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Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Bickram Ghosh lead celebration of classical music by Suromurchhana
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Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Bickram Ghosh lead celebration of classical music by Suromurchhana
Six-hour long event at Uttam Mancha marks 101st birth anniversary of Pandit A. Kanan and pays tribute to Malabika Kanan
By
Priyam Marik |
Published 23.06.22, 03:12 PM
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June 18 witnessed a packed Uttam Mancha in Kalighat play host to Suromurchhana’s Annual Music Festival 2022, an event headlined by Padma Bhushan Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, who performed on the Mohan Veena. He was accompanied by Kolkata’s very own Bickram Ghosh on the tabla. The evening marked the commemoration of the 101st birth anniversary of the late Pandit A. Kanan, and also paid tribute to the late Vidushi Malabika Kanan, the one who had envisioned Suromurchhana, before it was founded in 2007
Photos: Arijit Sen
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Bhatt presented the Biswaranjani raga followed by a dhun from his Grammy Award-winning album, A Meeting by the River. “I’m grateful to Kolkata and its people for keeping the tradition of classical music alive,” said Bhatt prior to his performance. “We’ve been performing for over 30 years now and have done hundreds of concerts together. The chemistry and camaraderie we share is rare and special. The evening at Uttam Mancha was a phenomenal occasion in terms of what we could express through our music,” added Ghosh
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The event had begun in the afternoon with an inaugural performance delivered by Debopam Goswami, a cardiologist and budding vocalist, accompanied by Abhirup Roy on the tabla and Anirban Chakraborty on the harmonium. They presented the Multani raga along with a short composition in Gaud Malhar
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Anjan Saha on the sitar and Rupak Bhattacharjee on the tabla presented Bhimpalasi, an afternoon raga rarely heard at a live concert
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The Puriya Dhanashree raga was performed by Dhananjay Hegde, a former child prodigy whose music combines the Kirana and Gwalior gharanas, with Soumen Sarkar on the tabla and Hiranmoy Mitra on the harmonium. The trio also delighted the audience with a brief composition in raga Durga
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The penultimate performance featured another trio, with Somnath Roy, a versatile percussionist, displaying the full range of the north Indian style of playing the ghatam
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Subhajyoti Guha, from the Farrukhabad gharana, dazzled on the tabla as he and Roy presented teen taal and adi taal
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The harmonium was played once more by Hiranmoy Mitra, who did not miss a beat all evening. Speaking about the event, Sanjoy Banerjee, the founder of Suromurchhana, said: “The celebration of classical music started in Kolkata this year and will be celebrated in several places in the US. Everyone excelled in their performances today and our thanks go out to the people of Kolkata who assembled in numbers to listen to the artists.” Besides organising concerts, Suromurchhana, which has a branch in New York, also trains musicians and hosts workshops with the singular aim of preserving and promoting Indian classical music. The organisation’s activities are guided by Banerjee and Namami Karmakar
