Sachin Patwardhan (Spanish Veena)

Attended a concert of Sachin Patwardhan (Spanish Veena) accompanied by Parag Dhadphale (Tabla) organized by Anubhooti at Embassy of India, Abu Dhabi, on 11th Oct 2019 with Aditi and Mane, Patil, Thangaokar, Oka families . Attendance to the concert was @ 90.

Sachin is a disciple of Utd. Amjad Ali Khan of Bangash Gharana. Parag is disciple of Pt. Suresh Samsnt and Pt. Sudhir Mainkar.

Spanish Veena is an instrument invented by Sachinji by adding strings to Spanish Guitar and making it suitable to play Hindustani classical music.

Sachin started the concert with bada khyal. It was late morning Raag Charukeshi. This is 26th melakarta raag from Cathartic music and is adopted into Hindustani classical music. He started with Aalap, Jod, Jhala. The base was created in this phase. Then he elaborated the raag with three bandishes. First bandish was in Rupak taal, second one was in Madhyalay Teen taal and last one was in Drut teen taal. He played Charukeshi for about 1 hour 15 minutes. 

Audience demanded a chota khyal. So it was another late morning Raag Gujri Todi of Todi thaat. This raag is very effective in producing karun rasa. He presented a composition in Teen taal. The crescendo of this raag was especialy good. 

Concert ended with my favourite Bhairavi. He presented Bhairavi first without Tabla. This was too good. Then he continued Bhairavi with Tabla and concluded the concert on a high note.

Sachin played Spanish Veena with ease. He displayed his dexterity in playing fine as well as strong notes, slow as well as fast lay and was applauded frequently. Sachin is also a very down to earth person, no ego.

Parag got his 5 min of fame 3 times and made good use of it. He too was encouraged by audience to play freely.

It was evident that these two artists were playing together for the first time. They were tentative initially but the stated to gel and the association grew as the concert proceeded. 

Sachin is the musician of new generation.  He is tech savy. He had his Macbook connected and had earphones plugged to one ear to get direct sound feedback. His Spanish Veena sound output was given directly to sound system so there was no microphones in front of him.

The concert lasted for 2 hours. Sound and lights were good. Embassy of India awarded certificates of appreciation to the artists. This was Anubhooti's 14th concert. 

Trivia: Sachin ji is originally a Sarod player and also plays violin. He is also an MBA. Parag is an engineer. A highly qualified duo. 

It was a unique concert because he is the only one who plays Spanish Veena.. 

Disclosure: I am a founder member of Anubhooti.