The Delhi Tamil Sangam recently provided a platform to Raghavendra Prasath, a city-based youngster, to showcase his musical talent. This wonderful opportunity provided by the organisation was utilised well by the upcoming musician for his concert. In his two-hour long solo violin recital, Raghavendra took up predominantly Tamil compositions. Deviating from the norm of beginning with a varnam, Raghavendra started his concert with an invocation song to Lord Ganesha. The invocation song was Papanasam Sivan’s “Tatvamariya tarama” in raga Reethigowla. The introduction of kalpana swaras towards the end of the song was indicative of his talent right at this stage of his career. He also played another composition of Papanasam Sivan, “Maa ramanan uma ramanan” in raga Hindolam. He then took up Periyasami Tooran’s “Taye tripurasundari” in raga Suddha Saveri, set to Khanda Chapu tala. Taking up this song at this juncture lent liveliness to the recital.
Raghavendra took up three songs for detailed renditions. These were Neelakanda Sivan’s “Ananda Natamaduvar tillai” in raga Poorvikalyani and Papanasam Sivan’s two songs “Devi neye tunai” in raga Kiravani and “Kaa vaa vaa kanda” in raga Varali. Though Raghavendra played delightful raga alapanas, the nereval (for the song in Poorvikalyani) and kalpanaswaras (for all the three songs) were somewhat brief. The miscellaneous section of the recital was a little long one. That Raghavendra could take up more than a dozen items in his recital of about two hours showed the imbalance between kalpitha music (music as learnt) and kalpana music (creative music) as it was tilted in favour of the former.
The confidence that Raghavendra exhibited while playing items in quick succession and the calm demeanour was noteworthy. However, the promising young violinist should concentrate a little more on concert structuring and walk that extra mile on the creative sphere of music.
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Delhi based K.N. Padamanabhan on the mridangam and N. Harinarayanan on the ghatam provided encouraging and enthusiastic support to the lad.
The duo played an enjoyable tani avartanam in Adi tal. Raghavendra Prasath is learning music from V.S.K. Chakrapani.
In the National programme of music, All India Radio recently broadcast the recordings of a vocal recital of Nandini Sharma. In a delightful concert of an hour and half, Nandini presented only four songs.
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Nevertheless, she provided the listeners with a full-fledged concert experience. Endowed with a melodious voice, Nandini took up Patnam Subramanya Iyer’s “Korina varamosaga” in raga Ramapriya and Shyama Sastri’s “Palinchu kamakshi” in raga Madhyamavati for detailed renditions.
The fine raga alapanas in an unhurried manner, neraval and kalpana swaras reflectedthe depth of her manodharma talents.
She concluded her concert with a short ragamalika song “Malai pozhidinile”.
K.P. Nandhini on the violin, Nellai A. Balaji on the mridangam and A.S. Krishnan on the morsing provided excellent support. While K.P. Nandhini’s takes of Ramapriya and Madhyamavati were delightful, the percussionists’ tani avartanam in Adi tal was riveting.