Popular Chennai-based vocalist Sanjay Subrahmanyam was featured by Banyan Tree in a festival of Carnatic music titled “Dakshinayan” this past Sunday at Kamani auditorium in the National Capital.
In a brief session of about an hour and a half, Sanjay delighted those assembled with a brilliant performance rich in classism and even included a ragam-taanam-pallavi rendition. However, the veena and violin concert of Jayanti Kumaresh and R. Kumaresh that preceded Sanjay’s concert was nothing much to write home about. Though the efforts of the organisation to feature Carnatic music concerts in the National Capital every year should be lauded, the organisation could have featured only one concert for a longer duration of two and half to three hours instead of two shorter sessions.
The efforts of another Delhi-based cultural organisation, Gayathri Fine Arts, too need to be lauded. It held a concert in memory of late Voleti Venkateswarulu, a renowned vocalist from Andhra Pradesh, this past weekend. Delhi-based Jyothi Sridevi, a disciple of Voleti Venkateswarulu, featured in the memorial concert. In an impressive performance, Jyothi sang compositions of various composers that were popularised by Voleti Venkateswarulu. The concert was organised in association with the India International Centre and the Andhra Association, Delhi, at the IIC auditorium.
Jyothi began her concert in a sparkling manner with Annamacharya’s “Vade Venkatadri” in raga Vasanta, suffixing kalpana swaras which were reflective of her manodharma talents. Jyothi took up Tyagaraja’s “Nee vanti” in raga Todi and Muttuswami Dikshitar’s “Bhajare re chita” in raga Kalyani for detailed rendition. Though she presented detailed alapanas of these ragas, bringing their features to the fore, one failed to understand why she kept the neravals and kalpana swaras for both the songs too short. She also sang delightfully Tyagaraja’s “Vinatasuta” in raga Jayantasena and “Ninnada nela” in raga Kannada. Delhi R. Sridhar on the violin, K.N. Padmanabhan on the mridangam and Mannai N. Kannan on the ghatam provided appropriate support and contributed significantly to the success of the concert.
Sanjay Subrahmanyam, on the other hand, began his concert with an Ata tala varnam in raga Kamboji, which he sang in two tempos. He then sang the Thiru Pallandu pasuram “Pallandu Pallandu”, which is recited in Vaishnavite temples, tuned in raga Natta in a delightful manner. Patnam Subrahmanya Iyer’s “Rama ika nannu” in Sahana was his next item, which he handled very well. Earlier, he sang a fine alapana of the raga bringing out the nuances of the raga. After singing Dikshitar’s “Bhajare re chita” in raga Kalyani, Sanjay moved to the central item of his concert, the ragam-taanam-pallavi. He brilliantly executed the pallavi “Karunai varumo kanda nammai katharul un” composed in raga Charukesi and set to Adi tala. Sanjay included a virutam and a tillana in the concert’s concluding portion.
Chennai-based S. Varadarajan on the violin, and Neyveli B. Venkatesh on the mridangam, provided excellent support to the vocalist. On the whole, the Banyan Tree event was a truncated treat of Carnatic music to the music lovers of Delhi.
