Music and dance reviews

Melodious music meet

“Harmonic and Melodic World Music” was the theme of the fourth International Conference on Music and Dance, held last week under the aegis of the Indiranagar Sangeeth Sabha. On the same occasion Annual Music and Dance Festival was also celebrated at the beautiful auditorium “Purandara Bhavana,” Indiranagar. Purandara Prashasthi was conferred on Padmabhushan Dr Padma Subramanyam and Purandara Yuva Prashasthi on Bangalore Brothers (M B Hariharan and B Ashok) and Ramakrishnan Murthy.

Curtains came down on this year’s festival with a vocal duet of Bangalore Brothers. The opening Kedaragowla varna itself created a sleek musical atmosphere which endured throughout the concert.

After “Parama Purusha Jagadeeswara” in Vasantha raga “Budhamasrayami” (Natakuranji) suited the occasion, as it was a Wednesday. Kalyani and Bhairavi were the two ragas that came for sustained treatment. They sang with good feeling and lent a convincing imagery of the melody. In the post “Thani” period, they also presented “Madhava Mamava Deva, Sarvam Bramha Maya” and a thillana in the raga Kamatch. With equal stress on “Mathu” and “Dhathu,” Bangalore Brothers lived up to expectation.

T K V Ramanujacharyalu on violin, H S Sudhindra on mridanga and Ullur Giridhara Udupa on ghata - added pep to the concert by their judicious play.

‘Pancha Tatwa’ in music

Dr  H S Anasuya Kulkarni  is well versed not only in Karnatic music but also in several eastern musical instruments. She presented a instrumental ensemble, with Anghklung as the lead instrument. Anghklung is a bamboo rattle instrument from Indonesia, which she has adopted to play Karnatic music. She had chosen “Pancha Tatwa” as the theme along with B N Ramesh. To suit the theme, the team had five Anghklungs, five Indian percussion and five foreign percussion instruments.

In the beginning, they presented select compositions of Karnatic music like “Bho Shambho” (raga Revati), “Pancha Matanga” (Malahari), and the ever popular “Endaro Mahanubhavulu” (Sri). It was followed by songs from five states of India (Karnataka to Kerala). Next choice was from five countries (Afghanisthan, Papua New Guinea etc) supported by drums from five countries like Ghana, Uganda etc. Then the main item of the evening - a special composition five ragas set to “Pancha nade.” Another interesting thing was “Thani” performed in five drums of five different countries. Slides projected throughout the concert was another added attraction. Kudos to Dr Anasuya Kulkarni for her talent and innovative programme.

Talented youngsters

Three young artistes waiting in the wings for gaining public accolade joined force in a significant way to impress at the Bangalore Gayana Samaja, in the “Yuva Sangeethotsava” series.

Meghana Murthy, the vocalist, hails from Puttur and is now settled in Bengaluru. After initial lessons from few musicians, she is continuing her training under Trichi Venkataraman. She has bagged first prize in both the AIR competition and the Academy of Music.

In the current concert, she was well supported by Tarun Ravi Kumar and Nikshit Puthur. Though Meghana Murthy seemed a little hesitant in the beginning, she warmed up soon and easily carried the day. After presenting few well-known compositions in different ragas, she chose Kharaharapriya for a detailed elaboration. In the alapana she even tried Grahabheda (Yadukula Kambodi), which acquired a special delight at improvisational flashes. Reetigowla was brief but impressive. She also sang “Saraswathi Namosthuthe” “Aadalu Pogona Baro Ranga,” a bhajan and a thillana. With some more training and concert experience, Meghana Murthy can reach great heights.