4th ITC Sangeet Sammelan - Bangalore 2008
Tribute to a Legend - Acharya Pandit Govind Vithal Bhave

The 4th ITC Sangeet Sammelan, Bangalore was held at Chowdiah Memorial Hall on February 16 and 17, 2008. It was organised as a tribute to Pandit Govind Vithal Bhave, the man who popularised Hindustani classical music in Karnataka. A senior disciple of Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar, Bhave and his wife, Lakshmi, a talented artiste in her own right, had achieved great success on the Marathi stage before they made Bangalore their permanent home in 1930. A true student of his guru, Bhave undertook to promote and spread Hindustani classical music in Karnataka. The result was the establishment of the Saraswati Sangeet Vidyalaya in 1931, the pioneering school teaching vocal and instrumental Hindustani music in Karnataka. Eminent students of this school are Pandit Ramrao Naik, Pandit Chindanand Nagarkar, Pandit Nivruttibua Sarnaik and Chhota Gandharva.

The Sammelan was inaugurated by Dr Shyamala Bhave, daughter of Pandit Govind Vithal Bhave and Mr Chandra Shekhar, Branch Manager, Bangalore Branch, ITC Ltd. The evening began with a sarod recital by ITC-SRA Guru Pandit Buddhadev Dasgupta. Beginning with alap, jod and jhala in Raga Barwa, he also presented gats in vilambit teentala, dhamar and drut teentala. This was followed by gats in Ragas Kafi and Zilla. He concluded with an interesting gat in Raga Bahar, which was composed in such a way that the special phrases of the raga were repeated. Shri Samar Saha accompanied him on the tabla while his disciple, ITC-SRA scholar Abir Hossain, provided sarod accompaniment. The evening concluded with a vocal recital by ITC-SRA Guru Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty. He began his recital with khayals in Raga Abhogi, “Kase kahun dukhava” in vilambit ektala and “Lagana mori lagey” in drut teentala. This was followed by khayals in Raga Hindol Bahar, “Jhulayon mein jhuley” in vilambit ektala and “Dar dar pata pata” in drut teentala. He concluded with the ever-popular thumri “Ka karun sajani aaye na balama”. He was accompanied on the tabla by Shri Yogesh Samsi, while Shri Jyoti Goho provided harmonium support.

The second evening’s performance began with a sitar recital by ITC-SRA scholar Joyeeta Sanyal. She played alap, jod, jhaptala gat, drut teentala gat and jhala in Raga Puriya Kalyan. This was followed by a vocal recital by ITC-SRA scholar Manali Bose who began with an aochar followed by khayals in Raga Rageshree “Piya parades gamana kino” in vilambit ektala and “Sundara naveli naar” in drut teentala. She was accompanied by Shri Samar Saha on the tabla and Shri Jyoti Goho on the harmonium. The Sammelan concluded with the santoor recital of Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma. Accompanied on the tabla by Yogesh Samsi, he played alap, jod, gat in rupak tala, gats in teentala and jhala in Raga Rasikapriya.