Music and dance reviews - Ramotsava concerts

Ramotsava concerts

Music reigned supreme on the cultural scene in the city last week, as the Ramotsava, the music season has arrived. 

Both musicians and connoisseurs eagerly await for the Ramotsava season, which provide great opportunity to enjoy good music. Among all, the Sree Rama Seva Mandali, the prestigious organisation, has organised music programmes till May 5, 2017, at its special pandal on Fort High School grounds, Chamarajpet.

Dr Sudha Raghunathan, who gave a vocal concert in the Mandali on Saturday, is a recipient of both Padmabhushan and Sangeetha Kalanidhi awards. She is a most sought after musician. Rama Seva Mandali also conferred the “Rama Gaana Kala Acharya” title on Sudha Raghunathan during the programme.

After a infrequent varna, the familiar invocatory piece “Pranamamyaham” was rendered with brief but interesting swara. Another popular kruthi “Nagumomu” is also a favourite of both musicians and listeners. “Dayarani” was a quicky. She made an indelible impact in Simhendramadhyama, with brief 'Sruthi Bheda' intelligently and many sangathies were reminding her guru MLV and the swara prasthara further buttressed this feeling. The raga had its customary brilliance and the recital was a unique blend of expertise and aesthetics.

Seasoned instrumentalists Embar Kannan on violin and K V Prasad on mridanga accompanied with good understanding and young Khanjari player Anoor Sunad proved his mettle once again.

Nagaswara duet
Sree Seshadripuram Ramaseva Samithi, the other popular Ramotsava organisation, in its 19-day festival has arranged music concerts from both seniors and upcoming artistes till April 23. Veena, flute, mandolin and solo violin apart from vocal concerts are slated to be held at the Seshadripuram College premises, in the 69th year Sree Ramanavami Music Festival. It was opened by a ‘Mangala Vadya’ (Nagaswara) recital, customarily on the Ramanavami day.

It was actually a Nagaswara duet by Murali and Rajagopal, disciples of veteran A V Narayanappa and K N Surendra also supported as a co-player. The stately varna in Kambodhi gave them a bright start. After the invocatory piece, the popular kruthi “Bantureethi” was chosen and rendered with brief swara. The evocative raga Charukeshi was elaborated and the swara prasthara was rendered in turns for the Tyagaiah keertana, sans gimmicks but in a simple way. Armugam and Kartheek accompanied on dol (thavil) and they concluded with "Bhagyada Lakshmi Baramma".

Beautiful Rama Katha
The Narthana Academy of Dance and Music (Nadam) had organised a dance programme last week to raise funds for Karnataka Theosophical Federation, Bangalore and Malleswaram branch in particular (The Malleswaram Lodge).

Sathyanarayana Raju is a popular dancer of Karnataka and has received good training in Bharathanatya from Narmada (of Shakuntala Nrityalaya) and Subhadra Prabhu and has also practised Kathak. He has toured all over India and a few countries also. He is a recipient of “Karnataka Kalashri” and DD Chandana Award.

In this solo Bharathanatya recital, Satyanarayana Raju depicted some of the important episodes and characters of Ramayana beautifully. Conceived by R K Usha, and choreography by Satyanarayana Raju himself, the programme opened with a fine composition of Saint Tyagaraja (Melukovayya) and different composer's kruthies in many languages, elevated the stature of the dance drama.

Popular characters like Kausalya, Seetha, Kaikeyi, Guha, Shabari, Hanumantha and the Ashoka Vana episode, Ravana Vadha, crossing the sea, Rama uniting with Sita - all provided ample opportunities for abhinaya and Satyanarayana builds up an atmosphere of deliberation and theatricality, with spacious movements, testifying for his talent and choreographic skill.

Musicians shared the honours with the dancer. Especially Srivatsa's melodious music with good feeling - was added attraction. Shakunthala Prabhath (Natuvanga), Lingaraju (mridanga) and Raghunandan (flute) - also accompanied with good understanding.