In 1997, the BBC hosted a series of concerts to commemorate the 50th anniversary of India's independence from Britain. These concerts were hosted by Mark Tully, at the time the New Delhi station chief for the BBC. Included in the series are two performances that appear here: this vocal recital by Ajoy Chakraborty and a recital by Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and his two sons.
Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty at the time was one of the rising stars in the world of North Indian classical vocal music. He is joined in this performance by Samar Saha on tablas and Sanjoy Chakraborty on harmonium. The recital consisted of two pieces. The first was described as a light classical thumri kajri, and the second a full khyal using the South Indian raga Hamsadhwani. Included here is also a brief excerpt of an interview with the host Mark Tully.
These pieces were recorded from a radio broadcast in mono. They were encoded at 96 kbps mono, which is the rough equivalent of 192 kbps stereo. They appear here by the kind permission of the BBC.
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