Music and dance reviews

Spring music festival

The Sri Rama Lalithakala Mandira conducted the annual Spring Music Festival for 9 days, with music and dance programmes. On the occasion, the "Sangeetha Vedantha Dhureene" Award was presented to Ranjani and Gayathri, popular vocalists.

Kalavathy Avadhooth who gave a vocal recital here hails from a musicians family. Apart from her mother (G.R. Jaya) and father (Bangalore K Vankatram) she has learnt under Anoor Ramakrishna and P.S. Narayana Swamy also and is a gold medalist in post graduation class.

Kalavathy is known for her vast repertoire, which proved once again in the current concert. She laid a good foundation for the concert through the Kambodhi Atta thala varna. "Maya Teetha Swarupini" of Ponnaiah Pillai was a fine composition to start with, followed by "Brochevarevare Raghupathe" in Sriranjini. Raga Charukeshi for "Kripaya Palaya" with alapana and swara was brief but with good "raga bhava". A composition of Sadashiv Bramhendra and Bhadrachala Ramdas rendered pleasingly. A rendition of the kruthi "Upacharamu" stood out for its tonal flourishes. Raga Hamsanandi is a 'Shadava' raga and a popular 'rakti raga'. in Kalavati's voice, Hamsanandi anchored well to the lilting gait to a lingering effect. In the swaraprasthara of the Pallavi, she also narrated Bhegade, Reetigowla and Nalinakanthi - weaving swaraprasthara intelligently. She sang in the concluding session a devaranama (Baro Murare) of Vadiraja and a thillana of T V G She was well supported by H M Smitha on violin, H S Sudhindra on mridanga and Trichi Krishnaswamy on ghata.

Udupa music festival

Popular Ghatam player Ullur Giridhar Udupa presented a 3 days music festival (Udupa Music Festival), through his Udupa Foundation, with several celebrities from both in and outside Karnataka.

On Saturday a galaxy of well-known musicians presented a grand Karnatic music concert. For Abhishek Raghuram's vocal, Mysore Nagaraj's violin was not just accompaniment! But it appeared as vocal and violin Jugalbandi! They were accompanied by 3 percussionists: Khanjari (Guru Prasanna) and thabala (Yogesh Samsi) led by Karaikudi Mani on mridanga.

Abhishek and Nagaraj opened their concert with a meaningful keerthana of Tyagaraja "Sogasuga Mrudanga Thaalamu", which was refreshing. Melody and speed caught the attention in "Meru Samana" with clearly embellishing swara prasthara. With two brilliant artistes handling Ranjani, the raga attained a flavour all its own. The alapana was full of deep-felt 'sangathies' and the thana was equally powerful, to project a colourful compact picture of the raga. The swara prasthara for the Pallavi, further added to the tempo, and was full of verve, verily affirmative and enhanced the impact of the raga. With the grandeur of their delineation and impeccable artistry, the percussionists caught the attention of the listeners with their vigour, involvement and enjoyment. Abhishek and Nagaraj performed enjoying themselves and appreciating each other to cast a spell on the audience.