Saptak festival: Music bridges classical traditions of North and South

The third day of the Saptak festival commenced with the recital of raga Jogkauns by vocalist Viraj Amar of Banaras gharana and a disciple of legendry vocalists and Padma Bhushan awardees Rajan and Sajan Mishra. Jajwalya Shukla, Nandan Mehta's disciple and son of the renowned poet of Gujarati literature Rajendra Shukla, accompanied Viraj on tabla.

Viraj Amar presented the nuances of khayal singing with poetic bandishes highlighting the bonding of swaras and songs. "Classical music is always thought to be predominantly focusing on the ragas and swaras. However, we point out that the poetry of the classical bandish too has significance as it adds to the melody of the music," said Viraj, who recited various rich poetic compositions in Jogkauns.

The prime attraction of the day was duet performance by Sitarist Ustad Shujat Khan Stalwart of northern music tradition and Shashank Subramaniam, a flute artist, the master of southern music tradition. Both the artists were well-known as child prodigy and have remained in the limelight ever since their first performance at the age of six. Two of country's best percussionists Pt Kumar Bose and Satish Kumar accompanied the duo on tabla and mridangam respectively. They offered raga Charukeshi as a special dedication to Saptak founder late Nandan Mehta.

Voicing his sentiments, artist Shujat Khan said, "I highly appreciate the dedication and efforts of Mehta's followers for taking his goal further. I urge the entire gamut of classical musicians to continue supporting the Saptak festival tradition. I also appeal the city to continue with its support in preserving the rare classical music heritage for next centuries."

Bamboo flutist Shashank said, "I feel extremely honoured to perform with artists like Shujat Khan. We had accompanied each other on the same platform in 2008. However, the kind of music that has spontaneously emerged in today's conference is entirely unique as it is played in the memory of Pt Mehta, a committed person, grand artist and originator of world's one of the biggest music festivals."

During the second session on Monday, Alam Khan played sarod and he was accompanied by Anubrata Chatterjee on tabla. Sarodvaadan was followed by the performance of a city-based vocalist Shaukat Hussain Khan, accompanied by Yogesh Samsi on tabla.