It’s the season of song
December is a treat for music lovers with festivals lined up from North to South, though the exacting schedule is a challenge for artistes
Pt Tejendra Majumdar will perform on the last day of Harivallabh Sangeet Sammelan, now in its 149th year. File photo: The Tribune
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December ushers in the busiest music season across the country. It is a testing time for artistes — intellectually stimulating, yet physically challenging.
Various cities nurture their own annual musical festivities. The oldest of these is Harivallabh Sangeet Sammelan, now in its 149th year, which is held within the temple precincts of the Devi Talab Complex in Jalandhar. The physical hurdles for artistes who perform here are two-fold: access, as flights and trains frequently get cancelled or delayed because of fog, and the biting cold. Voices refuse to warm up and hot water bottles are required for stiff fingers to coax music out of instruments!
The start of the season is signalled in Delhi in November by the annual Sa Ma Pa Festival, organised by santoor exponent Abhay Rustom Sopori, and the music and dance festival Parampara, organised by Kuchipudi dancers Raja, Radha and Kaushalya Reddy.
Some festivals are held outdoors to accommodate an ever-increasing audience. Like the Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Mahotsav, Pune, now in its 70th year. This year, the dates (December 18 to 22) clash with the 100th edition of the Tansen Samaroh (December 15 to 19), held near the tomb of Tansen, the father of North Indian classical music, in Gwalior. In Goa, the week-long (December 15-22) Serendipity Arts Festival has become a major event now. All this has left music lovers at a loss as to what to attend.
The relatively new Swara Samrat Festival in Kolkata (in its 12th year) is held indoors, where logistics involve devising a new stage decor every year. The organisers are saved the trouble of erecting water-proof tents, making heating arrangements to deal with the December chill.
The big events in January include the 13-day Saptak Music Festival in Ahmedabad from January 1 to 13; the Swami Haridas Tansen Sangeet Nritya Mahotsav in Delhi from January 10-12; and the all-night Dover Lane Music Conference in Kolkata from January 22 to 25.
Besides, smaller festivals are held in cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Baroda, Jaipur and Chandigarh. The popular musicians flit from city to city, often able to go home just for a night or so. They sometimes end up carrying outfits for three to four consecutive concerts! Voices get strained, sitarists’ fingers bleed due to over-use, nails of sarodists break!
Travelling from city to city involves early morning flights, concerts that stretch into the early hours of the morning and sleepless nights. Pune-based vocalist Manjusha Patil admits that “back-to-back concerts involve compromises on the home front, especially for women. Each concert is like an examination; the music season is a challenge”.
Sarodiya Amaan Ali Bangash, one of the busiest musicians, is not complaining. “Our generation is so lucky. The way has been paved for us by great musicians like Pt Ravi Shankar, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and my own father, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. We fly to places and are treated so well. I would complain if I wasn’t busy in this season! We train ourselves to be physically fit to cope; mental fitness comes with physical fitness.” Amaan acknowledges that his nails, with which the sarod is played, sometimes give him trouble as playing for hours and days at a stretch takes its toll. But, he has figured out a solution. “This is my life and I am really grateful and happy for it,” he laughs. He would be performing at Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Mahotsav, Saptak Music Festival and Dover Lane Music Conference.
It is Chennai that undoubtedly hosts the biggest and the most prolific music events in December. The season is called ‘margazhi’, the month of Margashirsha. Nine or ten organisations hold their annual music events lasting from 10 to 15 days. On a given day, one could expect upwards of 60 concerts, starting from as early as 6 am.
The music-loving audience pours into Chennai from all over the world to attend this musical extravaganza; artistes prepare the whole year for the season. It is not uncommon for the top 10 musicians to perform 10-12 three-hour concerts in Chennai in December, which translates into a concert every three or four days. Artistes rarely refuse concerts as there are more artistes than events. Each concert is a trial of sorts; if the ticket sales flounder, you may not get the top slots to perform the next year. Evening concerts are considered the most prestigious.
The popular singing duo of Ranjani-Gayatri has limited concerts to five this year. Ranjani says, “Today, we don’t need to sing at every concert offered to us, but it’s a pleasure to sing in the December season as both rasikas and musicians congregate from all over, making it an unparalleled experience.” In their 39th year of performing, the sisters welcome the challenge the season offers. “The concert content has to be deep and wide. Carnatic training is very intense. We learn new ragas and compositions constantly as growth as musicians is very important. We sing eight to 10 items per concert. We don’t even get the time to give our voices a rest as concerts in other cities take over post-December.”
It’s an exciting, stimulating period, awaited by artistes and listeners alike.
Key performances at harivallabh this year
December 27: Dhrupad gayaki by Pt Prashant Kumar Mallick and Pt Nishant Kumar Mallick of Darbhanga Gharana; harmonium jugalbandi by father-son duo of Pt Sudhanshu Kulkarni and Pt Sarang Kulkarni.
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December 28: Vocal performance by Pt Bhimsen Joshi’s grandson, Viraj; jugalbandi between Pt Abhishek Mishra on tabla and Pt Peravali Jaya Bhaskar on mridangam.
December 29: The highlight of the last evening would be a performance by vocalist Pt Dhananjay Joshi and sarod recital by Pt Tejendra Majumdar. Kashyap Bandhu Prabhakar and Diwakar Kashyap, students of Pt Rajan and Sajan Mishra of Banaras Gharana, will bring the curtains down on the 149th edition with their vocal performance.
— The writer is a Delhi-based music critic
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