The santoor recital by Pandit Shivkumar Sharma and his son Rahul at the Ganesh Kala Krida Rangmanch, Nehru Stadium, in the nocturnal cool of August 31, got off to a sedate start.

Breaking away from the convention of playing evening raags like Jaijaiwanti or Khamaj, the duo rendered raag Janasammohini - a very rich Carnatic raag. It is a raag not often heard in North Indian classical music unlike some other Carnatic raags like Hamsadhwani or Kalawati.

The rendering of the alaap was superb. Rahul showed a lot of promise and matched his father note for note. The chords of the santoor almost lifted one to the land of the Chinar, courtesy the beauty of the rendition. The meenal particularly - the long-drawn pause towards the end - and a taan drew repeated applause.

The raag was set to three different taals or beats. The bilambit was in taal Rupak followed by tod in taal Adhi. The concluding gat was in Teen taal and the raag climaxed in a resounding jhala.

It is praiseworthy to note that Rahul, while rendering the raag, never once went off-beat. The duo was accompanied by the accomplished Shafat Ahmed Khan, among the leading tabla-players in the country. His renditions were a treat to hear - the bols were crisp and rose in volume and pitch as per the requirements. And the sawal jawab duel lent a playful touch to the performance.

The tod and jhala illustrated Sharma's class as a musician and also brought out the best in Rahul. From a slow beginning, the presentation gathered momentum and acquired a frenetic pace. Despite playing the jhala at chowgun (that is, four times the normal beat of the Teen taal), the composition never suffered. The taans were superb and the raag ended with a sum (the end of the last beat and the start of the first beat) that brought rounds of applause.

The evening wound up with the duo rendering a dhun in raag Pahadi. The dhun was specially composed to cater to the requirements of a duet. But full justice was not done to it. It is only in the dhum that an artist can take full liberty because this is where all raags can come into play, it being mishra (a mix) in nature. Unfortunately, that was not to be, as the finer nuances were not explored, making the rendition a little restricted and unexciting. This flaw could perhaps be attributed to time restraint, as the clock ticked away relentlessly.

All in all, while it was a good performance, it was not too inspired. And this could perhaps be ascribed to the fact that half the seats in the audience were empty. There is nothing like a full house to draw the best from any performer. And in this case, it was the audience's loss.