This concert was a tribute to someone who loves music and appreciates good music. HaridaasaroLirisu, a music concert, organised by Ananya Cultural Academy, was held in the memory of R V Susheela Bai, Ananya Raghavendra’s mother, who was not a trained musician but enjoyed singing the daasas.
Raghavendra couldn’t think of a better way to pay tribute to his mother than put together a concert. “It’s been two years since my mother’s death and the best way to remember her is through music,” says Raghavendra and adds, “We have conducted these concerts earlier and we will continue to do so.”
T S Sathyavathi, a Sanskrit scholar and a well-known Carnatic musician, presented a rare selection of kritis of the daasas.
There were a variety of ragas and talas and every structure was unique. “There are hundreds of time -tested and traditional ragas but the modern ragas don’t have the personality. It takes a lot of effort to establish these ragas,” she says.
Sathyavathi held the audience spellbound with her songs. Some of them were: Keshavanolumeyu, composed by Kanakadaasa; Neen yako ninna hang yako, composed by Purandaradaasa and Uma Katyayani, composed by Vijayadaasa.
She said that it was impossible for one to come on a par with the original composers like Haridaasa, Purandaradaasa, Kanakadaasa and Jagannathadaasa but effort must be made to do some justice to the daasas compositions.
Those who had gathered at the concert observed that there were many Carnatic classic compositions in Telugu, Tamil and Sanskrit and some in Kannada as well. Each daasa has his stamp on his composition.
There are a couple of composers who have brought out many changes to the original daasas compositions. They are not considered as inventions but simply extensions of the original,” she says.
Sathyavathi did full justice to the rendition and moved from a low note to a high note, rather effortlessly. The audience was encouraging and cheered her on.
Those in the audience were appreciative of her performance. Prasad M A N, a music lover, says, “It was a wonderful concert.
Normally, in a Carnatic music concert, it’s very difficult to retain the melody and sometimes the singer tends to experiment on stage and this adds variety to the rendition.
This was very refreshing.” Uma Devi, another music lover, says that she has been following the work of Sathyavathi for a long time and says that she can’t find anybody as good a musician as Sathyavathi. She pointed out that it’s a challenge to sing such kritis and ragas.
A music connoisseur, K S Nagarajan says, “Sathyavathi did not choose to sing any of the modern ragas, she stuck to the traditional time worn ones. She analysed and elevated the status of the daasas compositions.”
Rajyashree Josyer, a musician says that the compositions of the daasas are usually sung in parts only at the end of a classical music concert but this one was something different. She adds that the ragas were elaborated very well.