“Listening is an art. One has to cultivate taste by listening to the performance consistently and consciously. Especially Indian classical music, it demands patience and concentration, because it unfolds itself slowly and subtly, like a flower,” said Padma Vibhushan Vidushi Dr Prabha Atre, during the evening music session, at the 8th International SPIC MACAY Convention, on Monday.

Guiding the students about Hindustani vocal prior to her performance, Dr Atre spoke about music with intensity and intention. “Vocal is difficult. There are no words or visual to follow. There are only notes and rhythms,”she said. Dr Atre began her performance with the ascending and descending notes of the song ‘Naiya Mori Paar Karo’ composed in Raag Madhukauns. Exploring all the notes and tones of the Raag, her voice resonated through the auditorium of VNIT. The audience fell overwhelmingly quiet as she began to pick pace from the slow and leisurely introductory vocal music to the fast quick paced melodic play. She also presented Dadara, a light classical vocal form as she sang Jagat Janani and other songs. She was accompanied by Vinod Lele on Tabla, Rahul Gole on Samwadini, and Chetna Pathak and Ashwini Modak on Tanpura.

Earlier, Dr N Rajam also put a spell on the audience with her Violin. The slow movement of Dr Rajam’s wrist on the violin was sighingly beautiful as she presented Raag Bageshri. Her performance began with a sweet-toned Raag and slowly moved towards plangent quality of some sorts. The notes of Tabla complementing the striking tones of the Violin was a moment of profound beauty which created a kind of an effect. The beautifully sighing theme then turned into spikier duet of the solo artists, arousing and encouraging other to perform the same symphony. Effects, techniques, the sweet exchange between fellow artists hinting towards the humour and sheer joy of the symphony, changed the atmosphere and colours of the evening. She was accompanied by his granddaughter Nandini Shankar on violin and Saurabh Kardikar on Tabla. They were felicitated at the hands of Kanchan Gadkari, Dr Krishna Kumar and R K Yadav.