Vaadya vaibhava

The Bangalore Gayana Samaja conducted the annual Vaadya Vaibhava with three instrumental concerts.

“Vaadya Vaibhava” is dedicated to M L Veerabhadraiah and Swaramurthy V N Rao, whose birth centenary is being conducted all over. Dr Suma Sudhindra, who gave the inaugural concert on Friday, is a senior Veena player of the State and recipient of several awards and titles including “Ganakalabhushana” from the Karnataka Ganakala Parishat.

Suma’s rendition of the Bahudari varna set the pace for a tuneful fare. “Pranamamyaham” with brief swara gave steady start followed by “swara raga laya”. But Varali (Mamava Meenakshee) was true to its melodic presence and “Ninuvina” was a popular composition of yesteryears.

Then she chose a infrequent composition of Swaramurthy “Ninna Nambide” in raga Dharmavathi, which suited the occasion very well. A brisk “Jalandhara” was followed by a pallavi, the piece de resistance of the evening. Bhairavi alapana was weighty in its enunciation with expansive Thana (Natakuranji, Kaanada, Hamsanandi and Hindola), enriching Pallavi’s charm. Suma Sudhindra concluded her concert with the evergreen thillana in the raga Jinjoti.

Y G Srilatha, the co-player, registered her presence through good support on Veena. Nalina Mohan, B C  Manjunath and Narayana Murthy accompanied on violin, mridanga and ghata respectively, very well.

Samarpana

With the aim of “Deriving Joy out of art and making art more relevant in people’s lives”, the Kalanandanam started in the year 2011 under the direction of Vidushi Sunitha Venugopal. It conducts workshops and organises special events to showcase talents of budding artistes, both in music and dance.

In the “Shravana Sandhya” organised last week, music and dance programmes were held, apart from felicitation to Vidushi Geetha Hegde (Hindustani) and Veena Murthy Vijay (Kuchipudi dance). Hema Gautham and Sandhyasree Samit – gave the inaugural dance programme. Hema is a disciple of Veena Murthy Vijay and Sandhyasree is a student of Anuradha Vikrant. They performed nearly four items including Todayamangalam and Tharanga. A devaranama “Hari Aadidano” was chosen to perform on the brass plate. Though it was called as Kuchipudi and Bharathanatya jugalbandi, had little to rave about.

Next there was an interesting dance drama on “Nadi – an eternal flow”. Keerthana danced for Karthik Hebbar’s lyrics and music. The river will soothe the spirit, nurse the heart, fulfill desires, flow on to nourish and give aplenty to all …! It comes with the ferocity of Durga, as the knowledge of light …! A love poem by Rabindranath Tagore, which describes the river banks of Yamuna and the monsoon. In the “Kaveri” episode – Agastya Muni put her (Kaveri) into his Kamandala; The river Kaveri will be in Kamandala during daytime and during night she will be his (Agastya’s) dutiful wife. Her quest begins to find her true self and seeks freedom.

She concluded with the devine Ganga Stotram of Shankaracharya. It was neat and lively. Keerthana Ravi with her powerful and graceful movements caught the attention of the connoisseurs.

Karthik Hebbar’s music and lyrics were spirited and his vocal was inspiring. Also the dance was well supported by Aranya Narayan (Natuvanga), Harsha Samaga (mridanga), Nitish Ammannayya (flute) and Shruthi Kamat (sitar).