Homage to the gurus

The concert saw some excellent performances by artistes.

One of the performers.

The sishya prasishyas of legendary gurus Susarla Dakshinamurthy Sastri and Parupalli Ramakrishnaiah Pantulu conducted the Vardhanthis (96th and 63rd Aradhanas respectively) in a musical homage spread over five days at Gokaraju Laila Gangaraju Kala Vedika, Vijayawada. A large number of vocalists and instrumentalists paid their respects by participating in the proceedings.

On the first day Modumudi Srutiranjani, a talented young singer began with Mayuram Viswanadha Sastri’s composition Sri Maha Ganapathim in Nata. The highlight of Sruti’s concert was the fine delineation of Anandabhairavi in which she sang Syama Sastri’s Marivere in misra chapu talam. The violin duet presented by B.V. Durgabhavani and P. Nandakumar was well synchronized and pleasing. Durgabhavani also proved herself as an able vocalist in her concert which followed next. Bold, clear voice and fine command over manodharmam were her assets.

In his vocal concert senior vidwan Modumudi Sudhakar presented a sumptuous version of Kalyani preceding the ragam, tanam, pallavi. The difficult pallavi was executed with excellent laya command by Sudhakar.

On the third day Anjana Sudhakar’s

Chesinadella in Thodi was impressive with fine raga and swaras. Another pleasing item was Paridanamitchithe in Bilahari. Patibandla Janaki of Guntur appealingly sang Narasimha in Bilahari and Kasi Visalakshi in Poorvikalyani and Sri Lakshmi Varaham in Abhogi.

The concerts of Ch. Tulasi Viswanadh and B.V. Vidyasagar featured the next day. Vidyasagar excelled in elaborating Gowrimanohari ( Varalakmi Namostute ) a composition of Mysore Vasudevachar. Top grade singer Tulasi Viswanadh’s rendition of the Poorvikalyani kirtana Gangadhara with sumptuous raga and swaras was a highlight. Hamsanandi thillana gave a good finish to Tulasi’s concert. The music fest came to a close with D.V. Mohanakrishna’s vocal concert and Vidwan Annavarapu Ramaswami’s violin solo. Veteran Annavarapu played Kalaharanamela (Sudhasaveri) and Needu Charanamule in Simhendramadhyamam in a dignified and traditional manner. His vast experience and ripeness of musical knowledge showed in his performances. Violin support for the five-day programme was provided by B.V. Durgabhavani, P. Nandakumar, Chandrakant, Satishbabu and mridangam by M.L.N. Raju, Anil Kumar, N.S. Kalyanaraman, Krishna Kousik, Suresh Babu, B.V.S. Prasad and K. Aravind.