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Music Season
BRAHMA GANA SABHA
Winsome foursome
LAKSHMI VENKATRAMAN
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U.P. Raju and Nagamani paid full justice to the raga, and the percussionists seemed to vie with the main artistes throughout the concert.
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Photo : M. Vedhan.
Enthusiastic: U.P. Raju and Nagamani
It was a very cheerful and enthusiastic foursome in the afternoon concert — U.P. Raju and Nagamani, the main artistes on mandolin, Ganapathyraman on the mridangam and Ravi Balasubramaniam on the ghatam. To make it easy for the audience to follow, Raju announced the raga and kriti before each item. After the Ata tala varnam in Kanada, came ‘Raghunayaka’ in Hamsadhwani; this raga lends itself beautifully to play with the swara combinations, particularly in
string instruments, and Raju and Nagamani paid full justice to it. A neat ‘Janakiramana’ in Suddhaseemanthini followed.
During the elaboration of Manirangu, Raju presented several novel and attractive ideas, made possible by the character of the instrument. The kriti to follow was ‘Jaya Jaya Padmanabha’ of Swati Tirunal. Orchestral effect came to the fore in the Muthiah Bhagavatar composition, ‘Raja Raja’ in the rare Niroshta raga. An unusual item was the Mallari in Gambhiranattai set to kanda jathi triputa tala which was tackled in varied speeds. Lathangi raga was the main item; the alapana was rendered by both Raju and Nagamani. While she played with stress on continuity of notes with whatever gamakas were possible in mandolin, Raju went more for the individual notes, which sounded more like swaraparastara than raga vinyasa. His fingering speed was amazing in general. The song selected was Patnam Subramania Iyer’s ‘Marivere’ with swarakalpana.
A spirited thani followed. These two percussionists seemed to want to vie with the fingering and pace of the mandolin artistes throughout the concert. ‘Nanoru Vilayattu Bommaya’ in Navarasakannada and the Madhuvanti tillana came as the grand finale.
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Music Season
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