Music & dance reviews

Sparkling vocal    

Ganesha Chaturthi provides an opportunity for art lovers to witness many types of cultural programmes. Ganesha pandals have come up all over the city and organisations are vying with each other to organise as many programmes as possible.

One such organisation “Sri Vidya Ganapathi Seva Samithi”, is conducting the Ganapati Festival from last 43 years at the Dodda Ganapathi Temple premises.

This year (44th year) a 7-day religious and cultural festival with nagaswara, percussion ensemble, vocal and Harikatha were held apart from the Sahasra Modaka Gana Homa. Nithyashri Mahadevan, who gave a vocal recital here last week, attracted a large gathering.

It was heartening to note that Nityashri has blossomed into a worthy successor to a reputed lineage of musicians and connoisseurs appreciated the entirely professional approach of her, which has brought her popularity.

Nityashri in the initial stage sang ‘Siddivinayakam’, composed by Muthuswamy Dikshitar in praise of Ganesha.

The Shanmukhapriya raga (Chamara) keerthana was brightened with brief swara, which was followed by a composition of Papanasham Shivan. In between she also presented few Kannada devaranamas like – Saamanyavalla Sri Hariya Seve, Entha Cheluvage Magalanu Kotta.

‘Vara Narada’ was rendered in quick succession, with fast swara passages, to pave the way for the main item of the evening. She brought out the raga bhava of Bilahari in greater detail, in all its glory for the composition “Dorakuna Ituvanti Seva”. In this keertana Saint Tyagaraja narrates Lord Sri Rama as sitting in his Asthana (court).

It is said that on one occasion, Tyagarajaswamy performed Pooja and sang few compositions with swara, with great devotion and feeling. His Guru Shunti Venkataramanaiah organised a special meet of Vidwans and asked Tyagaraja to sing few compositions.

Tyagarajaswamy sang this Bilahari Keerthana with beautiful Nerval (Kamitha Phaladayaki). Guru was very much pleased and all the presents he had received from the King (Tanjore Maharaja) he donated to his sishya (Tyagaraja) and blessed. Thus this composition has a special place and is a favourite of both musicians and music lovers.

Nityashree with her rich voice and lively presentation, gave a sparkling vocal. Charulatha Ramanujan on violin responded with alacrity while Tumkur Ravishankar proved a good foil on mridanga and B Shashi Shankar accompanied on Ghata.

Ankura Dance Festival

Twelve young and up coming artistes performed Bharathanatya, Kathak and Kuchipudi recitals in the ‘Ankura’, annual dance festival, held under the aegis of the Karnataka Nrityakala Parishat. It was a good opportunity for the young talents from different dance schools.

Bhargavi Gowtham, a student of Natyanjali School of Dance has completed her proficiency examination and has performed in few places, both in and outside India. She is an architecture graduate and has performed in few dance dramas also.

In the current programme Bhargavi chose a varna after the initial items (Pushpanjali and Ganesha stuthi). In the celebrated varna “Manavi Chekonarada” (Shankarabharana), she negotiated the rhythms neatly and danced through the cross rhythms with ease and assurance. Bhargavi managed the Pada ‘Netrandhi nerathile’ with a liveliness, sometimes bordering on the dramatic.

Bhargavi proved that she has received good training from Vidwan Ashok Kumar and performed with natural grace. While Prasanna wielded the cymbals, Balasubramanya Sharma gave melodious vocal support, Gurumurthy on Mridanga and Venugopal on flute accompanied with good understanding.

Kuchipudi

Curtain came down on this years Ankura Festival with a Kuchipudi recital of Gururaja. He is a student of Shambhavi School of Dance and has given solo performances and has also taken part in few dance dramas of his school. Gururaja opened his dance recital with a composition on Gajanana. It was followed by a neat swarajathi in the raga Athana.

Different episodes of Ramayana, from Rama’s birth to coronation was performed pleasingly. A Sandhya Thandava on Shiva and concluded with the devaranama ‘Hari Aadidano’. Gururaj responded well to the intricacies of rhythms with clean bodily movements and gestures. With more stage experience and higher training, Gururaj may reach great heights. Prateeksha Kashi (Natuvanga), Ramya (vocal), Janardhan (mridanga) and Kartheek (Flute) – supported the dancer from the wings.

A classical veena

Mudigondan Ramesh gave a Veena recital for the Bangalore Lalithakala Parishat, last week. He belongs to Mudigondan Venkatarama Iyer’s lineage and ‘A-grade’ artiste of All India Radio. He has been honoured by both Sringeri and Kamakoti Peeta, as their ‘Asthan Vidwan’.

Ramesh opened his concert with the ever green varna “Viriboni” which gave him  a fine start. The Naata raga composition of Dikshithar was followed by ‘Durmargachara’. He made a graceful impact in Ranjani and the swara prasthara was also pleasing.

Tyagaraja’s infrequent krithi ‘Kamalaprthakula’ in Brindavana Saranga, was a welcome change from the routine compositions. The highlight of the programme was the delineation of that grand mode Kambodhi in all its glory, with well woven thana.

‘O Ranga Shayee’ was presented with vintage flavour. It was melodious, with a touch of class, throughout. K U Jayachandra Rao gave good support on mridanga and Dayananda Mohite was in charge of ghata.