FOR THE City’s connoisseurs of classical music, the recently concluded three-day Rajarani music festival hosted by the Department of Tourism in association with Bhubaneswar Music Circle offered the rare opportunity of meeting the highly acclaimed Sufi singers Wadali Brothers. Singing the songs of love and devotion in their unique style that harmoniously blends Sufi, Hindustani vocal and qawwali, the duo lifted the audience into a trance through their rendition.
The other artiste who made a mark on the audience was young Hindustani vocalist Pandit Kaivalya Kumar Gaurav of Dharwad in Maharashtra famous for the Kirana gharana.
An amazing tonal clarity at the high pitch was the hallmark of this brilliant khayal singer who captivated with his renditions of the Marathi abhang number.
Similarly, Orissa’s budding Hindustani vocalist sisters – Mita and Rita Patnaik from Khurda – made their impressive debut in the national festival with rendition of ragas Rageshri and Jog. Chemistry worked well between the siblings except occasionally during their elaboration in the higher octave.
Two senior artistes of the state – tabla exponent Umesh Chendra Kar and Odissi singer Arati Misra – were also featured in the festival. Kar, who presented tabla lahara along with his disciples, spoke a lot before and during his presentation that appeared like a lecture demonstration than a concert.
Mishra’s recital included the rare raga Mathura and Mukhari.
The classical crossover segment of the festival – a welcome addition to the festival’s format made two years ago – featured an unusual concert of four instrumentalists belonging to Hindustani, Odissi, Carnatic and Japanese music traditions.
Sitarist Sahana Banarjee (Mumbai ) , tabla player Biplab Bhattacharya (Kolkata), marching and djembe player Pramath Kiran (Bengaluru), Odissi mardal Guru Dhaneswar Swain (Bhubaneswar) and American musician T. M.Hoffman (who stays in India and plays both the Japanese string instrument of koto and wind instrument of shakuhachi) attempted to bring in a confluence of their creativity.
While individually all of them excelled, their coming of together lacked coherence apparently for lack of enough rehearsal.
The miss of the festival, like last year, was Carnatic music.
shyamharichakra@gmail.com