Viskaha Music Academy conducted its annual three day music festival of the youth at Kalabharathi last week. It got off to a traditionally grand start with a nagaswaram recital rendered by T. Santosh. Winner of many awards at competitions in classical music including the special prize by AIR for which he was selected in 2009, Santosh rendered the thu and thtthukarams evocatively surfacing the sangeetha sahitya bhavams evocatively.
Starting with the Natakuranji varnam, he went on playing Srimahaganapathi (Abhogi), Raghunatha (Swararanjani) and Mariveregathi yevaramma (Anandabhairavi elaborately with ragam and swaram). The other item he elaborately played with ragam, neravu and swaram was Sreekanthimathim of Dikshithar (Haimavathi). Attracting good applause, he held high promise.
Next was a vocal recital by teenaged girl Suhasini Srirangam, a scion of a family of musicians and ardent lovers of Carnatic music, her parents Padmini and Narasimham in particular. Presently a disciple of noted guru Ivaturi Vijayeswara Rao, she is a recipient of the CCRT junior scholarships besides that of NADA centre for Music Therapy, Chennai. She is also a winner of prizes at several competitions conducted by prestigious music bodies at Vijayawada, Kakinada and like Sri Vijaya Tyagaraja Sangeetha Sabha at Visakhapatnam. The rendering of Vaathapiganapathim (Hamsadhwani) with swaram in swift pace in the two tempos seemed to be a warming up exercise on an appropriate note. Then she succeeded keeping her bold and melodious voice euphonically aligned with perfect sruthi and layabhavas on one hand and the notation of the krithi or keerthana on the other as she chose to sing ( Paripalayamam – Reethigowla, Sreeguruguha – Suddhasaveri with alapana and swaram). No wonder, she developed good rapport not only with her excellent accompanists, Ramyakiranmayi on violin and young Mehaarkalyan on mridangam. Expansively expatiating Marivere of Patnam Subramanya Iyer (Shanmukhapriya) and Sarojadalanetri of Sayamasastry with felicitous charm, she proved herself to be a potentially sound artiste in the making.
