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The bright stars of Agra gharana
MANJARI SINHA
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With Ghulam Husnain Khan, it was vintage gayaki of Agra gharana but Shamim Ahmad Khan’s sitar recital could have been better.
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Shamim Ahmad Khan.
An accredited scholar, teacher, performer and composer Ustad Younus Hussain Khan belonged to the famous Agra gharana that has produced doyens like Aftab-e-Mausiqui Ustad Faiyaaz Khan, Vilayat Hussain Khan, Khadim Hussain Khan, Latafat Hussain Khan, S
harafat Hussain Khan and many others. To carry on the tradition and art, Ustad Younus Hussain Khan Memorial Society was established by Asif and Arif Hussain Khan, in memory of their father. The society, which has been organising classical music programmes for last 15 years, presented a vocal recital by Ghulam Husnain Khan and a sitar recital by Ustad Shamim Ahmad Khan at the India International Centre the other day.
Ghulam Husnain Khan received formal training from Khadim Hussain Khan and was further groomed by Younus Hussain Khan. Hence, he has absorbed the best nuances of Agra gayaki. He opened his concert with the evening raga Poorva, along with the typical ‘nom-tom’ alap, as per Agra tradition, as a preface to the bada khayal, set to vilambit (slow) Ek tala.
The grammatically sound treatment of the raga that was carried out through the barhat, bol-banaav, bol-baant to the aakaar and bol-taans brought out the beauty of bandish. The chhota khayal ‘saanvare se man laga…’, set to Teen tala was also treated well, except for the repetitive taans that dragged it unnecessarily.
He next sang a couple of compositions in raga Barva, set to Teen tala. “Been bajaayi sudh bisrayi…”, a bandish composed by Ustad Younus Hussain Khan was lovely and so typical of the gharana. The next one, “Baaje mori payaliya…” also had nuances of the Agra gaayaki. Some of the taan patterns reminded one of the late Latafat Hussain Khan.
The vocal recital of Ghulam Husnain Khan was definitely a rare opportunity to relish the unadulterated vintage gayaki of Agra gharana. Mehmood Dhaulpuri on the harmonium and Athar Hussain on tabla did full justice to the enjoyable fare by taking their own solo turns.
Shamim’s sitar recital
Ghulam Husnain Khan.
Shamim Ahmad Khan was the other artiste of this evening, who gave a sitar recital. Born into a musical family of Agra gharana, Shamim Ahmad was initiated into vocal music by his father Ghulam Rasool Khan. Later, he switched over to sitar and became a disciple of Pandit Ravi Shankar.
This evening he opened his concert with raga Bihag. The ‘laraj-kharaj ka kaam’ which is a specialty of his illustrious guru, was conspicuous by its absence during the alap-jod that preceded the Masit Khani gat. Both the slow Maseetkhani and the fast Razakhani gats were set to Teen tala.
He next played a couple of compositions in raga Khamaj, set to Addha Theka, medium and faster Teen tala. It would have been a better choice if he would have taken a contrasting raga for the second piece and concluded his concert with a lighter dhun in Khamaj.
Nayan Ghosh, who accompanied Shamim Ahmad on the tabla, was an added attraction to the musical evening. A brilliant disciple and son of Nikhil Ghosh, Nayan is also an equally capable sitar player. This was perhaps the reason of his perfect understanding while providing the tabla sangat to Shamim Ahmad Khan.
The concert was also marked by the presence of many stalwarts like Asad Ali Khan, Debu Chaudhuri, Ghulam Sadique Khan with younger artistes like Wasif and Prateek adorning the first row.
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Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
|
