Instrumental trio

The instrumental trio of Vijaya College of Music won the hearts of the connoisseurs at the ‘Nadajyothi Suvarna Sangeetha Sambhrama’ last week.

Seasoned artistes H K Venkatram, G Ravikiran and Ashwin Anand played on violin, flute and veena, respectively. Right from the beginning, with a varna in Sri raga, their playing was complimentary. Though ‘Vatapi’  is a familiar invocatory piece, they made it interesting with a lively swara.

Ganamurthi is the third mela kartha raga and Samavarali and Ganasamavarali are the fore runners of this raga and it became more popular in the post Trinity period.

After listening to the ragalapana of the Ganamurti, the audience was expecting Tyagaraja’s composition ‘Ganamurte’. Instead, the trio presented a lesser known Keertane ‘Sree Pathe Premamuga’ by Veene Seshanna evocatively.

After giving a lovely recital of ‘Akhilandeswari’, the ‘Shofillu Saptha Swara’ was rendered with brief swara. ‘Sri Venkatesha Gireesham’ was also lively and the climax was a ‘Thri raga Pallavi’. Ranjani, Sriranjani and Manoranjini – utilizing the ingredients of each raga, the trio raised a beautiful structure of sound and rhythm.

They presented the alapana, nerval and swara prasthara in turns, to portray a beautiful picture of the raga. K U Jayachandra Rao and G Guruprasanna, the percussion duo, accompanied with aplomb.

Classical touch
Padmabhushana T V Shankaranarayanan is known for his consistency and classicism, and he never disappoints music lovers. ‘Mahaganapathim’ gave him a bright start, followed by ‘Ramabhi Rama’, another fine composition.

Excellent alapana of Kalyani for ‘Himadri Suthe Pahimam’ with musical embellishments was exhilarating. The Kannada devaranama ‘Sakalagrahabala’ attracted with both its lyrics and ‘ragabhava’. Again, ‘Nee Dayarada’ was pleasing.

The evergreen kruthi ‘Majanakee’ led the delighted audience to the nostalgic memories of yesteryear. Endowed with rich and classical manodharma, TVS kept the audience spell bound. Three young and upcoming artistes who are not known in this part – R Raghu on violin, N C Bharadwaj on mridanga and S Venkatram on khanjari – supported well.

Spirited Veena
One of the most popular artistes and a recipient of the ‘Ganakalabhushana’ title, Dr Suma Sudhindra, gave a pleasing Veena recital for the Nadajyothi Sri Thyagarajaswamy Bhajana Sabha. The ‘Vanajakshi’ varna in different speeds gave her a flying start.

‘Mahaganapathim’ was followed by ‘Kanjadalayathakshi’. Few neat and rich ‘sangathies’ provided ‘Jananee Ninuvina’ a solid base and left a lingering impact. The ‘Jalandhara’ was a sizzler. ‘Palinchu Kamakshi’ was given a detailed treatment with alapana and well knit thana.

It was melodious and lively throughout. Her student Mythily supported on Veena and Nalina Mohan on violin, Anoor Anantha Krishna Sharma on mridanga and Narayana Murthy – shared the honours with the main artiste.