by Rajat Subhra Chatterjee
085
It was 2 am in the morning of 1st January, 1988.
Occasion : 1st Salt Lake Music Festival
Place : BB – BC Park, Salt Lake.
That was the third session ( night) of the three day long Music Festival started on 29th December, 1987 with two evening program also on 30th December but on 31st, it was a whole night program, which obviously crossed over to the new year of 1988 !
On stage seated were Ustad Bismillah Khan, the flute maestro along with Pt. M R Gautam, the renowned vocalist for a duet, accompanied on the table by Pt. Kishan Maharaj. It was unique, as for the first time on stage there was going to be a duet of Vocal and Flute. It was grand as Pt Kishan Maharaj ji agreed to play in this concert which made the item much awaited and much sought after.
And then the musical feast began and went on for an hour and half for the fully packed auditorium ( sound proof tented theatre made in the park ) and the audience was left mesmerized at around 3.30 am when the sound of music ended. It was memorable.
Rest of the early morning was left for another brilliant sitarist, Ustd. Sujat Khan, the very competent son of Ustd Vilayet Khan, accompanied on the tabla by Ustd. Sabir Khan, another illustrious son of the legendary Ustd. Keramatullah Khan.
This very first festival was incidentally inaugurated by the then Governor of West Bengal, Prof. Nurul Hassan for whom a sloping staircase was made for his easy accession on stage. Thus we were launched in the ocean of classical music with our very first venture in 1987-88. It was a star studied festival with Pt. Shib Kumar Sharma, Pt. Manash Chakraborty, Pt. Dr. Lala Bharat Ram, Bidushi Sunanda Pattyanayek, Ust. Hidayet Khan, Bidushi Sipra Bose along with Gobinda Bose, Sanjay Mukherjee, Aninda Chatterjee, Shuven Chatterjee, Ramesh Prasad Mishra, Ramnath Mishra, Shohonlal Sharma amongst others who performed in this very first festival.
It was interesting to get Dr. Bharat Ram on board. We spoke to his secretary with our offer and we were asked to go over to Delhi to speak to him. I had flown in and met Dr. Ram, the reigning Managing Director of DCM group in his office in the Kanchenjangha Building at Connaught Place on Barakhamba Road. He not only welcomed me but called all and sundry in his office to announce that he was going over to Kolkata to perform in a night-long musical soiree. It was very satisfying to have him as he rendered Darbari Kanada and his rendition was so mellifluous.
We were enthused to such an extent that on the conclusion of the festival in the morning of 1st January, 1988, we the committee members had gone for a day’s picnic in the then Rajaharhat area in a cozy ‘Bagan Bari’ and enjoyed our success over sumptuous food.
Being successful, I had gone full throttle and got ITC as our next sponsor. ITC sponsored our 1989 festival as ‘ Golden Greats’ which was also a two evening and one full night festival held in Kalamandir, Shakespeare Sarani. We wanted to reach out to Kolkata audience for which the festival was shifted out of Salt Lake. This second festival will long be in memory of music lovers, those who had attended because in this very festival a 22 year old Rashid Khan was on stage around mid night, accompanied on the tabla by Aninda Chatterjee. Rashid started with Malkauns and concluded with a Krishna Bhajan. Getting Rashid Khan has been a mesmerizing story, already narrated in these pages earlier. To day as he is no more sadly, his rendition on our stage is resonating in my ears. Two more memorable items in the whole night program were a duet of Sarod and Sitar by Ust. Bahadur Khan and Ust. Kirit Khan and the concluding program on the third night ( early morning ) was a vocal recital by Bidushi Girija Devi. As the morning light was coming out and the birds started de-nestling, Girija Di concluded with a Bhairabi Thumri – ‘ Kaun Desh Gaye Re..’ as the audience started leaving their seats occupied whole night. The night began with an odissi dance by Smt. Upali Oparajitta from Canada. She captivated the audience with her beautiful look and her dancing nuances were so very charming that the packed audience were made ready for the night long soiree.
This festival saw Smt. Naina Devi and Pt. Hariprasad Chourasia in the first evening. Naina Devi was by then in her phasing out period, nonetheless, she charmed the audience with light classical items. Chourasia then in his pristine prime, demonstrated masterly craftsmanship on flute and concluded with the tune on “ Bhenge mor ghorer chabi niye jabi..…” . A sweet rendition.
We continued for a few more years holding our festivals in Kolkata and different auditorium were chosen. At G D Birla Sabha Ghar, a young teenager Purbayan Chatterjee on sitar was seated in 1990 while another teenager Kaushiki Chakraborty was seated at Rabindra Sadan in 1994. As our slogan was “ In Search of Young Talent “, we always tried to promote talented youngsters to stage them in our festivals throughout. Of course, much seniors and highly renowned performers were the key to our success yet staging youngsters caught the eyes of music connoisseurs and the press.
Meanwhile, after every festival, we used to have an evening get together where too, one item music featured in the Festival Dinner. This was the occasion when we used to get close to the musicians and their families and a bigger musical family was thus born. The family got expanded every year as newer performers used to get invitation from us and we had been fortunate to get the patronage of the music fraternity in a splendid manner. Thus we spent almost a decade in various Kolkata auditorium and finally came back to Salt Lake in 1998 and then on we have always been in Salt Lake.
To continue………
Next.. Part 2
