The inclement weather notwithstanding, the gathering was huge at the Narada Gana Sabha Auditorium this past Saturday at the inauguration of Carnatica's Bharat Sangeet Utsav 2011 in association with Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha.
Violin maestro T.N. Krishnan, in his speech, congratulated Sashikrian, Sowmya and Ramanathan of Carnatica for their venture. Mallika Ravi, director, Lancor Holdings, appreciated Carnatica's innovative concerts year after year with new combinations never seen before on stage. Although the ragas and kritis get repeated in concerts, rasikas throng the halls for a new experience,” Mallika Ravi said.
The Bharat Sangeet Utsav 2011 brochure was then released by Krishnan. Receiving the first copy, vidushi Sudha Ragunathan appreciated the valuable work of Carnatica in promoting music and providing the space and opportunities to performers. RmKV's managing partner Shivakumar was also present on the occasion.
Interesting repertoire
This was followed by a concert titled ‘Miley Sur Mera Tumhara' by Sudha. Commencing with ‘Mathey' (Dharu varnam- Khamas-Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavatar), Sudha then explained the theme of her performance. “One of the greatest gifts of our land is our art and culture. A study and practice of this can lead one on a spiritual journey within. Here, we will present a selection comprising Hindustani and Carnatic, compositions in different languages, ancient Tamil music, abhangs, bhajans and songs in Gujarati and Bengali rarely sung in Carnatic music.”
A concert is incomplete without a Tygaraja kriti, according to Sudha's guru MLV. So much so, she sang a Tyagaraja kriti even at her Tamil Isai Sangam concerts.
That evening, Sudha aptly chose ‘Nada Thanumanisham' (Chidharanajani-Adi). A well structured and orthodox Shanmukhapriya saw her delving into all the facets of the raga. Her approach was interestingly different that evening and a lesson for youngsters waiting to make it big on stage.
Violinist R.K. Shriramkumar was his usual self in his reply never treading into unknown paths. The brief niraval with elongated rests in nishadam at ‘Nee Maravadhenaiiyaal' and the cascading swaras ending similarly, were effective. The unusual combination of K.V. Prasad (mridangam) and the ever smiling Ganapathy (tabla) presented a lively tani. ‘Bhaaray Panduranga', an abhang in Mandu, had a speedy ending with the refrain ‘Narayana' being emotionally repeated.
The Meera bhajan ‘Hari Tum' (Darbari) at a different pace added colour. ‘Vaishnava Janatho' and ‘Katrinilae Varum Geetham' (Kalki-S.V.Venkatraman) invariably transport you to a different plane and that evening too, it was no different. A sudden burst to ‘Bhaagyada Lakshmi' in Pantuvarali in madhyama sruthi is a real challenge and Sudha came out unscathed.
Bhimsen Joshi's and M. Balamuralikrishna's version of the famous ‘Miley Sur Mera Tumhara' came out with ease. A blemish-less rendering of Vande Mataram brought the curtains down.
It was learnt that songs in Malayalam and other Indian languages were in the offing but had to be cut short for paucity of time as the young siblings Amaan Ali and Ayaan Ali were raring to go next with their sarods.
