FREMONT, CA: It would have been just another Sunday afternoon, if not for the presence of two acclaimed artistes in Bay Area, namely Sarod virtuoso Abhisek Lahiri and Tabla wizard Subrata Bhattacharya. Sarod Sandhya was an intimate setting of a house concert in Cupertino, presented by the Sangeet Dhwani organization. The event was made possible by the efforts of Amit Gud (a disciple of Abhisek Lahiri), his wife Divya Ranganathan Gud and the support of Pradeep Joshi (Founder & President of Sangeet Dhwani).
At the outset, Divya, a volunteer of Sangeet Dhwani, briefly introduced the artistes, stating that Bay Area music lovers were anxious to listen to these two icons of the music world. Abhisek started his rendition with a late afternoon raga Madhuvanti. It was incredible, how quickly he established the nuances of the raga and enhanced them with his startling improvisations.
It was quite evident as to why he was hailed as a child prodigy and named a “Wonder Kid” in his debut performance at Holland. Though he was trained under his eminent father and guru Pandit Alok Lahiri from a very tender age in the gurukul system, his approach to Sarod playing belongs to the three major gharanas of Sarod, which are Shahajahanpur, Senia Maihar and Senia Bangash (Gwalior). He with his father Pandit Alok Lahiri possesses the dignity of performing as the first Indians at the Europe Parliament in France, Cannes World Music Festival and also in Canada Culture Days in Toronto.
At the request of the Bay area listeners, he continued the concert with raga Miyan ki Malhar, requesting the rain gods to continue blessing Bay area! He was ably accompanied on the Tabla by celebrated artiste, Subrata Bhattacharya. Their Sarod-Tabla jugalbandi was a treat to the listeners. The deftness with which Subrata matched every laya of Sarod with the perfect taal and strokes, showed why he was a leading Tabla player and a favorite accompanist for musicians worldwide.
He received his taalim under Tamal Krishna Chatterjee, Nripen Karmakar and Tapan Kumar Banerjee before he was finally accepted as a pupil of Tabla maestro Pt. Shankar Ghosh, all of whom honed his talent to the level of refinement, now witnessed by audiences everywhere. Abhisek ended the concert with raga Mishra Khamaj as a tribute to his roots. It was a ragamalika of raga Mishra Mand, followed by raga Pilu, raga Shivaranjani, a small familiar riff of Rabindra Sangeet ‘Ekla Cholo Re’ and finally ended the evening with raga Bhairavi.
The audience was cosmopolitan, comprising of not only Indian music lovers but also those from US, China and Japan who listened to them with rapt attention and enjoyed the ecstasy of music on the strings of Sarod. The duo was treated to a thunderous applause by listeners who were hungry for more of the divine music!
India Post News Service
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