For a motley crowd of 200 people, sunrise at Kadri Park began with well-known Hindustani vocalist of Karnataka Pandit M. Venkatesh Kumar scripting a fine tale of swaras on Thursday.
This year’s Christmas day dawned with an evocative Raga Ahir-Bhairva by the artiste with the composition ‘Rasia Ma Ayori’. After a brief alaap, the artiste — performing in the programme ‘Udayaraga’ (early morning concert) organised as part of the ongoing Karavali Utsav — gradually structured his recital, adding improvisations step by step.
The unhurried and calm first phase, which saw the Kirana-Gwalior Gharana exponent experiment with the lower octave, was soothing. It was only after about 20 minutes into the Raga that he began to explore his full prowess — a great variety of aa-kar taans (a taan is what a musician renders in one breath), a series of sargam (rendition using the names of the swaras), among others.
A lullaby-like movement at one point of time was impressive. The dhrut (second phase with faster tempo) with the composition ‘Alabela Sajana Ayo Re’ was captivating — probably one of the best heard in the recent past in this region.
He also presented Bilaskhani Thodi with composition ‘Neeke Gungaria’ and ‘Sajari Abhimana’, which was slow and meditative, and followed it up with the vachanas ‘Swami Neenu Shaswathanenu’, ‘Thoredu Jeevisabahude’ and the final Bhairavi rendition came with the vachana ‘Chakorange Chadramana Belakina Chinthe’.
He was accompanied on the harmonium by Narendra L. Nayak, on the tabla by Keshav Joshi and on the tanpura by Nagakiran Nayak Harekala and Chaitanya.
