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The 47th Music Conference of the Bangalore Gayana Samaja held last week, was dedicated to Bharatharathna M S Subbulakshmi, on the occasion of her birth centenary.
Senior vocalist in the State M S Sheela, who presided over the conference, received the title - “Sangeetha Kalarathna” - in the Vidwat Sadas, while H S Venugopal (flute), M G Gopalakrishna (mridanga), Anuradha Madhusudhan (veena) and Himamshu (organiser) – were conferred with the title, “Sri Kalajyothi.”
M S Sheela, a leading star of the Karnatic musical firmament, cast a spell on a large audience on the inaugural day of the conference. Sheela’s vocal recital opened with a majestic varna of Mysore Sadashiva Rao. Dropping the off-repeated invocatory pieces, she chose “Lambodaramavalambe” for a welcome change.
It was further developed with nerval (Surabhusura Samsevitha) and swara delightfully. It was followed by two small compositions, “Pattividuva Radu” of saint Tyagaraja and “Sharadeye Karuna Varidiye” of Vijaya Dasaru. Her alapana, nerval (Savana Rakshaka Nityotsava) and swara for “Evarura Ninnuvina” brought out the grandeur of the raga Mohana, successfully.
She crowned her concert with a well-knit pallavi set to Khanda Triputa thala in the raga Kharaharapriya. The melodious voice and lively presentation of Sheela struck a responsive chord among the audience. Charulatha Ramanujan on the violin responded with equal fervor and Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma on the mridanga capped it all with his wonderful strokeplay along with G Guruprasanna on khanjari.
Vocal duet
Kavitha Saralaya and Triveni Venkataram, popularly known as “Saralaya Sisters” – gave a vocal duet on Thursday, in the music conference. They were well supported by Nalina Mohan on violin, H S Sudhindra on mridanga and S N Narayana Murthy on ghata.
Saralaya sisters established their credentials as class singers in the pallavi set to Tisra Roopaka thala in Khanda Nade. Raga Shanmukhapriya received detailed airing which revealed their musical potential and involvement.
Earlier, “Sarasaksha Paripalaya” with nerval and Swara Prasthara caught the attention of the listeners.
“Bhavayami” is an evergreen composition and they tried their best to bring out the stateliness of the raga and the kruthi “Sri Krishnam Bhaja.”
In between, they also sang – Bhogeendra Shayinam, Sharanum Bhava, neatly. Though their voice was not at its best on that day, they sang with professional self-confidence and no doubt, they are capable of singing with a better impact.