The fourth night of the world’s biggest classical music festival titled ‘Bengal Classical Music Festival 2017’ ended with the stellar sitar performance by noted Indian music maestros Pandit Budhaditya Mukherjee that continued till dawn on Saturday at Abahani Field in Dhanmondi of the capital.

Earlier in the evening at 7pm on Friday, directed by renowned dance exponent Sharmila Bandopadhyay, Nritya Chirantan, the dance recital had three parts, namely Manipuri, Bharatnatyam and Kathak by Sweety Das, Amit Chowdhury, Snata Shahrin, Sudeshna Shyamaprabha, Mehraj Haque Tushar and Zuairiyah Mouli. After the performance, Chairman of Bengal Foundation Abul Khair handed the crest to the artistes.

The next performance of the night was Raga Bhopali on the Sarod by students of Bengal Parampara Sangeetalay. The performers were Illham Fuljhuri Khan, Ishra Fuljhuri Khan, Aumbarish Das, Md. Saddam Hussain. Accompanying them were Latifun Julio on the Tanpura and Pinu Sen Das on the Tabla. The composition was done by Pandit Tehendra Narayan Majumdar. Kaushik Mukherjee conducted the performance. The festival crest was handed over to Ishra Fuljhuri Khan, the youngest of the performers by Momtaz Khalek, mother of the Chairman of Bengal Foundation Abul Khair Litu.

A mesmerising Khayal by Ustad Rashid Khan was the next attraction of the night. He performed Khayal in Raga Puriya and his own creation Raga Priyaranjini. He was accompanied by Nagnath Adgaonkar on vocal Pandit Subhankar Banerjee on the Tabla and Ajay Joglekar on the Harmonium and Ustad Sabir Khan on the sarengi. Information Minister Hasanul Huq Inu handed the crest to the artiste.

The Next performance was a jugalbandi of Sarod by Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar and Violin by Dr. Mysore Manjunath; They performed Raga  Simhendra Madhyamam. Pandit Yogesh Samsi was on the Tabla, while Arjun Kumar accompanied them on the Mredangam. Abul Khair, Chairman of Bengal Foundation along with Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, ndc, Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Industry handed the crest to the artiste.

The next highlighting performance of the night was Khayal in Raga Jog by Pandit Jasraj. He also performed Bhajan in Raga Durga. He was accompanied by Ram Kumar Mishra on the Tabla, Pandita Tripti Mukherjee on the Harmonium and Sridhar Parthasarathy on the Mridangam. Rattan Mohan Sharma rendered vocal support during the performance. Cultural Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Noor handed over the crest to the artiste.

The penultimate performance of the night, Cello by Saskia Rao de-Haas was an absolute crowd pleaser. She performed Raga Nandkauns and tunes from two popular songs by Rabindranath Tagore. Pandit Yogesh Samsi accompanied him on the Tabla and Tinku Sheel and Abhijit Kundu were on the Tanpura. Tapan Chowdhury, Director Square Group handed the crest to the artiste. The last performance of the night was Sitar by Pandit Budhaditya Mukherjee.Soumen Nandy accompanied him on the Tabla. He performed Raga lalit with Bistar and gat jhala. He finished the performance with Raga Bhairavi. The festival memento was handed over to the artiste by eminent architect Nahas Khalil.

On the other hand, last night (30 December) was the final day of the five-day ‘Bengal Classical Music Festival’ this year. The performance of the concluding day included Odissi by Vidushi Sujata Mohapatra; Mohan Veena by Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt; Khayal by Brajeswar Mukherjee; Sitar by Pandit Kushal Das and Kalyanjit Das and Khayal by Pandit Kaivalyakumar.

The sixth edition of the festival has been scheduled to conclude at dawn on Sunday (today) with the much-awaited flute by Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia.

Photo : jaki zaman

EA