Gayathri Fine Arts has been promoting Carnatic music in the Capital through a series of measures, which include organising regular concerts and focusing mainly on young artistes. In addition, the organisation also conducts competitions for students of Carnatic music thereby providing a platform to showcase their talent
This past week, Rohini-based Gayathri Fine Arts, in association with Delhi Tamil Sangam, conducted a two-day event, at the latter’s auditorium, as part of their annual day concert series. The event included brief concerts by Delhi’s young budding talents. They put up impressive performances.
The organisation started by N.A Ramachandran, also gave away awards to four personalities for promoting Carnatic music. While T.N. Sivaramakrishnan was awarded the ‘Sangeetha Kala Sevak’ award, K. Vageesh, Guru S. Viswanathan and Deepti Bhalla Omchery were awarded ‘Sangitha Kovidha’. (As Vageesh could not make it to the event, his wife accepted the award on his behalf).
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Delhi’s Subashree Ramamurthi presented an impressive vocal recital on the first day of the event. She began her recital with a sloka on Lord Ganesha in the form of a vrittum and followed it with a varnam in raga Dwajavanthi, both of which gave an impressive start to her proceedings. While presenting Tyagaraja’s composition “Vidulaku” in the raga Mayamalavagowla, she seemed to have made a half-hearted attempt at the niraval of a phrase. It could have been either an elaborate one followed by swaraprastharas or a neatly presented composition without any improvisation.
“Varada prabho” in raga Varamu, a composition of K. Vageesh (under whose tutelage presently is Subhashree ) and Papanasam Sivan’s “Venkata ramana” in raga Lathangi, which Subhashree took up for detailed presentations, underwent fine treatment. The delineation of both these ragas was indicative of her creative talents. However, the niraval and kalpanaswaras for the latter composition fell short of expectations. Subhashree’s miscellaneous session contained an emotive “Kaliyuga varadhan” in raga Brindavana Saranga (which was again preceded with a well rendered viruttam) and a tillana in raga Behag.
V.S.K. Annadurai on the violin, Kumbakonam N. Padmanabhan on the mridangam (though amplified to more than the required level) and Mannai S. Kannan on the ghatam provided good support to Subhashree.
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AIR programme
“Isai Saral”, a Carnatic music programme resulting out of synergies between two Government organisations — the All India Radio and the Doordarshan — is increasingly becoming popular amongst lovers of Carnatic music. The Chennai station of AIR organises a Carnatic music concert every Friday evening in their studio, which is open to public. One chanced to attend such a concert during a recent visit to Chennai. The concert, which is for an hour-and-a-half, is recorded both by the AIR and Doordarshan. While the audio version is broadcast subsequently in Chennai through AIR, the video version is telecast through the satellite channel of Doordarshan Podugai on Saturday afternoons.
This past Saturday, one such concert recordings of the popular vocalist T.V. Sankaranarayanan was telecast. “Intha paramukham” in raga Poorvikalyani and “Ma Janaki” in the raga Khamboji, which TVS (as he is popularly known in the Carnatic music circle) took up for detailed renditions, underwent fine treatment in his inimitable style.