A toast to classics

Music virtuoso Pt Ravi Shankar is synonymous with the amplitude of greatness that Indian classical music signifies. His art and versatility does not need re-recognition with which musicians and music lovers across the world are quite familiar. And so in an attempt to celebrate the perennial genre of music and dance and to commemorate sitar maestro Bharat Ratna Ravi Shankar on his 96th birth anniversary and 73rd birth anniversary of his beloved friend George Harrison, a four-day music and dance festival was held in the national Capital from February 4-7. 

The festival, which was presented by The Ravi Shankar Centre, was a grand affair for the art lovers as it provided a platform for the best of art to be showcased and get acknowledged.

The first performance on the opening day was given by Swarnima Gusain who is also a senior disciple of Ganasaraswati Kishori Amonkar. Swarnima presented a famous composition of Pt Ravi Shankar from the film Mira and ended her performance with a bhajan in Mand. The evening ended with a scintillating sitar recital by Anupama Bhagwat, who started her performance with raga Rageshree followed by a Dadra dhun in raga Misra Piloo. 

Second day of the festival witnessed the breath taking performance by Abhishek Lahiri who played gat in rupak and teentaal of raga Yaman and ended his recital with raga Misra Piloo.  A breathtaking Kathak performance by Abhimanyu Lal and Vidha Lal summed up the performances for the evening, which left the audience wanting for more.

The audiences were regaled with an engrossing performance of Naatya– Katha Krishna by Padma Vibhushan Dr Sonal Mansingh on the evening of the third day. The day concluded with a soulful and enriching vocal presentation by Indrani Mukherjee.

On the last day of the festival vocalist Sudha Raghuraman presented Nattai, Charukesi, Yaman Kalyan, Vasanti and Tillana Ragesri.  The concluding presentation was sitar recital by Gaurav Mazumdar who played raga Shyam Kalyan, Saraswati and Misra Piloo.  

Guests comprised of some renowned names like Sukanya Shankar, Shri Morari Bapu, Arun Bharatram, Vinay Bharatram, Surendra Kumar, Shubhendra Rao, Saskia de Haas, Richa Anirudh, 

Pratibha Prahlad, Sharon Lowen, Anshuman Pandey among several others, who were mesmerised by the amazing performances.