Notes from the sea shore

Post Hudhud, Visakhapatnam beach plays a perfect venue to a most memorable musical concert.

Pappu Padmavathi Paramahamsa performing along with her disciples B. Kanaka Durga Prasad and Pappu Padma Ravishankar. Photo: CV. Subrahmanyam

With the sound of the waves lapping the shore in the background, delectable notes wafted in the air as a veena trio strummed lilting melodies letting the rasikas enjoy a pleasant experience quite early in the morning at Rajiv Smrithi Bhavan on beach road Visakhapatnam. With veena vidushi Pappu Padmavati Paramahamsa in the lead flanked by her disciples Bhamidipati Kanaka Durga Prasad aka BKD and Padama Ravisankar, it was a memorable performance of perfect presentation. Known for her gayaki style that she had inherited from her guru legendary exponent of veena Kavirayani Jogarao at Vizianagaram whose style evolved into distinct Vizianagaram bani, the octogenarian vidushi’s virtuosity came in waves. Surely serene and salubrious ambiance on beach early in the morning factored in bringing out her meditative vibrancy into full play.

It looked as if it was a musical offering to dawning Sun. Aggressive playing was rather an alien to her and hence it was like a smooth sail all through without a hard or harsh note even for a jiffy that immensely added to overall beauty of the performance.

She has been an illustrious instructor and has bequeathed the technique of her legacy to her disciples. The way the disciple duo kept pace with her complementing the performance testified it in no small measure.

The performance began with

Sri Mahaganapathim in raga Athana and proceeded to present pleasurable raga Vasantha for Sitamma maayamma of Thygaraja. Then the trio explored the raga Suddha Dhanyasi for Himagiritanaye Muthiah Bhagavatar accelerating the cadence of the performance. The line picked up for neraval was pasankusesu further emphasised the sahitya bhava in sync with raga bhava and following swarakalpna was full of improvisational brilliance.

Raga Kalyani was the mainstay of the session for Pankajalochana of Swathi Tirunal.

With lovely taanam in ragamalika, it came out as a kaleidoscope of an assortment of ragas. Each of the trio did taanam in a couple of ragas.

While the guru did it in Kanada and Samudrapriya – a befitting one with the sea in background--, Padma Ravisankar chose raga Khamas and Hindola and BKD opted for Kadanakutuhalam and Vasanthi. Raga Vasanthi akin to raga Mohana in its structure except for its suddha dhivatam lent a finishing flash to it. Radhasameta, an Ashtapadi of Jayadev in ragamalika, which GNB used to render with a flourish, was presented with aplomb. Manavaialkincharadate of Thyagaraja in raga Nalinakanthi was another piece that appealed well in the performance.

Dhanwada Dharmarao on mridangam and ASR Koundinya on morsing lent good support. Tarakeswara Foundation hosted it.