Dhaka: Western classical music tiptoed into the Bengal Classical Music Festival for the first time on Tuesday night courtesy The Astana Symphony Philharmonic Orchestra from Kazakhstan.
Barely 20 minutes into their second act -- famous Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake", one of the most popular ballet compositions in the world -- the discerning crowd at the near-packed Abahani Ground on Dhanmondi was almost on its feet basking in the afterglow of symphony and craving for more.
So much so that once the Kazakh group's performance got over, Bangladesh Finance minister A.M.A. Muhith declared: "There are two wishes I have. One is there should be a Bangladesh symphony group. What we witnessed today was brilliant and every nation must have a symphony group. I want to see our own also."
Muhith's other wish was to a have a designated venue for the mega-event, dubbed the "biggest classical music festival in the world" after clouds over this edition taking shape surfaced earlier.
The Army Stadium -- its home for the last five years -- was originally supposed to host the meet but logistical issues surfaced, forcing the organisers, Bengal Foundation, to postpone it from November to December and at another venue.
"I thank Salman F. Rahman (Chairman of Abahani Ltd, a top division football club) for allowing us to host the event here despite the league being on. The players are staying at a hotel and practising somewhere else for this event to take place which is commendable," Bengal Foundation Chairman Abul Khayer said.
Coming back to the orchestra, conductor Berik Batyrkhan used his baton to shepherd the band so symphonically with the strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion sections that the surreal sound transcended the audience into a make-believe world.
The group, which has collaborated with several distinguished conductors including K. Penderecki, V. Ashkenazy, R. Gutter, A. Tchaikovsky, R. Kanetti, and D. Bross, started off with a short composition by a noted Kazakh composer.
Prior to them taking the event by storm, virtuoso violinist L. Subramaniam got the ball rolling on Day 1 of the four-day extravaganza by performing a kriti (a compositional format of Carnatic music) on Raga Abhogi, a Carnatic raga that has also been adopted into Hindustani classical form.
Subramaniam came back on stage with his ensemble to perform with the Astana Orchestra, this time with a fusion between the East and West with his composition titled 'Shanti Priya'.
Late into the night, there was sarod recital by Rajrupa Chowdhury, khyal vocals by Vidushi Padma Talwalkar and Supriya Das, sitar by Firoz Khan and a flute-sitar jugalbandi by Rakesh Chaurasia and Purbayan Chatterjee.
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Mathura (UP), May 16 (PTI): As many as 90 Bangladeshi nationals, including many children, were apprehended from Uttar Pradesh's Mathura district on Friday for alleged illegal stay in India, officials said.
They were taken into custody from local brickyards at Khajpur village under the Naujheel police station limits, a senior officer said.
"Regular searches were being conducted throughout the district. During one such operation, police were searching some local brickyards when they came across Bangladeshi nationals working there," SSP Shlok Kumar said.
Giving a break-up, the officer said in all, 35 men, 27 women and 28 children have been taken into custody.
"During interrogation, all of them admitted to being Bangladeshi nationals living illegally in India. They moved to Mathura three to four months back from a neighbouring state. Police are trying to establish their links," the SSP said, adding that their job contractor and other associates are also being questioned.
The officer told PTI that police also recovered some Aadhaar cards from the Bangladeshi nationals, apparently issued on forged documents in some other state.
Further legal proceedings are underway, Kumar said.