Sec'bad-Grand 25-violin(s)recital- AKanyakumarigaru&her team

[sivakami]

Sadguru Sri Thyagaraja Aradhana Uthsava Samithi
Anandbagh, Hyderabad -500 047

25th Feb 2014

A Grand Carnatic Multi-Violin Recital
Kalaimamani Kum.Avasarala Kanyakumari
(accompanied by 24 of her students)
Kalaimamani Sri. K. V. Prasad – Mridangam
Sri. Ganesh Rao – Tabla
Sri. Kishore Prasad – Keypad

It was the concluding day of the concert series of the music festival of the organization. It being the Silver-jubilee year, they had arranged this “25-violin grand finale“, that too on the 25th Feb., by A. Kanyakumari garu and her shisya brundam. All of us were very eager to witness and enjoy this celestial event (atleast for us here at Hyd). The elaborate arrangements to settle the artistes on stage, checking of the mikes were all completed meticulously by AK avl, half-an-hour earlier before the actual start-time. It was amazing to watch the dedication and perfection…

Song list:
1. Chalamela – varnam in Nattaikurinji ( 2 speeds)
2. Hamsadhwani-
3. Endharo Mahanubhavulu – (charanams in faster mode)
4. Ksheerasaagara sayana - devagandhari
5. Her composition in raga charukesi
6. Melu ledhu, soolu ledhu, minchinadhi hari maaya – Narayanadri – adi talam-Annamacharya’s composition
tuned by AK avl, in ragam Narayanadri(one of the sapthagiri, i.e the 7 ragas created by her; ( lyrics need verification; if anyone knows, pl. correct me! )
7. Saamaja varagamanaa- Hindolam ( R: 4min)
8. Raghuvamsa sudha, charanam in 2 speeds
9. Chakkani raja maarga – R for 12 min, on rotation basis; N@ kantikki sundara, S-ragamalika)
10. Tani – 25 min
11. Govinda hari govinda
12. Jagadapu chanavula jajara – annamayya
13. Tillana in sindhu bhairavi – adi talam – composition of AK garu
14. Bhagyada lakshmi baaramma
15. Venkatachala nilayam
MANGALAM

The grand stage setting, artistes’ (attired in national tricolor) beautiful seating with their bowed heads (with solemnity & sincerity) and violin bows ready to go, raised our expectations to very high levels. When the artistes were introduced, they announced that AK madam's students included many who had travelled from far and wide to perform that day, from Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore, Vizag, Cochin as well as few disciples from Hyderabad (Radhika, Pavan Singh, Mallela Tejaswi, Sindhu et al). She announced that they will be rendering the popular kritis mostly, and will brief only about any item that maybe somewhat unknown. It was also surprising to see not only some of her senior disciples (whom I could recognize) such as M. Rajeev, the Tirumarugal Bros, Lakshmi, Anusha Sriram, but also little boys in their early teens and some young girls among them, raising questions as to how is it possible, that these people would blend. While some of us know very well about the Guru’s rigorous training and all, some others were perplexed. All these doubts were cleared once the 1st note of the varnam was started off, and then on it was just one violin-nadham that we all got to hear. What a fabulous event it was, full of Vibrations, yet melodious, with the percussion artistes also doing their part so well, with appropriate sound effects. While it is needless to describe about Ak garu or Sri. KV Prasad garu’s mridangam support which is well known to us, the synchronous bowing by all of them despite them all residing in different locations, the amazing energy of the younger people was the talk of the town that day. At the end, AK garu lauded the efforts of her disciple Anusha Sriram, who had co-ordinated the practice sessions, to achieve this level of superb- synchronization. Particularly, the kharaharapriya alapanai was the perfect example, which was like a volleyball game-cum- relay race, when a student from some corner of the stage was asked to continue next, it was amazing to watch them to catch that octave, play for a shortwhile and pass-on to someone else seated in some other remote corner; if one were to listen with closed eyes, one would not even feel the changes in the individuals and would think it was just one person playing.
Ganesh Rao on table and KishoreP on the key pad (with which he produced the multi-instument effects of playing even like the Morsing, Kling-Klang and so many others) was very very enjoyable. I have no more words to describe our wonderful feelings. Some other rasika from Hyd might want fill-in more details… Special thanks to the organizers and Kalaimamani Kanyakumari garu! Hats off to all of them!

[rshankar]

WOW! Any chance of a recording?

[priyaravi1998]

I think the Hamsadhwani piece was Parvathipathim....

[rajeshnat]

.....
11. Govinda hari govinda

Vidushi AK has tuned and plays her own composition which was a ragamaliga starting in revati . May be it was that one .
Tx , sivakami for your review(s).

[sivakami]

rshankar,
I am not sure whether a recording of this is available.. I noticed parents of some of those young artistes carrying some recording devices..

rajeshnat,
yes,' govinda hari govinda' is that same one, starting in revathi, i.e sung at tirumala regularly..