Day : 3. SE : 4 – 8:45 PM to 10:00 PM
Vocal : Pt. Ajay Pohankar
Harmonium: Ajay Joglekar
Tabla : Bharat Kamat
Tanpura and Vocal Support : Dhananjay Joshi & Suranjan Khandalkar & Madhura
Keyboard : Abhijit Pohankar
Recital started with beautiful and very famous Raga Darbari Kanada. Pt. Pohankar started his musical journey at a tender age of 9 and his first performance at Sawai Gandhava was during 1959 when he was just 11 years of age. Darbari Kanada was tender so beautifully that it felt like it should continue whole night.
After the wonderful rendition of Darbari Kanada, Pandit Ji decided to render Pahadi, at this time Abhijeet Pohankar joined with keyboard. There were few senior audience who called Shrikant Joshi with their reservations on whether a keyboard should be allowed on the Sawai Gandharva stage. Honestly, it was a bit off beat considering its nature and the timbre of Hindustani Classical Music. Even for a novice listener like me, the keyboard was adding more “noise” along side the wonderful melodious voice of Pandit Ji and the beautiful Harmonium of Ajay Joglekar. This was an experience how a keyboard sounds so jarring along side melody of Hindustani Classical. The probable reason being Equal Temperament Scale of a keyboard being off the mark compared to natural scale of Swaras of eminent performer like Pandit Ji. It definitely was lot of learning for me today.
Pandit Ji decided to sing a wonderful rendition in Raga Sindh Bhairavi, unfortunately the beauty of this rendition was jarred by the keyboard notes. Followed by this Pandit ji sang a short Thumri, Baju Band Khul Khul Jaye, in Raga Bhairavi.