By M.L. Krishnaswami
The 128th Sri Ramanavami Music Festival organised by Sri Ramabhyudaya Sabha Charitable Trust was held at Alamma Choultry, Devaraja Mohalla. On Saturday the 31st March, the artistes were Malladi Brothers Vid. Ramaprasad and Vid. Ravikumar on vocal, Vid. Nishant Chandra on violin, Vid. Tumkur B. Ravishankar on mridanga and Vid. G.S. Ramanujam on ghata.
Malladi Brothers, the popular duo from Vijayawada, are no strangers to Mysuru and they enthralled the music literati and connoisseurs of the city with their concert. Naturally, the pandal was jam-packed. Incidentally, the violinist Nishant holds a Ph.D degree in Computer Science from California and is working as a Senior Scholar in an IT firm in Bengaluru.
The Brothers commenced their concert with raga ‘Kedar’ and a Thyagarja Krithi followed setting the pace for the rest of the concert. The kriti was ‘Rama Neepai Thanaku’ very well and briskly rendered. Next came krithi ‘Sama Gana…’ neatly sung.
“Mukhari” alapana followed and Ravikumar stole the show in its delineation. The next number was in raga ‘Vachaspathi’ and the tala vadya for the Swaraprasthara was very good. “Sujana Jeevana Rama Suguna Bhushana” in raga ‘Kamach’ followed in brisk mode.
Listeners’ request for the next raga was ‘Kara Hara Priya’ and the brothers gave detailed delineation for this. However, this was not their best in this raga, the avid listeners felt. May be, the reason was the natural strain in their voice mode due to long travel involved in concerts in a row from place to place.
However, violinist Vid. Nishant Chandra rose to the occasion and triumphed in his gentle support to the main artistes.
The swaraprasthra by the duo was exceptionally good. Thanyavartana followed and our own Tumkur Ravishankar and Vid. Ramanujam gave splendid support to the main artistes.
‘Hamir Kalyani’ raga in krithi ‘Rama Bhakthatilaka’ was very well received followed by a ‘Bhadrachala Ramadas’ number ‘Sri Rama Bhaktha Tilaka.’ The concert ended with Mangala.
R.K. Padmanabha concert
On 1st April, Sunday the concert was by Vid. R.K. Padmanabha (vocal) accompanied by Vid. C.N. Chandrasekar on violin, Vid. Cheluvaraju on mridanga and Vid. G.S. Ramanujam on ghata.
A brief account about the main artiste, Vid. R.K. Padmanabha. He is the senior-most vocalist from our State and runs schools in different localities of Bengaluru imparting lessons in music for youngsters and taking a moderate fee. This is a great service to the classical art. His concerts are generally accompanied with short intelligent discourses on this ancient art and the current programme was no exception.
The concert commenced with varna ‘Vanajakshi’ in raga ‘Kalyani’; incidentally the legendary Ariyakudi used to commence his concert, with this ‘Varna.’ This was followed by ‘Sarasasamadana,’ a kriti of Saint Thyagaraja in raga ‘Kapinarayini’ more popularised by the late Madurai Mani Iyer. “Anjanasutha Anjaneya” in ‘Sumanas ranjani’ raga, Aditala followed in quick succession.
Surprisingly, the next number was ‘Bramhanda Valaya’ in Raga ‘Maand,’ a krithi by our late Maharaja Wadiyar who had composed many songs on Anjaneya, Ganapathi and more so on ‘Devi.’
A Muthayya Bhagavathar number ‘Bhuvaneswariya’ in ‘Mohana Kalyani’ was the next piece. ‘Sadinchinu’ in ‘Arabhi’ was given a neat rendering. ‘Todi’ was chosen for R.T.P. and was very well-rendered. Totally, this was a very high scholarly concert by Vid. R.K. Padmanabha. [Thanks to Vijayarao for some inputs].
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