The 29th edition of the Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival (LGMF), presented as a ‘Tribute to the Mahatma’, featured Dr. L Subramaniam and Kavita Krishnamurthy along with the Castile and Leon Symphony Orchestra from Spain, at the Siri Fort auditorium. The evening opened with two superb solo performances by the orchestra, comprising woods-winds such as flute, oboe, clarinet and strings like violin, viola, and cello.
It felt like an breeze of talent, gift and presence, energising the whole ambience with their opening piece “J. Turina”, followed by the “Spring Rhapsody”, composed by Dr. L. Subramaniam. Later, they accompanied Subramaniam and Kavita Krishnamurthy, presenting ‘Raghupati Raghav…..’, the favourite Ram-dhun of Bapu that created the most serene atmosphere.
Kavita also sang the Narsi Mehta Bhajan ‘Vaishnav jana toh…’, another favourite of the Mahatma. This was surprisingly not in the popular Khamaj based tune but in Kirwani to suit the splendid Orchestra accompanying her. She concluded with a self composed Meera Bhajan “Jo tum todo…”, arranged for the Orchestra by Dr. Subramaniam, that added the sumptuous ‘bharaav’, a pliant resilience, to the bhajan.
“Spring Rhapsody” was a classical contemporary composition where the raga-based Western classical Harmony with complex rhythmic structures, sounded like a perfect blend, creating global musical exchange and dialogue.
The Western harmony based on Indian ragas like Shiva-Ranjani and Kirwani with the changing rhythm in time signature 5/4 changing to 4/4, 3/4, etc, sounded like varied rhythmic cycles of Indian tala system. This composition was written in three movements – Rubato, Rubato Espressivo and Allegro. Starting with a solo flute section, it had trade-offs between different Orchestral instruments ending with a rhythmic motif repeated three times, like a Tihai.
The evening reached its climax with ‘Nada Priya’, composed by Dr L. Subramaniam for violin solo, Indian percussions (mridangam by Mahesh Krishnamurthy, kanjira by Ganamurthy, morsing by Sayasai and tabla by Tanmay Bose), wood-winds and strings.
Here again the raga-harmony was based on ragas like Kanakangi and rhythmically interesting time signatures of 7,8 alternating 3,4 changing to 6,8 and 12,8; that truly inspired the Indian percussionists.
The viola section was based on raga Vakulabharanam where the improvisation was further developed by the violin soloist and joined by the entire orchestra towards the end. The third and concluding movement was based on raga Shuddha Saveri, with quick changes in time signatures creating an awesome rhythmic cadence.
The IIC Winter Festival
Sharada Mushti
The India International Centre showcases young talents with remarkable potential during their annual Winter Festival, but they deserve extra credit to open the festival this year with a Rudra veena recital by a young and upcoming artiste who has dared to opt for this rare and fast disappearing ancient Indian instrument that belongs to the endangered species of Indian string instruments nowadays. The IIC featured Sharada Mushti on Rudra Veena and Hindustani vocalist Adarsh Saxena from Dehradun, at the C.D. Deshmukh auditorium.
Sharada Mushti, one amongst just a handful practitioners of Rudra Veena today, is a talented disciple of Pt. Arvind Parikh, the doyen of Imdadkhani Gharana. Guided in dhrupad style under Shri Rajiv Janardan, Sharada chose the melodious evening Raga Yaman and displayed admirable restraint in her unhurried rendering of the Alap-Jod-Jhala before she played a medium tempo dhrupad composition set to Chautala.
Meditative meend
The very first stroke, a meditative meend of just one swara from nishad to shadja, captured the attention of discerning audience. Elaborating the raga in mandra and ati-mandra octaves, she proceeded towards the madhya and taar saptak, weaving anticipatory web around each progressive swara. The magic of meend continued in jod and jhala too.
Seemingly not so sure of rhythm, Sharada was ably accompanied on pakhawaj by Sukhad Munde, who mirrored her rhythmic patterns in a variety of chhandas in chautala.
Adarsh Saxena is a post graduate in music from Indira Kala Vishwa-Vidyalaya, groomed as the ITC-SRA scholar, under Pt. Arun Bhaduri in Kolkata.
Opening with raga Bihag, he presented the bada Khayal “Kaise sukh sove..”, set to vilambit Ek-tala, elaborating the raga with barhat, behelawa and a variety of sargam and akar taans.
The rhythmically fascinating chhota khayal had its mukhda starting from the 5th beat of Teentala. Adarsh also presented a Jhaptala and Teentala composition of Pt. Arun Bhaduri and Pt. Jnanprakash Ghosh in raga Jog before concluding his vocal recital with a Bhairavi Bhajan.
