Prince Rama Varma gave a masterpiece of a concert at Sri Rama Gana Sabha, Tiruchi, in connection with the Sabha’s 22nd annual music festival.
Prince Rama Varma commenced his concert with the famous Bhairavi Ata tala varnam, ‘Viriboni’ by Pachimiriyam Adappayyar, which he rendered in his own style. He then rendered ‘Gajanana Ganeshwarane’ of Papanasam Sivan in Purvikalyani ragam set to Rupaka talam with excellent permutations and combinations of swaras. The famous kriti of Muthuswamy Dikshitar, ‘Akhilandeshwari’ in Dwijavanti set to Adi talam was the next piece he rendered, with a beautiful explanation.
Captivating manodharma
He then rendered a Tyagaraja kriti followed by a detailed alapana of his main ragam, Simmendramadhyamam in a beautiful manner and sang ‘Rama Rama Guna Seema’ in Adi talam. He captivated the audience with his manodharma in all the three aspects of alapana, niraval and the swarakalpana in which he gave equal importance to all the accompanying artists, who rendered the swarakalpana in an innovative and elaborate manner, which were actually lessons for the learners of Carnatic music.
The tani avartanam was equally matched and well received by the audience. Prince Rama Varma then went on to render a composition of Bhadrachala Ramadas in Sankarabharanam set to Khanda Chapu talam.
He then rendered a composition of the grandfather of his guru, Dr. M. Balamuralikrishna, ‘Rama Rama Yenaradha’ in raga Sindhubhairavi set to Adi talam.
There was a request from the audience to render the composition of the great maestro M.D. Ramanathan on Lord Anantha Padmanabha swamy, ‘Ksheera Sagara Sayana Vibho Prabho’ set to Adi talam in ragam Bageshri, which he rendered after a small kriti by Tyagaraja, ‘Vara Leela Gana Lola.’ Finally, he sang one of the famous tillana’s of his Guru Dr. M. Balamuralikrishna in ragam Kunthalavarali and concluded his concert with the mangalam.
He received great support from Avaneeshwaram S.R. Vinoo on the violin, B. Harikumar on the mridangam, and Adhichanallur Sri Anil Kumar on the ghatam.
