Magical Bows and Strings of Ganesh Kumaresh brings Musical Downpour in Greater Houston
By Nalini Sadagaopan
Stepping into the fall season on a balmy Saturday evening with clear skies, we entered the beautifully decorated Berry Center Auditorium of Greater Houston for an unforgettable evening of music by world-renowned violin virtuosos, Ganesh and Kumaresh. The brothers, dressed in deep blue and dark attires, appeared to be impregnated musical clouds that drenched the packed audience that evening with a brilliant musical downpour.
The Hindu Temple of The Woodlands had impeccably organized this grand concert on September 5th, 2015, as a fundraising event, in transforming their “Vision to Reality” project, of providing infrastructure for cultural education. The program was emceed eloquently with class, by Sudha Ravi Mani. The invocatory song was sonorously rendered by Houston’s Kruthi Bhat – the recent winner of the Spirit of the Youth Award by the prestigious Madras Music Academy. She aptly sang a Meera Bhajan that evening being Janmashtami day– Lord Krishna’s birthday. The main event, the violin concert, was also thematically designed to depict Lord Krishna.
The forty-year veterans in violin performance, considered child prodigies - Ganesh and Kumaresh were initiated and trained by their father, Sri. Rajagopalan Iyer. The brothers have carved out a niche for Indian instrumental music and become renowned global musicians, with their remarkable technique, both in playing the instrument and in interpreting their musical forms. They have found a new expression targeted towards instrumental music called Ragapravaham which is based only on the raga (melodic scale) and thala (the rhythmic scale). In a conversation with Ganesh, he described that instrumental performances do not necessarily emphasize the lyrical value in a composition, and hence focus on the melodic, and rhythmic aspects provide more scope for instrumentalists.
Kumaresh delineated the format of the concert that would be depicting five facets of Lord Krishna – The magnum opus (energetic/conscious), the romantic, the philosophic, the superhero and the compassionate. The brothers were accompanied on the percussion brilliantly, by Sri. Papanasam Sankaranarayanan on the mridangam and by Sri. Krishnaswamy on the ghatam. Samyuktha Hari and Kruthi Bhat provided tambura support to the team.
The concert opened with a brisk pancharagamalika varnam filled with energy. The varnam was set in the ghana ragas as in the Tyagaraja’s pancharatnams, Naatai, Gowla, Arabi, Varali, and Sree. A fast-paced rendition to welcome the Lord, but yet was played with much ease like the knife passing through soft butter, by Ganesh and Kumaresh.
The brothers followed the varnam with much resonance, fluidity, and agility with the next ragam, Mayamalavagowla. The excellent chemistry of the duo here was accompanied by brilliant accompaniment from the ghatam. Sections of higher speeds played by Kumaresh could resonate to a trained ear with the Western symphonic violin style.
The main piece of the concert was painted with the beautiful ragam Kamboji, which Kumaresh, described as what he and his brother felt was the best-suited ragam to bring forth the romantic Krishna. The soulful and descriptive composition of Elara SriKrishna was soothing, and played at a pace where one could but not help imagine the lovely Lord in our midst. The kalpanaswarams along with korappu seemed to be like pearls strung to adorn the beautiful Lord Krishna. The percussion duet was unbelievably riveting and won a thunderous applause from the audience. The highlight on the percussion team along with the mridangam, was the ghatam – a clay pot, which as Kumaresh mentioned, is not an easy instrument to handle and yet Krishnaswamy played it with great ease.
The philosophical and compassionate Krishna was presented through vocal renditions of Tamil compositions by Ganesh in the ragams Nayaki and Kalyanavasantham. The composition Vaazhvellam Mayame, to describe the philosopher Krishna was a composition by Kumaresh.
The superhero Krishna, rather the superhero side of the brothers, came out when they engaged the audience to vote for the next ragam to be performed. The initial feeler question of “Which raga would you like to hear?” had the audience blurt out their choices of Nalinakanthi, Hindolam, and Saveri, which the artists includes in their performance. What was rather unique was them asking for choices of the different swarams from students of music in the audience, and engaging them to identify the ragam, that would match the permutation of the chosen swarams. There was much enthusiasm from the students in this trivia format. The more astounding part was how effortlessly the brothers expounded on Dhavalambari, the unique ragam that resulted. Not only did they perform a theme around Krishna, but at times their violins sounded like droning bees or even a flute, showcasing their stellar control over the instrument transforming sounds and making magical music. The audience indeed came away with the blissful understanding that the two brothers were indeed the superheroes of the violin.
The concluding pieces included a Kannada composition in Pahadi, a Dwijavanthi thillana, and some thukkadas.
HTW had meticulously lined up the orders of events that included a video presentation about the temple and facilities. S.R. Pinnapureddy, Chairman of the Board, welcomed the audience, Venki Chandrasekar, key member of the Fundraising committee, provided an overview of the fundraising efforts, and Praveen Gottipatti, President of Executive Committee, felicitated the artists. Jagan Allam, Chair of Fundraising Committee, acknowledged the generous donors and sponsors of the event, and Krishna Hari, Secretary of the Executive Committee, concluded the magnificent event with his vote of thanks.
Following the feast to our ears and soul, was a sumptuous vegetarian feast catered by Rajan Radhakrishnan of Madras Pavilion. Dhakshin restaurant provided the dinner for the Meet & Greet hosted in The Woodlands the previous night. The other noticeable feature was the active involvement of many teenagers from the community to help with the event, including the Meet & Greet, ticketing, reception and ushering of guests. Indeed a very successful event, under the relentless leadership of Rajee Hari, cultural ambassador from The Woodlands, showcasing passion, leadership, and enthusiasm to help the community through arts and culture.
After enthralling the Houston audience in August with home-grown talent through the Anubhava dance ballet, HTW has proved yet again their mettle of successful execution, with the outstanding violin concert. The notes from the violin duo will reverberate for many days in the minds of the music lovers. Houston community is waiting to hear what the next big event will be under the auspices of HTW.
Magical Bows and Strings of Ganesh Kumaresh brings Musical Downpour in Greater Houston
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