Up-and-coming musician Anand Kaushik proved his skill on the veena at a concert at Lakshminarayanaswamy Temple, Old Kalpathy, Palakkad. Anand charmed the audience with his innovative style of rendition and with his mastery over the fingering technique of the veena, which he learnt from his father and guru, Ananthapadmanabhan. Anand’s knowledge of Hindustani music helped enhance the recital.
Anand’s judicious selection of compositions, limited to a few pieces, each one prefixed with luxurious exposition of ragas, won the laurels of the listeners. He captured the sahithya bhava behind the kritis in gayaki style.
He began the concert with Lalgudi Jayaraman’s Adi tala varnam ‘Chalamu seya’ in Valachi. Dikshitar’s popular ‘Vathapi Ganapathim’ in Hamsadhwani had laya-rich manodharma swaras. A delineation of Poorvikalyani brought out the rakthi of the raga. Neelakanta Sivan’s ‘Ananda Natamaduvar’ had catchy swarakalpana.
The highlight of the evening, however, was a rendition of ‘Jaya jaya Padmanabhamurare’ in Sarasangi as the artiste brought out the various facets of the raga. An instrumental ensemble with Sanoj on the mridangam and Sudhakar on the ghatam enhanced the concert with its excellent manodharma swara segment. A thani that was short but packed with unique laya patterns was entertaining.
A ragamalika consisting Saveri, Varali, Sreeranjani, Shyam Kalyan, Bageshri and Madhuvanti was played creatively on the violin. Anand concluded the concert with a thillana in Madhuvanti composed by Ananthapadmanabhan. The concert was organised by Swathi Sangeetha Sabha, Palakkad.
