Music and dance reviews

Graceful impact

The Malleswaram Sangeetha Sabha conducted a music conference for the first time last week. R K Padmanabha presided over the conference and B C Manjunath presided over the Youth Music Conference.

Dr Gayathri Rajapure Kasebaum and Dr Srikantham Nagendra Sastry were also felicitated on the occasion.

Ashwatha Narayanan, who gave the inaugural concert, is a disciple of K V Narayana Swamy. An engineering graduate, Narayanan caught the attention of the connoisseurs when he received the best musician award from the Music Academy for three consecutive years.

Though Aswatha Narayanan chose a familiar piece “Smarane Sukhamu” to open his concert, he made a graceful impact. “Anupama Gunambike” with sweet ‘Sangathies’ and “Rama Rama Enniro” with brief raga - were evocatively rendered. He presented an infrequent kruthi of Dikshitar “Narmade Kaveri Teera Nilaye” in the lesser known raga Namadesi. ‘Mohana Rama’ is one of the beautiful compositions in the Mohana Raga. The ragalapana at once acquired a special delight and he elaborated the Keertane with alap and swara but sans ‘nerval’. He concluded with “Pibare” and a thillana in Dhanashri.

Ashwatha Narayanan is equipping himself with all necessary skills for a successful concert and he has a bright future. H S Smitha on violin, B C Manjunath on mridanga and Sukanya Ramgopal on ghata - gave good support.

Beautiful choreography

Over the years Natya Niketan has emerged as a premier dance training institute of Bengaluru. Under the direction of Revathi Narasimhan, senior dancer, teacher and choreographer, the Institute has produced several dance dramas and many students have passed dance examinations with distinction.

Six students of Natya Niketan gave a beautiful dance recital for the Bangalore Lalithakala Parishat, last week. An intelligent adoption of Subbudu's varna “Anname” vouched for Revathi's choreographic skill. Sri Lakshmi, Sriranjini, Umesh, Tejaswini, Bhanupriya, Devika Paramesh and Priyanka Chandrasekhar - performed changing their roles in quick succession and with graceful Abhinaya. With different episodes, the Devaranama (“Yamanelli Kaananendu”) was also pleasing. Both the theme (“Shankara Sri”) and choreography in the Hamsanandi composition, caught the attention of the dance lovers. Indeed it was the result of good training and sincere learning.
Guru Revathi Narasimhan (Natuvanga), Bharathi Venugopal (vocal), Lingaraju (mridanga) and Vivek Krishna (flute) - gave inspiring support from the wings.

Talented young musician

Pavani Kashinath hails from a well-known musicians’ family and her parents - A V Kashinath and Pushpa Kashinath - are musicians of repute. She received music lessons from R Chandrika and is now being trained by Neela Ramgopal. She is a ‘A’ grade artiste of AIR and has performed in “Sangeetha Sammelan” of Akashavani. She has received the National prize too. She has also won award for her playback singing and has sung for few TV serials also. Music connoisseurs still recall her “Avadhana Pallavi” rendered in the music conference of the Karnataka Ganakala Parishat.
With this background, Pavani Kashinath opened her ‘Lalitha Sangeetha’ recital at Dr H Narasimhaiah Memorial Cultural Festival with the D R Bendre’s “Jayadeva Jayadeva Sri Ganapathi Raya” in the raga Vasantha, which gave her a bright start. Further consolidating her ‘Manodharma,’ she delineated compositions of Purandara Dasa, Kanaka Dasa, Jagannatha Dasa, Basavanna, Meera Bai and Dr N S Lakshminarayana Bhat.

“Jagan Mohanane Krishna” and “Innu Daya Barade” led her into the intended mood. Another devaranama (“Dayanidhe”) and a vachana (“Lesa Kandu Mana Bayasi”) never left one in doubt about her talent and steady progress. She also sang Kannada lyrics like “Nanna Manadalake,” and a Meera bhajan “Payoji Maine” - which were also pleasing.
With her high-pitch melodious voice and with an aesthetic touch, Pavani Kashinath revealed ample flashes of her talent. Gurumurthy Vaidya, Anirudh Sridhar and Prakash Anthony gave good support on tabala, keyboard and rhythm pad, respectively.