A lively instrumental ensemble comprising two lead veena artistes Revathi Murthy and Geetha Ramananda along with Amith A.Nadig (flute), Mattur Srinidhi (violin), mridangist V S Rajagopal, Srishyla (ghata) and M Gururaj (morsing enthralled music lovers at Seva Sadan Hall during the 13th annual music festival of Hamsadhwani Creations led by M S Sheela.
The opening Khamach daru (Maathe) was followed by a pallavi in Hamsadhwani raga. The pallavi Veena Saraswathi Devi Hamsavahini salahau set to adi tala was exectude in a well planned manner. The lead melodic instrumentalists wove a grand picture of the raga besides shining in their solo turns. The Keeravani nagama, a tapestry of swaras, provided an enjoyable conclusion.
Lucid demonstration
Talented mridangist and orator Professor V Krishna along with his fellow percussionist Guruprasanna on khanjira highlighted the intricacies of Mani Iyer’s mridangam.
Both of them demonstrated them with lucidity. Besides his abhiprayas in the form of sholkattus and mukthayas, his style was accentuated with the help of a few recordings.
The mridangist’s unique and special nadais, sholkattus, korvais(teermanas), nadai bedhas, korappus were illustrated well by the artistes. Blessed with rich and powerful voices the Malladi Brothers — Sriram Prasad and Ravikumar — lived upto the expectations of the audiences and presented a thematic concert highlighting the Kovoor Pancharathna krithis of Thyagaraja.
Backed by H K Venkataram (violin), Tumkur Ravishankar (mridanga) and N Amrith (khanjira), the brothers sang with emotions and lyrical clarity and paid great attention to bhaava and swara. They made it interesting by singing some exquisite compositions to enrich their theme of the concert.
Taallapakkam Annamacharya’s Purushottama purushartha in Regupthi raga was surcharged with bhakti and it was spiced with shared artistic swaraprastara.
The pancharathna krithis in ragas ‘Shahana(Eevasudha), kharaharapriya (Korisevimpa), Kamavardhini(Shambho Mahadeva), Nammi vachchi and Shankarabharana (Sundareshwaruni joochi) were rendered in their matching tones and timbres and succeeded in evoking the Carnatic ethos.
The neravals and swaras added new dimensions to their artistry and concert craft. The brothers displayed an uncanny felicity and finesse. The singing of Anandabhairavi (Maanasa Gurguha) had the beauty of slow paced singing and remarkable rhythmic mastery.
M S Sheela accompanied by Charulatha Ramanujam (violin), Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma (mridanga), Vinod Shyam, Sunaad Anoor, Puneet, Subramanya Sastry, GopiShravan, Nagendraprasad, Sudatta and Chidananda on various instruments excelled in singing some beautiful krithis set to captivating ragas under the title of 'Jagadeeshwara Paahimaam'.
The manner in which she presented Eesha Paahimaam (Kalyani), Nadatanumanisham, Gangadhara (Poorvikalyani), a folk song and a Hindi song Shankara tore (Sarasangi) followed by an eulogy to Lord Shiva was astounding. The concluding Sumanasaranajini tillana was a fitting finale.