Bhagini Sangeethotsava is planned a fortnight after Ramanavami every year. It is good that it is planned in this way so that grand concert series are not overlapped and music-lovers are not deprived of the other concerts happening in other halls. The organisers are happy too as a large crowd can be expected this way. Larger the audience, greater is the success of the programme. Also, there is no fear of the rains causing disruption like last year as the concerts are happening in the newly built auditorium this time.

On the first day of the series, as always, the current Pejawar Mutt Seer Sri Vishwaprasanna Teertha Swamiji graced the occasion and blessed everyone present with his inspirational words.

The first concert of the series was interestingly a Veena-Venu-Violin Concert by Balu Masti on veena, C.S. Keshav Chandra on flute and Mattur R. Srinidhi on violin. The trio were accompanied by Anirudha Bhat on mridanga and Shamith S. Gowda on ghata.

The concert brought together three iconic instruments in Karnatak music — veena,                                                               venu and violin — in a rare confluence. Each instrument represents a unique aural experience — the veena’s rich plucked strings, the venu’s breathy tonality and the violin’s fluid bowed expressions.

The trio had chosen popular compositions for the evening. They commenced the concert with the well-paced Saveri Varna set to Adi Tala by Kottavasal Venkatarama Iyer. It being the 250th birth year of Muthuswami Dikshitar this year, they next played ‘Siddhi vinAyakam Anisham’ in Shanmukhapriya. The trio gave a quick sketch of the raga and played short and crisp kalpana swaras to the tricky ‘Prasiddha gaNa nAyakam.’

After a quick ‘Niravadhi sukhada nirmala roopa’ by Sri Tyagaraja in Ravichandrika, Latangi was chosen for elaboration. While the alapana started with the veena, Keshava essayed the Madhya sthAyi sancharas and finally Srinidhi concluded with the tara sthAyi essay of the raga. ‘MarivEre dikkevarayya RAma’ by Patnam Subramania Iyer saw swaras for the pallavi segment after which the artistes moved to the main raga of the evening — Mohana, in which they offered to play a swara pallavi. Srinidhi led the alapana, exploring the majestic contours of Mohana, Keshava followed with expansive phrases using subtle breath modulation. Balu’s take on the raga was drawn from his Guru Jayanti’s vocal and lyrical style.

It is always a pleasure to listen to tanam on a veena. The trio’s combined tanam segment was pleasant — each artiste alternating and then blending motifs. Playing the tanam in ragamalike was a good go as they were running short of time. While Srinidhi played Kapi, Keshava chose Hindola and Balu played the tanam in Hamsanada. The pallavi had no sahitya as it was a swara pallavi set to Khanda Triputa tala. After a brief set of kalpana swaras, the artistes allowed time for taniyavartanam.

The taniyavartanam by Anirudha and Shamith in Khanda Triputa was both intricate and entertaining though brief.

The trio concluded the concert with the very popular ‘Bhagyada Lakshmi BAramma’ by Sri Purandara Dasaru.

—Dr. Padmavathi  Narasimhan