When he takes to stage, the audience is assured of a deeplysatisfying concert with intellectual and emotional appeal. Musician RK Padmanabha is one artiste whose depth of knowledge of the art finds meaningful expression on stage. One has to only listen to his taut, clear, and melodious elucidation of the entire range of ‘taanas’—a fete in itself— to experience Carnatic music at its best, and vouch for his erudition.
This year’s ‘Swaramurthy V N Rao Memorial National Award’ goes to this Karnataka musician, elevating the status of the recognition itself. The awards function at the Bangalore Gayana Samaja, is part of ‘Veeneya Bedagu - 2010’, got up by the Swaramurthy V N Rao Memorial Trust and the samaja, on July 24.
K S Gopalakrishnan, flutist from Kerala, who has been performing for decades, receives the ‘Veena Seshanna Memorial National Award’. The threeday function begins with a vocal recital by Padmanabha on July 23, at 6.30 pm, to be followed by T M Krishna’s recital the next day, at 4 pm, preceding the awards function.
The focus of this year’s symposium is on the compositions of Veena Seshanna, on July 25, at 10 am. Curtains come down on the event with a flute recital by Gopalakrishnan, in the evening.
While the awards were instituted six years ago by art critic M V Subramanya, it was his father, Swaramurthy V N Rao, who began celebrating ‘ Veena Seshnna Day’ about five decades ago. The annual function got up in Seshanna’s name has added to the plethora of cultural events in the city. The symposia too focus only on Seshanna or the Mysore ‘baani’, lending credence to Subramanya’s claim that “we should focus on our heritage”.