For a change ‘Akashvani Sangeeth Sammelan -2015’ was shifted from the usual Thyagaraya Gana Sabha to Telugu University’s auditorium this year last weekend and the arrangements made there were so unique that the atmosphere looked festive. The AIR staff were excellent too in making announcements and keeping the time. These being radio concerts they were of short duration for both Carnatic and Hindustani music sessions, lasting one hour each equivalent to broadcasting time. Veteran top grade violinist P. Poornachander, who served as music composer in Chennai Radio station, presently settled in Hyderabad was requested by AIR to inaugurate the event.
The first concert was that of S. Mahati in the company of H.M. Smitha on violin, Delhi S. Sairam on mridangam and S. Hanumantha Rao on ghatam. Mahati was dignity and confidence personified in her rendition.
Her performance on the occasion was so breathtaking that her expression of every line and word was catchy. Her vocal verve was fantastic to the extent it was a cakewalk for her to pass through higher octave phrases. Besides, her voice sounded as if it was sharp sometimes razor edged, but melodious. The very opening traditional Nata number Ninne Bhajana of Thyagaraja kick started her mission of giving her best in the given span.
This was enriched by intermediary swarakalpanas of quality. The second number was Mysore Vasudevachar’s Natakapriya number Idi Samayamu in roopka talam. Another impressive number was Sri Guruguha in rare raga Devakriya in Dikshitar’s parlance.
Major number of the concert was Etavunara of Thyagaraja in Kalyani that she sang faithfully sticking to clarity in sahitya expression. The raga expansion had some creative spells mirroring the rich manodharma. Responses by violinist Smitha added extra lustre to the vocal output. She presented neraval and swarakalpana in three speeds and the final phase was the most thrilling aspect of the play. There was very brief tani avartanam by Sairam and Hanumantha Rao that was short for want of time, but thrilling. She concluded her concert with rendition of refreshing tillana of Balamurali in Behag. Smitha’s violin support was pleasant all through the concert. This was followed by a sarod concert by Pt. Tejendra Narayan Majumdar one of the best known sarod artistes in the country.
A conscious artiste of the shruti perfection, Tejendra took his own time to tune the instrument. So did the tabla artiste who too displayed fantastic command over his instrument to sync with the sarod. What he presented on the occasion were three ragas — Jhenjhuti, Madhumalati, and Manj Khamaj.
Playing these melodies he followed standard pattern of building raag step by step, one bit after another in vilambit then taking it to medium pace and concluding them thrillingly in breezy speeds going through drut and Ati druth phases.
What was important here were clarity in high and low speeds.
