Exploring seven swars at Sapthak

Sapthak Bangalore had organised Swara Sanje, an evening of Hindustani music, featuring the concerts of violinist Durga Sharma and vocalist Arshad Ali Khan. The latter is the Kolkata-based scion of the illustrious family of Ustad Abdul Karim Khan and Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan, the pioneering exponents of Kirana Gharana.

Durga Sharma’s felicity with the strings was discernible in her delineation of raag Bihag. She explored the khayal ang in consonance with the gayaki style, making her violin reproduce many vocal modulations. She began with a meditative alap in the Vilambit Ek taal cycle, (of 12 beats) in the ‘purvanga pradhan Bihag raag’.

Durga wove delicate patterns around the characteristic ‘raagvachak’ phrase, dwelling on vadi gandhar and samvadi nishad notes in a myriad aesthetically pleasing combinations, sketching the gestalt of this beautiful evening melody. The mood of the raag was brought out well through elegant handling of the shuddh and teevra madhyam swaras.

Durga showed her command over the instrument in her solo violin recital, a rarity in Hindustani music today. She was trained under Pt. Ramesh Nadkarni, Supriya Bose, and Pt. Shailendra Janardhan.

Range of emotions

In the faster Drut Teen taal composition, the taans traversed the gamut of the aroha and avaroha with ease and precision, conveying the myriad bhaavs and rasas. The lilting drut composition was also a rhythmic delight marked by breathtaking sapat, palat and alankarik taans, enhanced by the tabla accompaniment of Sumith Naik, who impeccably reciprocated her improvisations. In a dhun in raag Desh, Durga wove a series of tender moods, while the bhajan theka created an incantatory effect.

With his prodigious vocal resources, Arshad Ali Khan, grandson of sarangi exponent Ustad Shakur Khan and disciple of Ustad Mushkoor Ali Khan and Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan, his maternal uncles, began with the late evening melody, raag Purya Kalyan. The striking aspects of his raagvistar in the Vilambit Ektaal khayal, ‘Par karo naiyya mori’, were part of a quintessential Merukhand alap, the distinctive feature of Kirana gayaki, where each swar is capable of horizontal expansion, with the evident influence of sarangi and  been instruments on the production of the voice, alapchari and meends.

Arshad Ali Khan
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The evocation stood out for its melodious meanderings, adhering scrupulously to the salient characteristics of the gharana yet marked by individuality. The badhat revealed the hallmark of Kirana gayaki, building the edifice of the raag slowly and meticulously, by adding each note in a progressive order.

Arshad Ali Khan’s sprightly taankari in the Drut Tarana composition in Teental (16 beats), with an array of choot taans, ulat-palat taans, gitkhidi, dugun taans and sargam taans.

Sarfaraz Khan on the sarangi and Pt. Rajendra Nakod on the tabla made the concert a melodic-rhythmic feast.

After Purya Kalyan, the vocalist moved on to raag Kedar. The bandish in madhyalaya Teental, ‘Sagari raina tadpat beeti’ sparkled with intricate alap sequences and deployment of the two madhyams: shuddh and komal, bringing out relatively unexplored dimensions of this raag. His speedy sargams in the Chaturang composition in Drut Ektaal was accentuated by Pt. Rajendra Nakod’s awe-inspiring  sangat.

On audience request, Arshad Ali Khan sang the beautiful thumri, ‘Koyaliya sunave, mujhe biraha satave’ in Mishra Khamaj. The subtlety with which he explored the nuances of Khamaj, intermingling strains of raag Jhinjhoti, highlighted the blend of poetry and music. Pt. Rajendra Nakod, again rising to the occasion, came up with scintillating phrases in the laggi, making for a memorable finale.

The Bengaluru-based reviewer is a trained musician.