In February-March 2020 GemArts and Durham University’s Musicon Concert Series jointly promoted a three day festival, ‘Indian Spring Colours’, enjoying superb performances by Apoorva Gokhale, Seema and Vishwanath Shirodkar (Swar-Taal Samvaad), Chiranjeeb Chakraborty and Kirpal Singh Panesar. All of the concerts were recorded, and this item is part of a pair of clips that have been edited and shared for GemArts’ Online Masala Festival 2020.



In this performance from ‘Indian Spring Colours’, Chiranjeeb Chakraborty’s presentation of the thumri ‘Nayna more taras gaye’ (by the great twentieth-century singer Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan), evokes the monsoon season. The words are those of the heroine yearning for her absent lover, pained by the sounds of the bird calls and the sight of the dark clouds amassing overhead. In thumri, which thrives both as a genre with its own specialist performers and as a ‘final item’ sung by khyal singers, the focus is on the expression of the lyric. The words are moulded and stretched rhythmically as Chiranjeeb brings out different nuances through his thumri inflections, supported by his hands painting a picture of romantic longing. He is superbly accompanied by the outstanding team of Seema and Vishwanath Shirodkar on harmonium and tabla respectively).

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