Ahmedabad could have asked for no better New Year gift. Saptak, the city’s marquee classical music festival, is back in its live version after a year’s break. Launching the event at the LD Arts College campus on Saturday, Saptak secretary Sandeep Joshi, said that the audiences are ready to return to live concerts and artists are eager to perform. after the long break on account of the pandemic. “We decided to resume Saptak as a live event after much deliberation, with all Covid protocols in place, because we felt the time was right,” he said.
Spread over 13 days and billed as India’s longest music festival, Saptak has always attracted the biggest names in the world of classical music. The 42nd edition of Saptak began with a lively Shehnai concert by the father-son duo of Pandit S Ballesh and Krishna Ballesh, accompanied by Bimal Bhattacharya on the tabla. This was followed by a vocal concert by Rozy Dutta, accompanied by Nakul Mishra on the tabla, Raju Gandharva on the harmonium and Ikral Khan on the sarangi.
The last concert, which is usually reserved for the most celebrated performer, featured N Rajan on the violin, accompanied by Akram Khan on the tabla. The crowd was rather thin on the first day, though the numbers did increase as the evening wore on.
On Sunday, there will be a special morning performance featuring vocalists Niraj and Vikas Parikh. In the evening, the show will begin with a sarod-violin duet by Tejendra Narayan Majumdar and Mysore Manjunath and end with a performance by the inimitable Shubha Mudgal.
Pictures By: Hanif
