Instrumental musicians excel in the concerts

Hyderabad: Kalasagaram’s 54th Annual Cultural Festival of Music and Drama took off with a mangalam – a nadaswaram recital by a young and talented vidwan Mylai Karthikeyan and party. He began the concert with a varnam of Muthiah Bagavathar in Khamas, Aadi talam, ‘Mathe Malayadwaje’, and rendered well. The next was a Ganesh stuthi ‘Mahaganapathi […]

Hyderabad: Kalasagaram’s 54th Annual Cultural Festival of Music and Drama took off with a mangalam – a nadaswaram recital by a young and talented vidwan Mylai Karthikeyan and party.

He began the concert with a varnam of Muthiah Bagavathar in Khamas, Aadi talam, ‘Mathe Malayadwaje’, and rendered well. The next was a Ganesh stuthi ‘Mahaganapathi vava’ in Natai went well. He took up Bhairavi for alapana even for a brief while. He brought out the nuances of the raaga that was well-appreciated.

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The kruthi of Shyama Sastri’s was one of the masterpieces – ‘Kamakshi’ in Misra chapu. The swara prastharas were very well-rendered. A simple rendering of ‘Raja Raja Rahithe’ in Niroshta of Muthaiah Bagavathar was well-rendered. Thyagaraja’s ‘Janaki Ramana’ in Suddha Seemandhini was an excellent one. An elaborate Kalyani alapana showed his maturity and slowly building up the raaga to the greater height showed his expertise.

The Niraval and Swarams and the Thani avarthanam were excellent. Lalgudi’s Maand Thillana and ‘Sharade Karunanidhe’ in Hamir Kalyani added to the beauty. He concluded the concert with ‘Maithreem Bhajathe’ of Mahaperiava. After a long time, rasikas had a wonderful concert.

On the second day of the season, the Kalasagaram stage was decorated with stalwarts like Chitravina Ravikiran, Akkarai Subbalakshmi, Dr Umayalpuram K Sivaraman and Dr Karthik. All of them are masters of their respective fields. Even the first item, Darbar Varnam ‘Chalamela’, was to the full satisfaction. ‘Nannu Brova Rada’ in Bhairavi of Patnam Subramania Iyer was played with full bhava.

After a brief aalapana in Varali, he played ‘Ka Va Va’, the famous kruthi of Papanasanam Sivan was well-received. The next was ‘Ananda Natana Prakasam’ in Kedaram of Dikshitar was very enjoyable. Then came the rare and unheard raga Jujahuli (janya of 13th Gayakapriya). ‘Parakujesina’ of Thyagaraja was excellent. He took up Karaharapriya as the main item. The way he built up the raaga to bring out all the nuances showed his brilliance. Akkari Subbalakshmi’s response was extremely good not only in this item but throughout the concert. The kruthi was Uthukadu’s ‘Rasakeli’ in Aadi was excellent in all departments.

Then came the Thani avarthanam of maestro Sivaraman and Karthik. At the age of 85, he played without any effort. His fingers were automatically moving. The melody and the nadai once again proved he is a genius. Dr Karthik was equally good. ‘Paras Jawali’ and a folk on Krishna were well-rendered. He concluded the concert with his own Thillana in Kalyana Vasantham and Anjana Kumaramangalam. On the whole, it was a superlative concert.

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