Laudable musical effort
A. RAMALINGA SASTRY
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The ensemble music `Visakha Sruthi Laya Raga Sudhasaagaram' received rave reviews at Visakha Utsav.
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PAST FORWARD A scene from `Dasavataralu', a dance ballet staged by students of Visakha Valley School as a part of Visakha Utsav. Photo: C.V. Subrahmanyam
Despite being rather a misnomer, the ensemble music Visakha Sruthi Laya Raga Sudhasaagaram, a major part of which in the form of Layavinyasam formed the concluding part in particular, attracted reverberating applause from the audience, which looked like a sea of humanity on the second day as well on the R.K. Beach, the main venue of the five-day Visakha Utsav (January 8-12).
Prudently led on mridangam by Vankayala Venkataramana Murthy of international repute, the team had his son, Master Sudhakrishna on another mridangam, Gurivilli Durgarao ( dolu), M. Ravi ( kanjira), M. Sridhar (ghatam), G. Venkatesh (morsing), Babji (on electronic pads), rhythms by Babu, P. Rambabu and B. Dhananjay on tabla.
It was an incredible effort musically picturising the effect of the emotional content, an eulogium of the glory of Visakhapatnam as it stood described in five lyrics (by B.V.S..S. Lakshmi), in music, composed in Nataa, Kalyani, Kharaharapriya, Varali, Desh and Chandrakauns in suite in the five gathis. Even more incredulous was the extension of the effort replicating the thus expounded effect on the rhythm instruments individually, in chosen combinations and sometimes collectively.
An ingeniously conceived, drafted and meticulously conducted exercise by Ramana Murty, it left an impression of being a transliteration of the lyrical and musical phraseology into laya vocabulary and its expansive expatiation, an unimaginable wonder of rhythmical wonders.
While the music for the lyrics was exquisitely set by Dwaram V.K.G. Thyagaraju, who himself in the excellent company of V. Mukunda Sarma, D.V.L. Padma Priya and Moola Sridevi rendered it with telling empathy. Gurivilli Appanna on naadaswaram, Maavuduri S. Sarma (violin), Monohar Prasad (keyboard) and Parviz (guitar), constituted the orchestral team.
The other attractive programmes with a classical base like the Kuchipudi recital by students of Vempati's Kuchipudi Kalakshetram, jugalbandi of Hindustani music on sitar by Janardhan with the support of Nitin Mitta on tabla (Chennai) and Carnatic music on veena by B. Sankara Prakash supported by Mullapudi Sriramamurthy on mridangam, exhilarating fusion music by Yella Venkateswara Rao and party (Hyderabad), accounted for about 15 per cent of the total of about 170 events. Ballets, skits, mimicry shows and others by school children comprised about 35 per cent.
Gnanavaani, a woman employee of VUDA, who was kept in-charge of the stage in Gurajada Kalakshetram, like her counterpart Prabhakar Reddy on the R.K. Beach, not only turned out to be a paragon of ignorance and arrogance personified but also a spoil sport on the first three days. The indiscriminate grouping of programmes of school children, professionals and veterans including the unscheduled repetition of the dance ballet of A.B. Balakondala Rao, on the last day at Gurajadakalakshetram created many a problem causing heart burn in the artistes and the audience as well.
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