BENGALURU: He is a legend in the field of music and a proud son of Karnataka. He was the asthana vidwan in the court of Maharaja Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV in Mysore. He is the veena maestro Padmabhushan Mysore V Doreswamy Iyengar. This is his centenary year and the state government should have honoured him with year-long celebrations as it was done in neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu for another legend, M S Subbulakshmi. But, sadly in India, the governments do not have the appetite for classical art and so, it is left to the family of Iyengar, especially the well-known musician and chief disciple, vidwan D Balakrishna, to organise a gala event in memory of his father and guru.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Seetharaman will be the chief guest at the day-long event at the Chowdaiah Hall on March 7 and she will inaugurate the festival in the presence of Sri Yadugiri Yathiraja Narayana Ramanuja Jeeyar. Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, Minister Sadananda Gowda and Deputy CM Ashwath Narayana are expected to be present. This would be followed by a flute recital by Sashank Subramaniam. Post lunch, a Kannada play, Veeneya Dore, on the life of Iyengar, will be staged by Kala Gangotri troupe from Bengaluru, which is directed by Dr B V Rajaram. At about 5 pm, Balakrishna will pay a two-hour musical tribute to his father and render some of his rare compositions.
The grand finale will be a dance drama, Madhura Smruthi, based on the well-known poet Pu Ti Na’s work, Gokula Nirgamana. This dance-drama will be directed by the senior-most guru in the city, Dr Lalitha Srinivasan and presented by Nupura School of Dance. “The centenary celebrations will continue till August 11 this year and I am planning a few more events to encourage and focus on the young musical talent in Karnataka,” says Balakrishna. Born in 1920, Iyengar enthralled music lovers for over six decades with his mesmerising music and evolved what is uniquely remembered as ‘Mysore baani’ of playing the stringed instrument.
He was born in Doddagaddavalli, a village in Hassan district and was a child prodigy. He began playing the veena at the age of 13, when the Mysore Maharaja inducted him in his court as an asthana vidwan. His recitals were steeped in pure classical tradition without adulteration. He was one of the few musicians who also excelled in playing Jugalbandis with eminent counterparts like Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, violin maestros Chowdaiah, Lalgudi Jayaraman, and Pandit Mallikarjun Mansur, among others.
In 1953, Iyengar’s concert was aired on All India Radio’s National Programme of Music. Upon hearing it, B V Keskar, the then I &B Minister, invited him to join AIR in Bangalore.
Thus, a 25-year long journey with the prestigious AIR began for him. Iyengar introduced several novel programmes, including setting to music and broadcasting many poems of noted Kannada poets, like P T Narasimhachar, R S Mugali, G S Shivarudrappa, K S Nisar Ahmed. He also directed music for the national award-winning Kannada movie, Subba Shastry.He won many awards, including Central Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1971, Karnataka Rajyotsava Award in 1972, Honorary Doctorate from University of Mysore in 1976, Sangeetha Kalaratna from Bangalore Gayana Samaja, Padma Bhushan in 1983, Sangeetha Kalanidhi from The Madras Music Academy in 1984, T Chowdaiah award from Government of Karnataka and Kalaimamani award from the Tamil Nadu government. The author is a city-based dance critic