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The confluence of music at LearnQuest
fest
By Dr. David Reck, Emeritus
Professor, Amherst College, U.S.
Renowned Indian flautist, Hariprasad Chaurasia, played deep
into the night. Exquisite melodies fluttered like birds into
our ears, and creative imagination flowed endlessly like pure
water from a fresh spring, as we listened entranced.
He had gone through his fixed programme and now was playing
informally, browsing through his vast repertoire of musical
knowledge. "What ragas do you want to hear?’’
he asked, speaking directly to us like an old acquaintance at
the end of a long and mellow evening of conversation. Who were
we? We felt like rajas and ranis sitting in the music rooms
of our palaces perhaps. At least for the moment!
Actually we, the audience, were sitting at the feet of the great
Hindusthani flautist at the final concert of three nights and
two full days and evenings of Indian music at LearnQuest Conference
2008 (April 9 to April 13) in Waltham, Massachusetts, just outside
Boston.
Chaurasia's magical informal post-concert 40-minute encore was
a fitting crowning moment of what had been many memorable moments
by musicians - young and old, stalwarts, legends, scholars,
mid-career vidwans and fresh faces - who had come from three
continents-- each contributing insight into the intricacies
of a particular style or their own unique voice or instrument.
Carnatic Music, Hindusthani Music, Jugalbandi, and Fusion all
found a place, and were arranged with an intelligence that made
each refreshing in sound and style, off-setting each other like
paintings in a good museum.
The series began on a high note at the Museum of Fine Arts with
Pt. Debashish Bhattacharya (Hindusthani guitar) and Sutapa Bhattacharya
(vocal), with Subhashish Bhattacharya (tabla) and continued
on Wednesday at MIT with Nataraj, a group that combined fine
jazz musicians - Phil Scarff (sax), Mike Rivard (bass), Jerry
Leake (tabla), and Bertram Lehman (drums) - with an interest
in India's music with three guest virtuosi on Indian instruments
- Ronu Majumdar and Shashank (bamboo flutes) and Parupali Phalgun
(mridangam). That all musicians were fully at ease and on the
same wavelength proved the links between music East and West,
United States and India. Raga, the interesting documentary film
on Ravi Shankar, which was underwritten by former Beatle George
Harrison, was also shown. On Friday night, the festival moved
to Waltham into the very comfortable auditorium with its good
sight lines and perfect acoustics at the McDevitt School in
Waltham. A jugalbandi concert featured Shashank and Phalgun
from the south and Ronu Majumdar (Hindusthani flute) with Ramdas
Palsule (tabla), followed by a Hindusthani vocal recital featuring
the rich voice and astounding improvisation skills of Pt. Prabhakar
Karekar.
On Saturday, the music began in the morning and would not end
until the late hours of the evening. Sarod, sitars and Hindusthani
vocalists spun out expansive alaps, jor and jhalas in a variety
of rags while the entry of tabla propelled the music forward
to tremendous speed and virtuosity. The Carnatic musicians sang
and played their alapanas, kritis, and svara kalpanas with vigor
and subtle expression.
Two fine Hindusthani singers -- Kumkum Sanyal and Pt. Madhav
Gudi -- were followed by a pair of excellent Carnatic singers
- Geetha Murali and Abhishek Raghuram. Particularly notable
was the young violin accompanist Rasika Murali who played with
great confidence and skill. Anirban Dasgupta brought the sweet
and mellow sound of the sarod to our ears, leading to the high
water mark of the Gundecha Brothers singing dhrupad with Akhilesh
Gundecha on pakhawaj. It would be interesting to take the Gundecha
brothers over to the acoustical labs at MIT to try to analyse
the miracles which they achieve with the human voice. Sound
melting in and out of each other, responding, interacting, and
at other times settling on blending sustained tones and drones,
harmonics (overtones) appear and buzz around like mosquitoes
on a July night. Why does dhrupad not have a zillion fans? It
is a mystery to me. We must thank LearnQuest for bringing this
all too seldom heard genre to the fore.
The evening ended with the senior Hindusthani vocalist Dr. Prabha
Atre whose elegant phrases demonstrated a lifetime's experience
in music. Her original compositions were startlingly beautiful.
And finally, there was the Sitar and Legacy Group featuring
the father and son team of Pt. Partha and Puryaban Chatterjee,
the latter undoubtedly an astonishing virtuoso. The sound system
throughout was excellent, but it must be noted that some prima
donnas made a display of excessive fussiness about amplification,
delaying the beginning of concerts and disrupting the music
itself during performance. Mature and seasoned musicians simply
walk onto the stage and play.
Sunday started with a lecture demonstration by Shri Vikras Telang
on Semi-classical genres in Hindusthani vocal music. Warren
Senders (Hindusthani vocal) performed with aplomb and confidence.
Dr. Jayanthi Kumaresh gave an impressive recital on veena, displaying
great virtuosity and imagination, especially in her tanam and
svaras, and a realization for a listener that the great innovative
virtuoso S. Balachander casts a long shadow. Ustad Shujaat Khan
brought his command and the aura of his illustrious family tradition
(his father is Vilayat Khan) and a demonstration of the unique
sound and style of his tradition. |
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Two huge names from the Carnatic Music vocal
tradition filled out the afternoon and evening. O.S. Thiagarajan
brought his command, strong voice and classic repertoire
to the stage. His rendition of Kharaharpriya leading to
Tyagaraja's Chakkani raja as the main piece was a textbook
in raga lakshana, the interpretation of the kriti beautiful,
and the svara kalpana passages, simply put, wonderful.
The ever-popular Aruna Sairam brought the expected enthusiasm
and dominant stage presence and joyful love of music in
a series of lovely songs, culminating in a highly unusual
and creative ragam, tanam, pallavi. Her devotional songs
at the end certainly transported the audience into another
realm, and were the high point of the concert which due
to time restraints ended all too soon or at least it felt
that way after the two hour concert. |
| And then there was Hariprasad
Chaurasia , the perfect conclusion for five days of music
in the festival, as already described. |
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As always, the drummers were an important
and essential part of each performance. Many did double
or triple duty. Among those whose fingers flew across
drumheads and whose rhythms astounded us were Anindo Chatterjee,
Samir Chatterjee, J. Vaidyanathan, Vishal Nagar, Ganapathy
Ram, Akshay Navaladi, Muruga Bhupathy, Nishikant Sonwalkar,
Anubratta Chatterjee, and Mahalingam Santhanakrishnan.
Others who contributed their skills on violin were H.N.
Bhaskar, Mysore Srikanth, and Raghavendra Rao. Accompanists
on harmonium were Kedar Naphde, Stan Scott, Madhu Vora,
and Milind Joshi. As a rasika, I am sure I speak for all
in thanking the planning committee of LearnQuest Academy,
the many volunteers and the many cooks who brought home-cooked
"music" for the taste-buds to complement the
music for the ears.
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