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Anjali- Arati Ankalikar . |
Recorded at Saptak Festival 2003, Gujarat.
Arati Ankalikar Tikekar - Vocal
Smt. Seema Shirodkar - Harmonium
Vishvanath Shirodkar - Tabla
Bharat Bhushan Goswami - Sarangi
Raga Purva Kalyan
Track1 - Alap 7.25
Track 2 - Vilambit Khayal 'Hovan laagi saanjh' 24.16
Track 3 - Vilambit Khayal (part 2) 10.56
Track 4 - 'Piharwa aa , aa ja re' Khayal in teentaal 10.47
Track 5 - Meera Bhajan 'Mare ghar aao' 14.21
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Gifted with a richly timbered and wide ranging voice, Arati Ankalikar Tikekar has emerged as an outstanding exponent of North Indian Khayal singing, highly regarded by both listeners and fellow musicians. Her mellifluous, resonant voice backed up by an infectious personality and compelling stage presence makes her recitals into an absorbing audio visual experience. Fortunately, her musical fluency and eloquence are captured on this recording of her performance at the prestigious annual Saptak Festival, in Ahmedabad, Gujarat on a pleasant winter evening of January 2003.
Arati began her musical journey at the tender age of 10 under the tutelage of the late Pandit Vasantrao Kulkarni an exponent the Agra and Gwalior schools of vocal music. Throughout her career she has been fortunate enough to have received training from some of India's most influential gurus, who have groomed Arati in their respective styles of singing. Her performances bring forth an exciting aesthetic fusion of all of India's most revered vocal gharanas. Over centuries a remarkable variety of vocal styles have blossomed in the Indian sub-continent nurtured by remarkable musical families and highly patronised by Kings and Maharajahs. These distinct styles are known as gharanas which literally translates as 'of the house'. Khayal, or 'imagination' is the predominant vocal form of North India today having superseded the more austere, ancient form Dhrupad.
After her initial apprenticeship, Arati was fortunate enough to receive training with one of India's female musical legends, Kishori Amonkar, a doyen of the Jaipur Atrauli Gharana, characterised by a smooth lilting, melodic quality. In recent years, her musical education has been enhanced by Pandit Dinkar Kaikini. Arati has performed at all the major music conferences in India, and her recordings for the Shyam Benegal feature Film 'Sardari Begum' have been widely appreciated by Indian critics.
In this concert, Arati has chosen to sing Raga Puriya Kalyan, a beautiful evening raga.
After a short alap (track 1), outlining the key melodic phrases that shape the personality of the raga, Arati sings her first composition 'Hovan laagi saanjh' (tracks 2 & 3), set to a rhythmic cycle of sixteen beats. The pace, termed as 'vilambit', is deliberately slow and sober, giving the performer plenty of space and opportunity to demonstrate control of the voice.
The second composition 'Piharwa aa, aa ja re' (track 4) is livelier and is set to the popular rhythmic cycle 'teentaal' consisting of sixteen beats, this time in a fast, medium tempo. At the beginning of the piece, Arati gives the accompanist Vishvanath Shorodkar an opportunity to play a short tabla solo highlighting his virtuosic percussive qualities, having showed measured restraint for the whole of the previous composition. Throughout the recital, Arati is ably accompanied by Smt. Seema Shirodkar on Harmonium, and Bharat Bhusan Goswami on the Sarangi, the instrument traditionally used to accompany khayal and semi classical singing.
The recital concludes with a Meera Bhajan, 'Mare ghar aao' (track 5). Meera was a celebrated female poet, born in the sixteenth century in time of the Emperor Akbar, who developed an unyielding, blind devotion to Lord Krishna. Meera bhajans are simple and sweet outpourings of her love to her Lord and this song begs Lord Krishna to come to her home.
john ball
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