Music and dance reviews

Beautiful nrityotsava

The Kalapremi Foundation conducted a 3 days Nrityotsava with an Odissi, Mohiniyattam and a Kathak recital, last week.

The inaugural recital was by Arushi Mudgal, a talented young Odissi dancer. She is a disciple of Madhavi Mudgal and has received guidance from Kelucharan Mohapatra and Leela Samson also. She has given a number of programmes under prestigious banners and recipient of few Awards including the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar from Sangeet Natak Akademi.

Arushi Mudgal had named it as Sutra ("Beads of creativity woven in the string of tradition"). She saluted to the invocatory God through "Ganesh Vandana" and the "Vasant" was also lively. She excelled in Nritha in the "Bageshree" and the Abhinaya was quite bright in the Odissi songs. With her expressive eyes and grace, Arushi Mudgal's performance was beautiful with good impact.

Saamagana festival

The Bharatiya Saamagana Sabha's eagerly awaited annual music festival was held last week with music concerts (Carnatic and Hindustani; vocal and instrumental) which they called it as "Sarvalankara Sangeethothsava".

The "Dhanvantari concert series" opened with a demonstration of Konnakkol. On the Konugol or Konnakol, the dictionary says - "The art of reciting jatis or rhythmic solfa syllables in a pleasant manner and in conformity to a chosen thala".

Young and talented musicians Somashekar Jois and Sanak Athreya spoke on Konnakol therapy with special reference to "special needs of children - speech disorder - diction improvement" etc and demonstrated Konnakol in Adi Thala, in different speeds with voice modulations. It was informative and useful.

Popular musicians Mysore Nagaraj and Manjunath regaled the audience with their violin duet. Instead of a number of compositions, they selected only one raga (Brindavana Saranga). The raga glowed beautifully with classical phrases. With their good command over the instrument, the Pallavi was pleasing throughout and Trichy Harikumar on Mridanga and Ullur Giridhar Udupa on Ghata shared the honours with the violinists.

The last concert of the morning was again a duet - of course of a different kind. Gundecha Brothers, being disciples of Dagar Brothers, are in the foremost position in the 'Dhrupad Gayan'. After a brief introduction by Dr Rajshekhar Vyas, Gundecha Brothers opened their Dhrupad presentation with rag Bhimpalas. Starting slowly like a royal elephant, ascending swara by swara, touching the pivotal swaras they gave a dignified shape to the raga. Dhyaneswar Deshmukh and Ramesh Chandra Joshi supported on Pakhawaj.

Sangeetha sambhrama

Another organisation which conducts Aradhana every year is Nagajyothi Sangeetha Sabha Trust, Malleswaram. In this year's "Sangeetha Sambhrama" (53rd year) held under the joint auspices of Malleswaram Arya Vyshya Sangha, veena and violin solo recitals, apart from vocal were also conducted. On the occasion Vidwan L. Bhimachar received the 'Lifetime Achievement Puraskar', Kalajyothi Award was conferred on Vidushi D. Suryaprabha and Dr. Hamsini Nagendra received the Nadajyothi Puraskar.

Curtains came down on this year's music festival with a grand vocal recital of P. Unnikrishnan on Saturday. A popular vocalist in both classical and film music, he is also a Award winner in the national level.

A classic composition "Mayateetha Swarupini" gave Unnikrishnan a bright start. It was further buttressed with nerval and swara. The "Vara Narada" with nostalgic flavour, reminded his guru - Dr. S. Ramanathan. After the ever popular "Mokshamugalada" a devaranama "Paraku Madade", he chose "Marivere" for a detailed elaboration with raga, nerval (Sannutanga Sri) and swara. Unnikrishnan sang with lively 'sangathies' and well knit swara, which was a pleasant listening till the end. Connoisseurs also enjoyed a chain of devotionals like Rama Rama Rama Seetha, Kunidado Krishna, Paluke Bangara, Bramha Okate. H.K. Venkatram, Arjun Kumar and Giridhar Udupa gave good support on violin, mridanga and ghata respectively.