Two ‘big ticket’ organisations — the Shanmukhananda Sangeeta Sabha, New Delhi, and Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha, Chennai, — came together to conduct a three-day music festival, “Bharat Sangeet Utsav — 2014”, recently at the National Capital. Carnatic music concerts by both visiting and Delhi-based artistes and workshops formed part of the festival. At the outset, the collaborative effort of the two organisations not based in one city to bring some delightful music and theoretical insights on Carnatic music to the city’s music lovers is laudable.
The workshop on the last day of the festival was by Anil Srinivasan and Sikkil C. Gurucharan on “Appreciating South Indian Music.” It was lively for many reasons. Both the artistes articulated well in their spheres. (While Anil explained the subject, Gurucharan complemented by singing). The explanations were interspersed with anecdotes. The session was met with questions, comments and observations from the audience comprising music lovers, students and teachers of music. The duo’s humbleness and convincing replies were other noteworthy features during the workshop.
The U.S-based Mark Stone’s presentation “Global Rhythm & Effect on Human Emotions” with vintage percussion instruments was also engaging.
Delhi-based G. Sowmya was featured on the second day.Sowmya began her concert with the Adi tala navaragha varnam. The neat presentation of the varnam in two tempos was impressive. However, her structuring of the concert was not. Though there were patches of brilliance in her recital, one felt Sowmya was too ambitious to accommodate three pieces for detailed renditions in her short concert of about an hour and a quarter.
After the varnam, Sowmya took up Ambhujam Krishna’s composition, “Kadhiruvenu nannu” in raga Ranjani in a detailed manner. A scintillating raga alapana preceded the song rendition. The emotive presentation of the composition was followed by kalpanaswaras that were indicative of Sowmya’s creative talents. Tyagaraja’s fast pace “Nenarunchinanu” in raga Malavi, which she sang subsequently, added liveliness to her concert.
Sowmya took up Muthuswami Dikshidar’s “Sree Sathyanarayanam” in raga Subhapantuvarali, again for a detailed rendition. While delineating the raga, she brought out its features to the fore. However, after having already sung Ranjani, one did not quite understand the need for taking up Subhapantuvarali. When it was time to move to the concluding session, Sowmya sprang a surprise at the audience. She took up another song for detailed rendition. It was Tyagaraja’s composition “Pakkala nilabadi” in raga Kharaharapriya but she was not able to do justice to it. Sensing time constraints, the violin accompanist played only a few phrases of the raga when it was his turn to delineate it. The neraval, kalpanaswaras and even tani avartanam were absent. There was an abrupt end to the song. Visiting artistes VVS Murari on the violin and Trivandrum V. Balaji on the mridangam provided enthusiastic support to Sowmya.
