Panchaveena recital for Akashavani Habba

[srikant1987]

12 Feb 2012
@ Kuvempu Kalakshetra, KR Road, Bangalore

Sarvashri D Balakrishna, Geetha Ramanand, Revathy Murthy, Manjula Surendra and Vani Yadunandan - Veena
Sri MA Krishnamurthy - Mridangam
Sri R Ramesh - Ghatam

sarasIruhAsanapriyE - nATa - Adi - Dorasamy Iyer [?] (S)
sogasugA mrdanga tALamu - shrI ranjani - rUpakacApu - T (RS)
nidhicAla sukhamA - kalyANi - mishracApu - T (R, tAnam, NS @ mamatA bandhanayuta)
tillAnA - sAlagabhairavi - Adi - Doresamy Iyengar

Kuvempu Kalakshetra is just opposite Gayana Samaja, which hosted a Ranjani Gayathri concert today.

The programme was listed as beginning at 5 30, however it began at only 6 00 even though everyone had arrived within time. Sri Chetan Naik of Akashavani gave a speech, and Prof R Visweswaran gave a speeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech, finally followed by the artistes occupying the stage. AND THEN ... each of them was given a boquet of flowers by Sri Chetan Naik. Then began the concert.

Sri D Balakrishna seemed a little impatient as he began the nATa krti. It was rather abrupt. Anyway, the swarams were exchanged by all five vaiNikas, and it was plain that everyone of them was competent, including Smt Manjula and Smt Vani in the last row. (Well, Sri D Balakrishna and Smt Geetha Ramanand were already my favourite vaiNikas, anyway.)

The shrI ranjani AlApanai was begun by Smt Geetha Ramanand, and Smt Manjula continued it beautifully. I was very impressed with Smt Manjula in particular, throughout the concert.

Again, the swarams were exchanged by all five vaiNikas.

The kalyANi AlApanai was begun by Smt Revathy Murthy. Smt Geetha Ramanand followed her phrases. Smt Vani and Smt Manjula continued the AlApanai, which was taken, after some tAra sthAyi, to the madhya ni by Sri D Balakrishna, whence he began a tAnam. Smt Revathy Murthy's kalyANi AlApanai was rather "patternic", and I also found DB's playing during the AlApanai rather weird in places. Smt Revathy played much of the tAnam -- and it was very beautiful. The tAnam was brought to a conclusion neatly by DB.

The neraval and swarams for nidhicAla sukhamA were of high standard, and all five vainikas joined to play a nice finale to the swarams.

The tani was rather short. Not much choice, I guess!

The tillana was rendered nicely too.

The concert was beautifully planned, I must say. Five very competent vaiNikas, fitting things in a one-hour slot and including the customory tAnam and also the sometimes-skipped neraval in it is no ordinary feat, and the team achieved it beautifully. With so many people and such a small slot, we can't expect a complete immersion in anything, but this concert was definitely much more than one would have expected. Kudos to Akashavani and the artistes!

I eagerly look forward to solo concerts of longer durations by these vainikas, especially DB, GR and Smt Manjula Surendra.

[bilahari]

Thanks for the report, Srikant.

Are these vainikas all related somehow? Sorry if it should be obvious.

[Sreeni Rajarao]

Srikant,

Thanks for the report! I had heard about the Akashavani Habba being organized but have not heard of any further details.

I was not aware that Sri Doreswamy Iyengar was a vAggEyakAra also. This is the first time I am hearing that he was a composer as well.

Bilahari,

All five performers are related in the sense that they all belong to the same school.

[keerthi]

Sreeni,

DoreswamayyangAr has also composed music for the film 'SubbashAstri'. Not sure if there is a discussion somewhere on rasikas. I remember reading an article about his fondness for sAlagabhairavi, which he played often in his concerts [He only used to play padavini sadbhaktiyu in that rAgam].

The movie Subba shAstri has Srirangam Gopalaratnam singing a haunting 'kRSnana koLalina kare' and also Balamuralikrishna singing Enu mAdidarEnu.

The music for this movie was by DoreswamayyangAr.I can't find a link for the latter song, but am quite sure BMK sang it for the movie, it was a tuned in sAlagabhairavi.

Here is a link to Nagavalli Nagaraj and her daughter singing the same song in DA's tune.

Srikant, Manjula Surendra is a very talented artiste, and gives a lot of importance to the aesthetic integrity of the rAga, even while composing muktAyams.

[Nick H]

a speeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech,

There are times when loud snoring from the audience is appropriate

[PUNARVASU]

There are times when loud snoring from the audience is appropriate [/quote

Or the audience starts looking at the calendar instead of the watch.

[Sreeni Rajarao]

Keerthi,
I am aware of Doreswamyayyangar's affinity for sAlagabhairavi (padavini in particular), and his role as a music composer for the movie subbashAstri.

I am still puzzled about the vAggEyakAra role - I am just surprised that I have not heard that he was a vAggEyakAra as well, and that I have not heard any of his compositions before. Now, it is time for me to do some homework on that aspect!

It will be nice if someone uploads the music from this event - video would be a plus!
I will contact some friends I have in Bangalore Akashavani who are the organizers of this event.

[srikant1987]

All five performers are related in the sense that they all belong to the same school.

Yes, there were introductions to the artistes before the concert, I didn't note that. But Smt Vani and Smt Manjula are students of DB, and GR and RM learned from another senior disciple of Vidwan Doreswamy Iyengar.

Would like to hear more concerts by the vaiNikas of Karnataka.