Wrapped in a cool breeze under cloudy skies, Rajiv Smruthi Bhavan on beach road Visakhapatnam reverberated to melodic notes as Sapta Veena tarangini wafted soothing music around. With Pappu Padma Ravisanka in lead in tandem with renowned Bhamidipati Kanaka Durga Prasad (BKD), a team of up and coming players of veena enthusiastically displayed their artistic talent. With seasoned artistes in the lead, the budding ones felt exited to do their bit in the session. Being disciples of renowned Pappu Padmavathi, who was instrumental in spreading the art of veena playing in the city, their presentation was reminiscent of their illustrious Guru. That these worthy disciples imbibed ‘gayaki’ style of their Guru remained evident in every frame. The presentation was remarkable for both aesthetics and technicalities. It was a remarkable performance with perfect sync with one another in rhythmic precision and sruthi alignment.
The session opened with Viriboni, a Bhairavi varnam of Pachhimiriam Adi Appayya and after this warm up piece, coursed like a soft stream. True to the tradition bequeathed by their Guru, the artistes presented each piece with due accent on lyrical grace of the composition. After an appealing presentation of Muthuswamy Deekshitar’s popular krithi Vathapi Ganapathim in raga Hamsadhwani, they picked up Guruleka of Thyagaraja in raga Gourimanohari. This matchless ode to the Guru, evoked nostalgia for they played it on an emotive note with an obvious sense of Gurubhakthi.
Raga Panthuvarali found an engaging treatment in detail with fluent neraval and nifty swarakalpana. The krithi for this was Ennaganu of Bhadrachala Ramadasu. The feel of an unswerving and firm faith of a devotee in his Lord found good expression. The mainstay of the evening was raga Mohana with taanam in ragamalika comprising Reethigoula, Behag, Bouli and Kalyani etc. Doraiswamy Iyer’s swara rachana in raga Sindhubhairavi and Kamalasana vandita paadabje of Deekshitar in raga Sankarabharanam were other notables in the session. Bhamidipati Veenadhari, P Lalitha, G Vidhya, M Sai snd Ishita took part in it.
G Venkat Rao on mridangam and M Kamesh on ghatam lent good support. Tarakeshwara Foundation hosted the event.
