Renewed promises
Panchakshari Swamy Matigatti stole the show. — Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.
THE SUNAADA Art Foundation, Bangalore, for its inaugural programme had Hindustani classical music by five well-known artistes, recently. This organisation, set up to promote Indian classical music plans to launch a website soon. It even intends to post recordings of the various concerts that it organises on the web.
In association with Pragnaa Vedike, the foundation featured Ashok Huggannavar from Honnavar. This artiste, pleasantly discovered by Bangaloreans, in his stentorian voice rendered Bhoopali Todi. R. Vishweshwaran, from Chennai, on santoor is a disciple of Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma. He presented Ahir Bhairav. Ustad Bale Khan of Dharwad, who hails from a family of musicians, presented an elaborate, meditative Bhimpalas. Dr. Nagaraj Rao Havaldar, president of the Foundation, presented Multani along with Lalit Gouri.
However, it was the 75-year-old Panchakshari Swamy Mattigatti from Dharwad, the prime disciple of Pandit Mallikarjun Mansur, who stole the show. With age, nothing has changed: his pitch, his ringing voice, remains the same. The humble, unassuming maestro made profuse apologies for being unable to sing for long, owing to his recent eye surgery. His moving, involved rendition included Mandaara, Goundgiri-Malhar and Bihari. His enthusiasm was heart warming and put even youngsters to shame.
The students of Kallur Mahalakshmi Tabla Vidyalaya presented a short, but effective tabla jugalbandi. While Rajgopal Kallurkar, Gurumurthy Vaidya and Udayraj Karpur provided tabla accompaniment, Gururaj and Ravindra Katoti on the harmonium provided excellent support.
The interactive sessions with the artistes after each concert worked well. And the response was fairly good.
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Entertainment
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
