George Ruckert, the founder of Mithas presented a Sarod Conert on April 2, 2004 at the Wong Auditorium. He was accompanied on the Tabla by Nitin Mitta. The concert was a combination of a MIT faculty recital for Professor George Ruckert, and the opening program of the MITHAS Spring Concert Series. Ruckert plays in the style of his guru for more than thirty years, sarodist Ustad Ali Akbar Khansahib.

The program opened with a short verbal explanation of the first item, which Ruckert announced was to be alap and jor in Rag Desh, Malhar followed by two gats in tintal in the related rag Desh. “The recent heavy rains have affected my practice,” said the artist, “and hence I felt it appropriate to present this rainy-season raga tonight.” He proceeded to play Desh Malhar, which is similar to the more popular Desh, except that it features komal (flat) gandhar in a shadowy and indirect manner at the close of each section. One student from India asked him after the concert if this were not actually a mixing the rag Jaijaiwanti, and Ruckert replied that the two rags were similar, but the briefest taste of the flat ga did not traduce the boundaries between the two ragas.

The gats were traditional, both having been composed by the illustrious Allauddin Khan in the early twentieth century. Nitin Mitta played a muted opening (utan), followed by sparkling solo sections in both slow and fast tintal. The artists played sangat (simultaneous) passages, and there were several layakari (rhythmic) tans that added pleasing variety to the performance. The first half of the concert ended in a fast and thunderous jhala section.

After a short intermission, Ruckert announced the second item on the program, a light-classical rendition of the rag Sindhi Bhairavi, including a ragmala, interpolations of other ragas. He explained that the assembly of the ragmala (garland of ragas) was based on finding similar constructions in ascending-descending patterns, or common themes of different ragas that could be used as springboards in going from one to another. For example, the pentatonic ragas Malkauns, Hindol, and Dhanikauns were played back to back, revealing their striking contrasts in color.

The gats in Sindhi Bhairavi were by Ali Akbar Khan (in sitarkhani tal) and his father, Allauddin Khan (fast tintal), respectively; and Ruckert even sang the second one as he played, showing the affinity between instrumental gat and vocal music, in this case a tarana. He also played variations on a traditional composition by the nineteenth-century Lucknow composer, Bahadur Hussain Khan, as part of the fast gat exposition. The concert ended with the question-answer section between soloist and tabla, which produced many smiles from the audience.

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