November to Remember ..Surashree Kesarbai Kerkar Samaroh 2017

I grabbed an opportunity for a second vacation of the year in Goa with 37th Surashree Kesarbai Kerkar Samaroh, Nov 3-5, 2017. Here are the links to my previous two Goa Vacations : 36th Surashree Kesarbai Kerkar Samaroh 2016 Nov 4-6 and Abhisheki Mahotsav Sept 7-9 , 2017.

Some of the highlights of my current Goa visit :
1) Enjoying some splendid beaches and hamlets of North Goa - Keri , Mandre and Harmal (against South Goa beaches around Marjorda in Sept )
2) Meeting some wonderful cats of North Goa
3) Like every Goa vacation, enjoying the great hospitality, food and drinks
4) Some memorable wonderful concerts , especially the one to remember was of Ut Irshad Khan - Surbahar on Nov 4th evening.

Here is a brief report of 37th Surashree Kesarbai Kerkar Samaroh , Nov 3-5 held at the beautiful campus of Kala Academy , Panjim Goa.

The Curtain raiser event titled "The future of Indian Classical Music" included discussion by Musicologists and performers Dr Chaitanya Kunte , Dr Shashank Maktedar and Dr Arwind Thatte moderated by Mukund Sangoram that went on for over two hours. The key takeaways were :
1) Indian Classical Music is moving from being process oriented Classical performances towards "Productization" due to various reasons from Marketing to Technology to demand of audience
2) Connoisseurs determine the sustainability of performing art ..hence the future audience would determine the type of music that would be called as "classical"
3) There is a trend moving towards smaller baithaks (Chotekhani maifils) or chamber music from big festivals
4) Good techniques of Teaching classical music and use of technology is going to be an essential feature in future training.
5) Due to universal appeal and purity of music , the instrumental music will be more acceptable and popular world wide the the vocal classical music , a trend that is already in vogue.

The festival was inaugurated with a concert by Pt Ulhas Kashalkar who presented raag Hemant and Basanti Kedar. The instrumental jugalbandi of Rakesh Chaurasia - flute and Jayanti Kumaresh- Saraswati veena who presented Madhuvanti and Hansdhwani concluded day 1 of festival.

Day 2 started with the morning concert of Devaki Pandit who presented
Lalat- घट ना लागी रे जागो जी जागो and जा जा रे जा रे बलमवा
Hindol - छनक गुंद भईलवा  and बन उपवन डोले मान ऋतू बसंत
Concluding the concert with Chaiti based on Kirwani - आली पिया बिन मोरा जिया तरपत 
The other notable concert of day 2 was of Pt Ajay Pohankar in the evening who presented Yaman in a very traditional form and was real music to ears.

The most memorable concert of the evening and of the festival was however the Saturday evening concert of Ut Irshad Khan who mesmerized the audience with his Surbahar .. the concert started by 8pm with Darbari Kanada alaap for 45 minutes that brought a pleasurable calmness in the auditorium. The power of three octaves of Surbahar and the dexterity of Ustad bringing out almost all 7 notes in one fret of Instrument was phenomenal ! The power of Dhrupad with Chautaal on Pakhawaj by Pratap Patil took the concert to another level, jod and jhala spreading all three octaves. Second raag chosen was Jhinjhoti that brought out the best of Instrument and Dhrupad style. The Ustad was in great mood and so was the audience who reciprocated with thunderous applause. The conclusion of the concert was with Bhairavi when the Ustad also sang "बाजू बंद खुल खुल जाय" and "सुनी पड़ी है नगरिया हमार , आओ नगरिया हमार"
This was the icing on the cake .. the concert that ended by 10pm ( which is midnight in Panjim's standard where concerts end by 8.30-9 !) , would be a memorable one for the houseful audience who were treated not just with a wonderful dessert but also a nice paan ( as the Ustad himself analogized it ! )
Here is a link to report of his previous performance at Sawai 2016

Day 3 , the final day of the festival began with the morning concert of Raghunandan Panshikar who presented Bahaduri Todi (महादेव) and Sukhiya Bilawal(हे देवी दुर्गे ), a drut bandish in Allaiyya Bilawal  (कवन बतारिया ) and bhajan "बोलावा विट्ठल"
Though he has good voice quality fitting light classical music , he lacks the aura ,temper, thoughtfulness, maturity , commanding voice, thinking and grandiose for expansive classical vocal concert, which was evident in his lack of badhats or expansion of raag. To be honest, he is good enough only for light classical, fails to impress as a classical vocalist now and again ! 

The better concert of the morning was by Ut Shujaat Khan - Sitar accompanied on Tabla by young masters Sapan Adharia and Mayank Bedekar. This was truly a classical concert to be enjoyed for full hour of Allaiyya Bilawal with some excellent fast tempo jugalbandis between Sitar and Tabla. Surprisingly , the Ustad did not sing any bandish and decided to conclude the concert in 1 hour only after one raag !

The other concert that I attended was the finale by Pt Venkatesh Kumar who along with Pt Vishwanath Kanhere on Harmonium enthralled the audience starting with Chaya Nat for around 45 minutes ( एरी गुन्दलावो रे मालनिया , झननन नन नन बाजे पायलिया ) , Kaunsi Kanada ( राजन के सरताज , काहे करत मोसे बरजोरी ) concluding with two bhajans ( नाम जपन क्यों छोड़ दिया , भज रे हनुमंतम )

Like every year , Dr Roopa Chari was exceptionally brilliant as a compere. I wish , other classical musical festivals too have good compere like her ! 
The festival concluded by 9pm on Sunday evening and the audience went home satisfied, full stomach with desserts and paan with a promise to meet next year in November..and that is the most important month for classical music fans of Panjim to remember!




Here is the facebook album link for some more snaps  : November to Remember