Splendid strains and steps

Kala Nadam-2012, this year’s edition of the dance and music festival, saw a variety of programmes which left the audience mesmerised and longing for more. Held at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, the programme began with a Hindustani classical recital by Dhananjay Hegde and was followed by a performance by Laya Lahari, an ensemble comprising Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma and his brilliant team.

Professional artistes from across the country were a part of the seven-day fest, which had a combination of dance, instrumental and vocal performances. The programme began with a soulful recital by Hegde — he started his performance with a vilambhit teental bolon lagi in raga shudh kalyan.

His small — but noticeable — innovations made the elaborate rendition of the raga fascinating. Interestingly, he elaborated on the raga for almost an hour. It was followed by a dhrut teentaal in the same raga. This started with a beautiful alaap; his projection of the mirs and skilful manoeuvring of the boltaan set the mood for the rest of the evening.

He sang a short bandish set in raga durga and a tarana in the same raga, which
was composed by Kumar Gandharva.

The audience was appreciative of the splendid performance that he rendered. “His stamina is praiseworthy. Singing continuously for an hour is not a joking matter. It also speaks of his dedication towards music. Though he sang for an hour, he concluded his performance with another beautiful bandish with the same energy,” said Lakshaman, who had come to watch the show.

Hegde ended his performance with a small tarana. This performance was soon followed by Laya Lahari.A team of 12 expert musicians sat on the stage with their percussion instruments and greeted the audience as they were introduced. The team consisted of instrumentalists who were renowned as individual artistes as well. Instruments like khanjira, tabla, mridangam, ghatam, dolu, cymbals, chande, violin, flute and dhol were used as part of the performance.

The ensemble began their performance with a brief introduction of themselves through their instruments.

After that, all of them performed together. The audience, who had been waiting for a while for them to begin, welcomed them on the stage with a loud applause. “I was really excited to hear Laya Lahiri perform. They are a great bunch of artistes and the concept of combining various kinds of percussion instruments is brilliant. The end result is an hour of good music,” said Yash, a young musician.