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Golden Milestones

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Golden Milestones is a collection of Cassettes and CD's which is exclusive in many ways. Firstly, it is a series comprising of recordings of some of the truly great artistes of the modern Hindustani Classical music, both vocal and instrumental. Each one of them has the status of a milestone. Secondly, the recordings go as far back as to the 1930's and '40's, largely the 78 RPM, which are typically pieces of three and half minutes, with a sprinkling of EP's which are typically six and a half minutes. Thirdly, all the recordings are exclusively with HMV SAREGAMA. It is for the very first time that some of the 78 RPM records are being made available on CDs. The series is essentially a "Heritage" series. The artistes chosen have been doyens of the classical heritage and of their respective "Gharana". The charm of the selection lies in the fact that though the chosen pieces are short, the artistes have been able to capture the essence of the raga as well as express the most vital features of their style. There is ample evidence that all the artistes chosen in the series had developed, each in his / her own way, a brilliant technique to encapsulate in a very short space the golden peaks of vitality and exuberance of Classical Music. Something must be said about the range of the artistes as well as of their raga repertoire. The series presents some of the great instrumentalists (e.g. Ustad Vilayat Khan as well as Pandit Ravi Shankar), and some of the vocalists (e.g. Bade Ghulam Ali Khan as well as Kesarbai Kerkar). These are artistes of great eminence who dedicated themselves to maintaining the purity of the inherited tradition as well as developing it further on their own. The raga repertoire of the series to is highly representative of the artistes and their "Gharanas". Listeners will find here ragas and compositions immortalized by those artistes, e.g. Mishra Khamaj aalap and gat rendered by Ustad Vilayat Khan, Gujri Todi and the Thumri "Yaad Piya Ki Aaye" by Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Basant and the Tilang and Bhairavi Thumris by Ustad Abdul Karim Khan.