Soothing concert
G. JAYAKUMAR
|
A three-day seminar on the veena was held in the capital city.
|
CALMING EFFECT: D. Balakrishna on the veena.
It could have passed for yet another music therapy session. But what D. Balakrishna's deft fingers coaxed out of his veena soothed the nerves and made the listeners yearn for more. The evening recital was part of the three-day Veena Sangeethotsav and, perhaps, the first-ever national seminar on the veena, organised by Veena Sangeetha Sangh in Thiruvananthapuram. The main composition of the veena concert was in Bhairavi with ganaragapancha tanams and a kirtan of Tyagaraja, `Tanayuni brova,' set to Adi talam, at the end of which the percussion artistes played solo.
Balakrishna, son of the illustrious Mysore V. Doraiswami Iyengar, began with a varnam in Surutti, `Sri Venkatagiri,' set to Adi. This was followed by Pattanam Subramonia Iyer's `Aparathamulu' in Lathangi (Adi talam).
Next was a Tyagaraja kriti `Sogasudha mrudanga thalamo' in Srirenjini (Rupaka talam). The delineation of the raga was well presented by the masterly strokes on the instrument. A short and soft raga vistaram with a marked the beginning of a Dikshitar composition `Sree Balasubramoniam' in Bilahari set to misra chappu.
The other compositions presented included Swati Tirunal's `Padmanabha pahi' ( Hindolam ), `Bogindra sayini' (Kuntavarali) followed by mangalam. The thaniavarthanam was skilfully performed by Chertala Jayadevan on the mridangam and Anchal Krishna Iyer on the ghattom.
The highlight of the seminar was a lecture-demonstration on the Mysore banis of veena vadan by D. Balakrishna, wherein he explored the distinctive styles in veena recital.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Entertainment
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
