Music and dance reviews
Spring music festival
Sri Rama Lalithakala Mandira conducted the Annual Spring Music Festival last week, with not only classical vocal, but also solo violin, musical discourse and dance recitals.
Sudha Raghunathan, who gave a vocal recital here on Wednesday has a reputation for consistency and her concert was a proportioned presentation of choice melodies. Right from the invocatory piece ‘Vandisuvudadiyali Gananathana’ she sang with abandon and involvement, establishing rapport with the audience. After a brief ‘Paramananda Natana’, ‘Nanubrovalalithe’ was sung with good feeling. Kharaharapriya is one of the most commonly heard ragas and “Chakkaniraja Margamu” – is too familiar composition on the concert stage.
Hence it is not easy to make an instant appeal! When a seasoned vocalist like Sudha Raghunathan renders it, it attains a flavour all its own! The ragalapana was developed leisurely, the nerval was meaningful and the swaraprasthara delightful. A quick ‘Sudha Madhurya Bhashiny’ led to the raga, thana and pallavi. It was a intelligently woven Thri raga pallavi – Mohana, Kamavardhini and Anandabhairavi. It was exhilarating and a measure of the vocalist’s talent and vast experience. Post Pallavi devotionals – Bhavayami Gopala, Hoo Beke Huvu, Thandanana Brahma Okate – were rendered with “Madhura Bhakthi”. Embar Kannan, Skanda Subramanyan and Raman lent excellent support on violin, mridanga and morching respectively.
Graceful dance
The Bharathanatya programme of Lakshmi Gopalaswamy began with bright promise on Friday at the Spring Music Festival. The composition of Ranjanimala was impressive. The celebrated varna (Mohamanai) blossomed neatly and the dance was attractive. Though adequate she has to develop the little undertones and nuances to give it variety and depth. The graceful dancer’s Abhinaya skill came to the forefront in the Jawadi (Saramaina) and the devaranama (Odi Baraiah). But the thillana (Kamatch) was not so evocative. In total the performance was pleasing, beautiful and graceful with scope for improvisation. Praveen Kumar (Natuvanga) and Kishori Shankar (vocal) – shared the honours with the dancer, while Srihari (mridanga), Jayaram (flute) and Dr. Nataraj Murthy (violin), supported on their respective instruments.
Pleasing music and dance
A music and dance programme was held last Sunday, on the occasion of felicitation to Vidwan B.K. Chandramouli, senior percussionist. Chandramouli is known in the field as a teacher, organizer and performer (mridanga, khanjari and konakkol) and is serving the music field from several decades.
H N Meera gave a vocal concert exclusively of Haridasa kruthies. Instead of the usual padas, the ‘Gajamukha Vandisuve’ of Saint Vadiraja, was a welcome change. So also ‘Narasimhana Pada Bhajane’ was an infrequent devaranama on Narasimhaswamy. While the ‘Yariddarenaiah’ was in a majestic ‘vilambala kaala’, ‘Narayanathe Namo Namo’ was in drutha kaala. The ‘Bho Shambo Shiva Shambho’ is an all time favourite of connoisseurs. A team of instrumentalists supported her –Madhusudhan, B.C. Manjunath, Bhasker, Sridhar and Prushothama – accompanied with good understanding.
Radhika Ramanujan, Sangeetha Punekar and Harini Srikanth of ‘Lasya Nritya’ gave a Bharathanatya recital. They opened the programme with Malhari. ‘Ikshudandadhara’ in the raga Vitapi was on Ganesha. They also performed ‘Sriman Narayana’ with ease and confidence. A silver mridanga was presented to B.K. Chandramouli, as part of the felicitation.
A unique experience
The Ranga Samsthana conducted the ‘Kannada Janapada Jhenkara’ on Tuesday. The Samsa Ranga Mandira was specially prepared for the occasion and it was a scene to see and believe! One thousand artistes sang together folk songs, under the direction of Bandlahalli Vijaykumar. When they sang in unison Sharanu Sharanu Gana Nayaka, Baro Geejuga, Hadire Ragagala, etc it was a memorable experience. Few other sugam sangeeth and folk artistes also sang few folk songs. The unique programme was held as part of the 10th anniversary of the Ranga Samsthana.
