We revisited the Swami Haridas Sammelan held in Mumbai in 1962 under the aegis of the Sur Singar Samsad in the last two episodes. Continuin...
We revisited the Swami Haridas Sammelan held in Mumbai in 1962 under the aegis of the Sur Singar Samsad in the last two episodes. Continuing with the same festival this week, we reimagine the music of some more performers featured here.
Notably, the schedule of this festival did not mention honorific titles like Pandit, Ustad, Vidushi, Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri and many others, as prefixes to the names of Hindustani musicians. But it is evident that the wide variety of artistes consisted of seniors and juniors. Conventionally, the sequence of performers in a single session begins with the most junior and ends with a senior. But given the nature of music festivals where numerous musicians are included over many days, this convention has often been set aside. Often, the only criterion applied is to alternate vocal and instrumental presentations, but at times even this is not strictly followed.
Today, we listen to four of the many artistes included in the festival organised in 1962. We begin with a violin recital by Husnalal of the well-known film composer duo Husnalal-Bhagatram. The schedule mentions a violin-accordion duet featuring the two brothers, but I could not access any recording that had Bhagatram as one of the...
