Music and dance reviews

The nonagenarian musician Dr R K Srikantan, was greeted by one and all on the eve of his 94th birthday, on the auspicious Sankranthi day.

It was part of the annual Sankranthi Music Festival and biography of the doyen was also released. Dr T K Murthy  (Music), Dr Venkatesha Sharma Sastry (Advaita Siddantha), V V Sundaram (Organiser) and Prof M Balasubramaniam (Principal) – were felicitated.

The inaugural concert was by Carnatika Brothers – N Shashikanth and Ganesh. They were well supported by C N Chandrasekhar on violin, Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma on mridanga and G Guru Prasanna on khanjari. “Vanajakshi,” gave Carnatica Brothers a steady start followed by “Chelanatina” of Saint Tyagaraja. “Angarakamashrayamam” – Suruti composition of Dikshitar was another fine selection.

Though the nerval (Bhanuchandra Gurumitram Bhasamana Sukulatram) was rather too brief, the composition attracted with its meaningful lyrics and grand music. ‘Needumahima’ – was a quickie and chose raga Vagadheeswari for the Pallavi. Sharing themselves the brothers elaborated the Pallavi (Amogha Varsha Gana Sreekanta) neatly. Though they tried to bring a convincing imagery of the melody, the raga was not fully evocative. Carnatica Brothers concluded their concert with a thillana of Veena Seshanna.

Shortcomings

G Srikant, who gave a vocal recital last week is a post graduate in music and has been trained by both T M Tyagarajan and O S Tyagarajan. He is a known teacher and sings for several front ranking dancers.

In the current concert (Sri Rama Lalitakala Mandira) Srikant was supported by Rahul Ravichandran on violin, Prof V Krishna on mridanga and G Guru Prasanna on khanjari.
He sang a number of familiar compositions like – Sri Chamundeswari and Orajupu.
The “Jananee Pahi Sada” in Sanskrit is usually rendered on the seventh day of Navaratri. Keeravani, the evocative raga was selected for the Pallavi. He also rendered a few devaranamas like “Samsaravemba”, “Hu Beke Parimalada” and a thillana of Rajkumar Bharathi. He sang sincerely. Yet it was by no means one of his best efforts, thus the concert was not free from shortcomings.