite ably on tabla by Aurobinda Bhattacharjee and on harmonium by Pradip Palit.

Video clips will be posted soon – stay tuned.