On a bright Sunday morning of 2 June, Kolkata vibed with the rhythms of western classical music under the auspices of the Southern School of Music (Garia) at the packed ICCR’s Satyajit Ray auditorium. There is a truism that music works as therapy for a troubled mind, especially the evergreen compositions of Bach and Handel. Fortunately, their works were featured in this concert, which marked the 29th annual concert of SSOM. Shakespeare’s conviction, “If music be the food of love, play on” and play on it did for more than seven hours, taking listeners down memory lane.

The Southern School of Music has grown from strength ever since its inception in 1992, with the consciousness of western classical music evolving over time in a big way, gauging from the ever-growing numbers of music students, which has expanded considerably over the years. Credit should go to Sujit Sarkar, the principal of the school and a composer and pianist in his own right, who coordinates music classes with regular practice by the students to hone their musical prowess. Of course, behind it all was the inspiration provided by Sam Engineer, Sujit Sarkar’s musical mentor, to build a music school dedicated to him.

The Southern School of Music has given its undivided attention to dedicating its work towards grooming students to reach professional heights and setting standards of performance at concert halls. To add a bit of spice to the occasion by way of variety, a pop ensemble and ghazal were arranged as part of the musical repertoire showcased for the benefit of listeners. There were far too many musical items for inclusion here; however, it requires mentioning the ones that really caught the musical imagination and the ones that did not on account of inept renditions.

The concert unfurled with the string instruments: piano, EI, keyboard, violin duet, guitar ensemble and pop ensemble during the first half before the interval. The violin duet that performed the Minuet by Bach with Bedatroyee Das and Gopal Sarkar at the helm groped in the darkness without a thought spared in synchronising the melodic line. It was more than redressed by the piano renditions of Ishan Khan Banik, Deeptangshu Das and Khusbu Kamat in their musical interpretations of Sunrise, In a Goldfish Bowl and The Fairy’s Harp that managed to set the right mood of the melody line.

The guitar ensemble with Sourish Naskar, Ananmoy Sengupta, Shreeja Saha and Suprabuddha Das were competent in their rendition of Satyajit Ray’s composition Maharaja Tomare Selam. Prasun Majumdar and Pramit Sarkar’s renditions of Mozart’s Fantasia in D minor and the 3rd movement from Beethovan’s Moonlight Sonata gave a very sensitively seasoned account of the original works. Next, the pop ensemble, with guitar by Aditya Goyal, Suprabuddha Das and Saroj Sonowal and vocals by Biswadeep Dutta and Srija Bhattacharya, was adequate. The ghazals Saat Suron Ka Behta Dariya and Pyar Ka Pehla Khat, rendered in the voice of Sujit Sarkar with excellent orchestral support, gave some credence to the meaning of the Urdu lyrics.

The curtains of the musical soiree were drawn with the string orchestra comprising of violin, viola, and cello playing selected movements from GF Handel’s Die Wassermusik (Water Music), which gave a well-coordinated orchestral music that captured the essence of the Baroque genre conducted by Pramit Sarkar. Sujit Sarkar also gave a commendable performance on the piano with the rendition of his own original composition, ‘Conversations’. Deserving students were given trophies in recognition of their musical merits.

The writer is an independent contributor