Rajguru Smruti’s Parampara presented two young singers Nayan Yavagal and Lakshmi Nataraj – students of Pandit Parameshwar Hegde. It was followed by a recital by Pandit Parameshwar Hegde himself. Following in the footsteps of his guru, Pandit Parameshwar Hegde is perhaps among the most supportive music gurus in these times. Several disciples of this guru are competent performers, and with the constant encouragement of their guru, one sees them occupying significant positions in the music world.
The musical evening began with the young Nayan Yavagal’s recital. Few minutes into the concert and it was evident that Nayan was not only a serious student of music, but extremely talented as well. Completely involved in developing the pensive Puriya Dhanashree, it was evident that music was an intrinsic part of his expression. The raga which has reflective overtones, is capable of evoking multiple emotions and Nayan subtly, but effectively made it a part of his canvas. “Ab To Rutuman” immortalized by Pandit Bhimsen Joshi was rendered sensitively by Nayan. His alaap was evocative, and the delineation of the bandish was packed with boltaans, and the tans were bold and lucid. The biggest plus point of Nayan’s music was that it never lost sense of the emotion.
Bihag rendered by Lakshmi Nataraj is a raga that is dominated by the romantic sentiment and is liberally used in thumri renditions. With a gifted voice and a raga that suited the temperament of the musician, Lakshmi, after a brief alaap, took on the bandish “Kaise Sukha So”. It was a confident rendition but lacked imagination. Dwelling mainly in the upper tetrachord, Lakshmi sounded repetitive. A talented vocalist, she won the audience over with her voice that easily travelled the higher octaves. But Lakshmi’s music is certain to blossom into maturity if her voice is given the power of music.
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Pandit Parameshwar Hegde’s Malkauns -- a slow, serious raga was articulated in the Dhrupad fashion. “Daata More Laaj” was developed leisurely, yet again making it difficult to fix the emotion of this raga. Using the various ornaments such as gamak, andolan, Pandit Parameshwar Hegde, like a true blue maestro, made it a very packed delineation, capturing the transitional character of this raga.
A special mention must be made of the accompanists of all the three recitals – they were extremely competent and enriched the concerts.