Crisp veena recital
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Deepotsava and Bhavanotsava festivals offered an interesting medley of concerts
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TO THE POINT Brevity was the hallmark of Rajalakshmi Tirunarayanan's recital
The annual Bhavanotsava-2005 coincided with the inauguration of the south centre of the Bangalore Bharatiya Vidya Bhavana in Basavanagudi.
Veteran veena artiste Rajalakshmi Tirunarayanan's performance definitely gave immense satisfaction both to herself and rasikas at the Bhavana. From the way she rendered alapana, krithis and swaras, she appeared firm in her ideas. She avoided the musical medley that senior instrumentalists often indulge in. Brevity, a clear idea of raga swaroopa and crisp rendering of keerthanas were the factors that caught my attention. Sri Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar's Athana krithi "Sri Maha Ganapathim" provided a befitting prelude to the recital. A crisp Bahudari for "Brova bhaarama" and Purandaradasa's majestic "Krishnamurthy kanna munde" (Kambhoji) provided much delight to the listeners. "Simhendramadhyama" was sketched with tana in Simhendramadhyama, Shahana, Saraswathi, Arabhi, Khamach and Hindustani Kapi. Vasudevacharya's grand krithi "Ninne nammitinayya" was adorned with a neat and tidy swaraprastara. Her play highlighted the characteristics of Mysore bani. "Hari chitta sathya" and "Kadagola tarenna" had a delightful tempo. Rajalakshmi's veena recital was appropriately accompanied by her sister Rathnaprabha Krishnan (on a second veena) and V.S. Rajagopal (on the mridanga). The entire performance concluded with a tillana in Jhinjhoti.
Deepotsava
The Deepotsava series under the aegis of Ananya ended with a leisurely vocal recital by S. Shankar. The veteran singer's real asset is his voice. It has an inherent strength that makes his interpretations weighty. It has sufficient akaara felicity, which he used in his alapana tagged on to shruti-aligned karvais. He etched the identity of each raga he sang — Kedaragowla (varna), Mayamalavagowla ("Amma raavamma Tulasamma" with neraval and swaras) and Manji (Shyama Sastry's demanding krithi "Brovavamma taamasame") in the initial sancharas itself. He never indulged in unnecessary embroidering of raga alapamanas, making them garish. An economy of sancharas, emphasising the vital phrases, made his presentation of Keeravani ("Amba Vani nannadarimpave" with sahitya and swara vistara) tellingly impressive. Shankar was well-supported by his vocalist son Ramani. Chandrasekhar (violin), B.K. Chandramowli (mridanga) and Ramesh (ghata) contributed well to the success of the recital. A CD Laya Vrishti, a percussion ensemble performance, directed and presented by veteran percussionist B.K. Chandramowli, was released on the occassion.
Bharatanatya
The importance of jathiswara in a Bharatanatya is immense. It enables the negotiation of more complicated aspects of nritta in the ensuing varna.
Praneetha Kamath handled well the Vasantha jathiswara (mishra chapu) in her Bharatanatya recital, held at Ravindra Kalakshetra, and delineated the famous varna "Roopamu joochi" (Todi, addressed to Lord Shiva) with artistic ease.
She did her Guru Vandya Srinath of the Bhramara School of dance proud by rendering the nritta, nrithya and abhinaya studded on to the varna with full involvement.
Praneetha sketched neatly a few episodes of Mahabharatha during the course of her enactment of a Dasara-pada "Yamanelli kaananendu" (Shivaranjini). She was appropriately backed by her guru Vandya Srinath (nattuvanga), Balasubramanya Sharma (vocal), Madhusudan (violin), Chandrasekhar (mridanga) and Prasannakumar (khanjira).
M. SURYA PRASAD
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