Karnataka Vaibhava - 20th and 21st August 2016

Karnataka Vaibhava-2016. A two Day impressive Festival.

Song list of Yoga Vandana’s veena concert:

1.  Maate Malayadhwaja                     Daru Varna   Kamach

2.  Jaya Jaya JayaJanaki kantha           Nattai  (S)

3.  Orajupuchu                                     Kannadagowla

4.  Paalayamam Parvateesha               Kannada (R,N,S) N&S @ Ganamritha

5.  Nenendu Vedakudura                    Karnataka Behag

6.  Rara Rajeevalochana                      Mohana (R,T,S), TANI

7.  Thunga teeravirajam                       Yamunakalyani

8.  Dhiranaa – Thillana                        Jhenjuti/Chenchurutti

The two day Karnataka Vaibhava at Nadasurabhi, on 20^th and 21^st of August 2016 was interesting and successful.  On the first day there were two sessions.  The first session saw a brilliant veena concert by Vidushi Yoga Vandana accompanied by Vidushi Ranjani Venkatesh on Mridangam and Vidushi Bhagyalakshmi Krishna on Morsing – an all women ensemble!  The occasion being ‘Karnataka Vaibhava’ she dedicated the major portion of the concert to the Karnataka composers. Yoga Vandana displayed high level of maturity and confidence in handling the instrument.  She had a good style in playing the ragas.  Kannada raga and neraval were done in detail which was appealing.  The main piece was in Mohana.  Raga was rendered beautifully and the Tana which followed was complimenting the alapana.  Several rounds of swara prasthara including the ragamalika swaras for the song were neat and impressive.  She played ‘Thungha teera virajam – a song on Ragavendra swami also, which was relevant, suiting the Sri Raghavendra swami Aradhane that was being celebrated all over the city.  A famous thillana of Veena Seshanna saw the end of the concert.  The artists on the percussion were vibrant and intelligent and provided a strong support upholding the quality of the concert.

Song list of Pavan Rangachar’s concert:

1.  Siddhi Vinayakam                Mohanakalyani ( R)

2.  Chintayami Jagadamba         Hindolam (R,S)

3. Varalakshmi Namostute        Gourimanohari  (S)

4.  Keshavanolumeyu                Thodi (R,N,S @ Varavelapura)  TANI

5.  Harihara ninnanu                  Sindhubhairavi

Vidwan Pavan Rangachar presented the second concert on the 20^th, Saturday.  He was accompanied by Vidwan Nagaraj Mandayam on violin and Vidwan Renuka Prasad on Mridangam.  All his songs were of Karnataka composers.  The choice of his songs was very impressive.  Starting with Siddhi Vinayakam in Mohanakalyani, he proceed to sketch the raga Hindolam in which he sang rarely heard Chintayami Jagadamba, a fine composition by Maharaja Jayachamaraja Wodeyar.  Varalakshmi Namosthute in Gourimanohari was sweet.  Thodi was the main piece of the concert.  He sang the raga well and Kanakadasa’s composition Keshavanolumeyu  came out well.  His neraval at Varavelapura was a adequate, followed by quite an elaborate swara prasthara.  Tani Avartanam by  seasoned artist Vidwan Renuka Prasad was good, he managed very well responding to balancing  the other two artists.

On 21^st August, Sunday the first part featured presentation of a few special compositions of Muthuswamy Dikshitar by a group of students who were trained by Dr. T.S. Sathyavathi during one of the  Nadasurabhi Music education initiative.  The excellent training by the guru was witnessed in the perfect, harmonious presentation by the group.  It was very well received by a big round of applause.

The next programme was a Lecture Demonstration Concert on compositions of Mysore Vasudevecharya, one of the most illustrious post trinity composers , by Dr. T.S. Sathyavathi.  An erudite scholar that she is, she was eloquent throughout.  She made the judicious split of the time available between lec dem and concert. Briefly mentioning that the great Mysore Vsudevacharya had studied Sanskrit and Music in college she went on to describe the specialities in some of his compositions.  He was one of the Mysore Trinities the other two being Muthiah Bhagavatar and Mysore Sadashiva Rao. She chose to demonstrate the chitteswaras in some of the Varnas and vilamba kala kritis and some madhyama kala sahitya in his compositions.  Vasudevcharya had imbibed the styles of the trinity, particularly Muthuswamy Dikshitar in composing Madhyamakala sahitya for kritis and the colloquial telugu from St. Thyagraja to make the lyrics appealing.  He chose mostly Sanskrit for his compositions and used varieties in talas for his compositions, being highly influenced by Dikshitar.  Telugu songs were fewer and there was only one in Kannada, that too after being pressurised by the King. 

 He composed 4 ‘Varnas’ in Sanskrit, one in praise of Ganesha. Dr.Sathyavathi chose varnas in Kanada, Nalinakanthi and Mandhari ragas to demonstrate the beauty of the swara patterns in the chitteswaras/yethugade swaras. She then moved on to explain some of the highlights of the Madhyanmkala sahitya in some of his compositions.  For eg., for the song ‘Pranamamyaham…’ in raga Ranjani, she demonstrated how the Misra Triputa tala was very well adjusted to the sahitya.  She showed the beautiful usage of zig-zag pattern in the Hindolam song ‘Mamavatu sri..’ for the passage ‘Sujanamanoratha…’ Chittaswaras for ‘vilamba kala’ kritis like ‘Rara rajeeva lochana, and Sri Chjamundeshwari..’ had patterns of 3 and 5 in mukhtayi, which left   people wondering  how the next phrases would occur!  The building up of the ‘chitte’ left the connoisseurs spell bound. ‘Karunisou thaye’ the kannada composition in raga ‘saraswathi manohari’, ‘Prantharthihara’ in Jenjooti, were demonstrated with citteswaras with their specialities. The chitteswara for the ‘Begada’ kriti ‘Manasa vachasa shirasa’ had all majestic sancharas the raga would demand.

The lyrical beauty in ‘Sharade pahimam’ (Yadukulakambodhi), ‘Bhajamanasa’ (Kapi), ‘Jeevanetaram’(Behag), along with the sensitive subtle interpretation of the respective ragas were highlighted.

She then started the concert part, where by she included a varna in ‘Navarasakannada’,‘Mama hrudaye’ in ‘Ritigoula’, ‘Bhajare bhaja’ in ‘Mohanakalyani’,’Palukavademi’ in ‘Devamanohari’.  The main song was the immortal ‘Bhajare re’ in ‘Abheri’ followed by Tani avartanam.  Thillana in ‘Kanada’ raga to show the new ‘Tisra Rupaka tala’ employed by Vasudevacharya was the last song.  Her two disciples Lavanya and Anjana extended full support singing along with her or individually as directed.  The concert portion was also highly enriched with ‘alapanas’, ‘neravals’ and ‘swara prasthara’ suitably, with brilliant ‘sancharas’, phrases and combinations. Vidushi Charulatha Ramanujam, Vidwan Tumkur Ravishankar and Vidwan Omkar Rao were extremely good, proving their stature in the field.