If what is given in small doses did not find many takers, this Sabha does not seem to be giving up. Instead, it gave the same in full doses and surprisingly found overwhelming response. The big ticket organisation Shanmukhananda Sangetha Sabha every year, during their flagship annual event, the Tyagaraja Music and Dance festival, features talented youngsters too, in brief slots preceding the prime slots of senior artistes. However, a majority of music lovers walked in to savour the prime slot artistes only when the Sabha recently organised a two-day exclusive Young Artistes Festival in the Capital. They enjoyed every bit of the recitals.
In the first evening, R. Aswath Narayanan, a disciple of late Palghat K.V. Narayanaswamy and Padma Narayanaswamy, performed. Aswath regaled music lovers with a soothing and meditative rendering. A composed disposition belied his musical talent and depth.
On the second evening, Aishwarya Vidhya Raghunath – who has learnt Carnatic music from Seethalakshmi Venkatesan, Vegavahini Vijayaraghavan and renowned guru P.S. Narayanaswamy – too delighted the music lovers with her recital.
Exhibiting a smiling face during her recital, Aishwarya’s rendering of songs in quick succession had the audience glued to their seats till the very end.
While Aswath started his recital with the Hamsadhwani raga varnam in adi tala, Aishwarya started with the Saveri raga varnam in adi tala. The neat presentation of the varnams by these youngsters indicated adequately that a musical treat awaits the audience. Living up to that expectation, both the artists sang brilliantly.
Aswath, after singing Tyagaraja’s ‘Nada Sudharasambilanu’ in raga Arabhi impressively, took up yet another Tyagaraja’s ‘Raga ratna malikache’ in raga Reetigoula for detailed rendition. The alapana of the raga, neraval of a phrase from the charanam portion of the composition and kalpanaswaras brought out the talent of the lad in the field of creative music. The subsequent alapana of the raga Khamas, though brief, was scintillating. Mysore Vasudevacharya’s ‘Brochevarevarura’ was the piece that Aswath sang delightfully. While singing Dikshidar’s ‘Sarasijanabha sodari’ in the raga Nagagandhari, he brought out the emotive contents of the lyrics to the fore.
Aswath’s central item was Shyama Sastri’s ‘Birana varalichi’ in raga Kalyani. Here, once again Aswath excelled while handling raga alapana, neraval and kalpanaswaras. Delhi R. Sridhar on the violin and M.V. Chandrasekhar on the mridangam provided good and understanding support throughout the concert and in particular embellished during the neraval.
Aishwarya, on the other hand, managed to take up three compositions for detailed renditions in her recital. Soon after the varnam rendition, she embarked on Tyagaraja’s ‘Ramanannu brovara’ in Harikambhoji. Neraval of a phrase from the charanam portion of the song and kalpanaswars flowed with creativity. The other two renditions, Swati Tirunal’s ‘Deva deva jagadeeswara’ in Poorvikalyani and Tyagaraja’s ‘Chakkani rajamargamu’ in raga Karaharapriya, contained raga alapana, neraval and kalpanaswaras which brought to fore the musical depth of Aishwarya. She was equally good while singing both Tyagaraja’s fast paced ‘Nenarunchinanu’ in Malavi and Dikshidar’s slow paced ‘Rangapura vihara’ in raga Brindavana Saranga. Delhi’s seasoned violinist, V.S.K. Chakrapani and Kumbakonam N. Padmanabhan on the mridangam provided excellent support in this concert.
