Concerts by leading musicians marked the annual Sri Ramanavami Sangeetha Mahotsavam organised by the Sri Sringeri Sankara Mutt at Srirangam, Tiruchi, recently.
The nine-day festival commenced with Carnatica Brothers' vocal concert. They started with the brilliant varnam of GNB in Andholika. The duo took up Swati Tirunal's ‘Bhavayami' as the main piece. After the short and crisp thani by Koviladi Madhwaprasadh and ghatam Krishna, the Brothers rendered ‘Lakshmi Kalyanam' of Ravikiran and Dasar's Mangalam. The alapana of Anandhabhairavi and the ragamalika were excellent. The kalpanaswaras for Nattai, Dhenuka, Kapinarayani and for ‘Bhavayami' were brisk and well-conceived.
Delightful concert
On the second day, Bharathi Ramasubban gave a delightful concert. She started with ‘Jutha Murare' of Tyagaraja, ‘Sankari Samkuru' of Syama Sastri followed by Sri Acharyal's ‘Bhajare Loka Gurum’ in Khamas, ‘Sri Bhargavi’ of Dikshitar in Mangala Kaishiki, Chandrasekara Bharati's ‘Sharade Karunanidhe' in Hamirkalyani and ‘Sharadamba Sharadindu’ in Bhairavi as the main piece. After rendering ‘Sharada Bhujangam’ of Adi Sankara she sang Vallalar's Arutpa ‘Arampazhukkum’.
Bharathi concluded the concert with the mangalam composed by Chandrasekara Bharati in Surutti. She was accompanied by T.H. Vasantha on the violin and Koppu Nagarajan on the mridangam.
The vocal concert of Anupama Srimali came up next. She started with Nattakurinji varnam followed by ‘Siddhi Vinayakam' of Muthaiah Bhagavatar in Mohanakalyani. She took up Oothukadu's ‘Kalyanarama' in Hamsanadham as the second main in which she proved her mettle.
The main piece was ‘O, Rangasayee' in Khambodi and her niraval in ‘Booloka Vaikundam' was superb and the kalpanaswaram was splendid.
The accompanists were Nellai Ravindran on the violin, Koppu Nagarajan on the mridangam and Vishnupuram Raghu on the morsing.
Day four was marked by the vocal recital of Maharajapuram Srinivasan with vocal support by his son Ganesh Viswanathan. He started with Kanada varnam, ‘Gajavadhana' in Hamsadhwani, of M.D. Ramanathan, with amazing kalpanaswaras followed by ‘Ganamoorthe' (stamp of his father Maharajapuram Sri Santhanam) and ‘Srivenkatesam' of Dikshitar. Srinivasan proved his worthiness in Mohanam and took this up as the main raga with Tyagaraja's ‘Nannupalimpa.' He concluded the concert with ‘Ragathil Sirandha Ragam' of Kadalur Subramaniam and ‘Bho Sambho' of Swami Dayananda. N.C. Madhav and Tiruchi Rangarajan gave good support.
On the next day, Koviladi Madhwaprasad started the concert with the Kalyani varnam, followed by Dikshitar's ‘Mahaganapatim' in Nattai.
Prasad took up Chakravakam as the sub-main in which he sang the rare composition ‘Neranammiti.' He took up Shanmukhapriya as the main raga and sang ‘Marivere’ of Patnam Subramania Iyer.
The accompanists were N.C. Madhav (violin), Salem Srinivasan (mridangam), Tiruchi Krishna (ghatam), Srimushnam Rangarajan (ganjira) and Malaikottai Deenadayalu (morsing).
Scintillating performances
The Jalatarangam recital by Anayampatti Ganesan took place on the sixth day. He started with ‘Raghunayaka’ in Hamsadhwani and followed it up with ‘Sadhinchane’ in Arabhi. His rendition included ‘Thathvameruka' in Garudadhwani and ‘Manavyla’ in Nalinakanti, the raga rendition of which and the kalpanaswaras were superb. He took up Kharaharapriya as the main piece and concluded the concert with ‘Bagyadha Lakshmi Barama’ in Madhyamavathi. He was accompanied by his son Anayampatti Venkatasubramanian on the violin, B. Sivaraman on the mridangam, Tiruchi Murali on the ghatam and Alathur T. Rajaganesh on the ganjira.
Amritha Murali started with Saveri varnam. She also presented ‘Ramaneepai’ in Kedaram, ‘Marivere' in Anandhabhairavi, ‘Vinaradha’ in Devagandari and ‘Jampupathe’ in Yamunakalyani. Amritha took up ‘Sriraghuvara’ in Khambodi as the main piece of the concert. She concluded the concert with ‘Sri Sri Chandrasekara Bharathi Mangalam’. Karaikkal Venkatasubramanian (violin), B. Sivaraman (mridangam), and Tiruchi Murali (ghatam) were the accompanists.
On the penultimate day, T.M. Krishna began with ‘Terateeyagaradha’ in Gowlibandhu of Tyagaraja followed by ‘Evarikai' in Devamanohari, ‘Ra Ra Rajeeva’ in Mohanam and ‘Deva Deva’ in Mayamalavagowla in which his rendition of kalpanaswaras was splendid. The main piece was ‘Evarimata’ in Khambodi. Krishna concluded the concert with ‘Ramajogi’ in Khamas. He was accompanied by T.K.V. Ramanujacharlu on the violin, Bharanikumar on the mridangam and Tiruchi Krishna on the ghatam.
On the concluding day, Aishwarya Vidya Ragunath gave a delightful concert. ‘Rama Bhana’ in Saveri as the main piece was excellent. ‘Ma Janaki’ in Khambodi was the sub-main. She was accompanied by Akkarai Swarnalatha (violin) and K.S. Ramana (mridangam). The music festival was backed by Indian Overseas Bank, E. V. Vaidyanatha Iyer Trust, City Union Bank, Sangam Hotel, Raja Sir Annamalai Chettiyar Memorial Trust, Muthal Tirumaligai Sri Jagannatha Thathachariar, Rasika Ranjana Sabha and Dalmia Cements (Bharat) Limited.
