Rahul Sharma and his santoor string together a perfect ashtami morning

Nagpur: For Nagpur’s music lovers, Sunday will be remembered as a special

ashtami

for a long time to come given that it was rung in with melody.

Santoor

exponent Rahul Sharma’s early morning concert captured for its audience the essence of an Indian festival as it offered moments that were as sublime, as they were delightful and as deep, as they were lighthearted.

Opening with the pentatonic scale raga, Bairaagi, widely known for setting a meditative mood, Rahul played an extensive alaap with frequent rests on the komal rishabh (komal re). This signature note of all Bhairav thaat ragas is key to evoking the mood of contemplation.

When asked why he chose this raga in particular over other morning ragas, Rahul replied in a manner as honest as his music: “I like it. For me, Bairaagi has the right mood of being meditative and pure to usher in a new morning, and it’s not a raga often played on the santoor.”

The second part of the raga presentation, the jod, where a composition is played without percussion but introduces innate rhythm, is where Rahul showcased why the santoor is as much an instrument of percussion as it is of melody. This segment also saw him display immense string control in the upper octave notes, reminiscent of the artistry of his father and guru

Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma

. This was followed by a medium tempo piece in the 7-beat Rupak taal and a fast composition in the 16-beat Teentaal.

The centre stage artiste was well-accompanied on tabla by Mukundraj Deo and there were moments that saw a lively interplay of time and melody in fractions of halves and one thirds that drew applause from the audience of 300 people.

As is typical in the Hindustani tradition, Rahul concluded with a lighter dhun in raga Bhairavi, the piece being his own creation. It, however, didn’t sound like Bhairavi in several places. To this he said he did take a few liberties, albeit within the raga’s notative parameter, as it was a light classical piece and the raga itself allows for all notes in the octave to be presented. “Several times a listener who doesn’t understand the intricacies of classical music, comes back to tell me they enjoyed the end of the concert. So even if it isn’t in the classical framework, they connect to the music in its entirety. Also such pieces let me bring in the fusion element which a lot of my listeners enjoy as well.”

Rahul’s honesty as a musician is also reflected in his candid admission to still feeling challenged sometimes by more complex ragas like Marwa and Puriya Dhanashree.

As an artiste who straddles the genres of fusion and Hindustani classical music, he explained that he keeps a very strong mental distinction between the two. “Venues like Nagpur pull audiences that are more of purists. If I have to present a raga, I make it a point to get into a clear frame of mind to allow the melody to evolve slowly. A fusion concert begins with a bang. It can’t be so in a classical framework. A raga must develop slowly, and my role is to walk my audience through that process.”

And a delightful morning walk it certainly was.