Sargam School of Music has been presenting a variety of programmes for the past several years. On July 10 they presented one of the popular names in Hindustani Classical Music, Pandit Rajendra Kandalgaonkar, at Fickling Centre.
The event was a culmination of the idea mooted by the student of Pt Kandalgaonkar, Shri Balamohan Shingade. He has been learning the craft for over 2 years from Panditiji. The evening started with the disciple giving glimpses of his understanding of the classical raagas and accompanying Balamohan was Basant Madhur on Tabla and Roshan, a student of Shukdev and Sargam School, on the Harmonium. This set the mood for the evening which saw a mixed section of crowd both Indian and Kiwi, who were given a taste of Hindustani music.
A Jugalbandi between the percussion duo of Basant and Deepak Madhur changed the mood of the evening and had everybody tapping to the beats of the Tabla. A medley of tempo and beats was the highlight of their Jugalbandi.
Pandit Kandalgaonkar opened the second half with a rendition of raag ‘Sudha Kalyan’. Sung in the evening hours, this raag is pentatonic in the ascent and heptatonic in the descent.The ascent is identical to Bhoop/Bhupali, while the descent is identical to Yaman/Kalyan. His rendition was flawless. He followed this up with raag Jog, with Panditiji had Basant Madhur on Tabla and Shukdev on Harmonium.
Panditji then moved on to a Thumri based on ‘Pilu’. Pilu is a light raag commonly used to express joy, devotion, happiness and love. The evening was now really turning up to the audiences as Panditji then moved to some light classical. He first sang the famous abhang by Pandit Jitendra Abhisheki, ‘Abir Gulal Udhalit Rang’. The audiences couldn’t stop appreciating the wonderful rendition of the abhang. A noteworthy fact was; despite the language of this abhang being ‘Marathi’ Shukdev and Basant had no problems playing to the correct notes, re-enforcing the fact that music had no boundaries. On popular demand Panditji then sang his Guru’s popular abhang ‘Pandhari Niwasa’.
He then concluded the evening with a Bhairavi of an unusual kind. On a personal request, he sang ‘Babul Mora’ which has been rendered by several noteworthy artists in the past. Wajid Ali Shah, the originator of this Bhairavi, had sung this Bhairavi for the first time in his court when he received the news of abdication of his throne by the British.
Overall the concert was a treat to the lovers of Hindustani classical music.