Music and dance reviews

Vasantha Sangeethotsava

In the ‘Vasantha Sangeethotsava’ (Spring Music Festival) the connoisseurs response was overwhelming and it was like a feast for 12 days.

Deepa Bhat, who gave a Bharathanatya recital on Friday, for the Bangalore Lalithakala Parishat, is a disciple of Prof M R Krishna Murthy of ‘Kalakshithi’ and has passed proficiency examination with distinction. She is a BE graduate and recipient of scholarship and has performed in many places of the State. She is now training young aspirants at her own school ‘Nrithya Kuteera’.

Though Bhat is a seasoned Bharathanaya dancer, the performance remained on routine plane, inspite of selecting well known compositions. She opened the programme with Pushpanjali customarily, followed by ‘Sharanu Siddivinayaka’ of Purandara Dasa. She presented the Varna (Deena Bhandhu – Shankarabharana) with assurance.

There were five compositions in the post varna session! A pada (on Lord Subramanya) kruthi (Abhogi), Astapadi (Ragamalika), a Swathi Tirunal composition (Sindhu Bhairavi) and a thillana (Hamsanandi) – were her choice. She performed sincerely, but have to mature to reach out for the depth of the content, in each composition. Background Vocal music (Akshata Upadhya) was also not inspiring and Nagasree (Natuvanga), V R Chandrasekhar (mridanga) and Ganesh (morching) – accompanied from the wings.

The stalwarts vied with one another with some memorable concerts, treating listeners to exciting sonorities, at the ‘Vasantha Sangeethotsava’ (Spring Music Festival) – 2012, held under the aegis of the Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira.

Sanjay Subramanian, seasoned and popular vocalist, was in his elements. Sriranjini and Saraswathi Manohari ragas gave an electrifying touch to the concert, while the Vasantha raised the concert to its heights. He crowned the concert with a well knit Pallavi set to Adi Thala and in evergreen raga Kalyani and was further buttressed with the ragamalika swaras. Nagai Muralidharan, Mannargudi Easwaran and B Rajsekhar – gave adequate support on violin, mridanga and morsing, respectively.

Curtains came down on “Spring Music Festival – 2012”, on Sunday with a vocal duet by Ranjani and Gayathri. The sisters proved once again, that they are crowd pullers. They also chose a pallavi, as the piece de resistance. But it was a unusual pallavi in 4 ragas (Chathur raga). Rendering of Valachi, Dhanyasi, Revathy and Kalyani – one raga after another – were exciting and was a wholesome treat.

Earlier the sisters sang Natakuranji, the evocative raga, which was lively highlighting all the endearments of the soulful melody. Among the two devaranamas selected ‘Echaradali nade manave’ is a infrequent one, while the other ‘Naneke Badavanu’ is a favourite of listeners, always. They concluded their fine concert with a Abhang of Sant Tukaram. Charumathi Raghuraman (violin), Manoj Shiva and G S Ramanujam (Ghata) – gave lively support on their respective instruments.

G V Krishnaprasad conducted the music festival successfully.