Master of the notes

A small gathering, an accomplished musician and his able accompanists– it was indeed a formula for a splendid evening of music organised by Anandamohan Voruganti’s Sangeetha Ksheera Sagaram. “Smaller places let me strike a connection with my audience that adds the charm to the music performance,” said the exemplary musician.

Komanduri Seshadri, man of many talents gave a Carnatic music concert at Saptaparni recently. It was an intimate gathering of music lovers who got together at the cultural space to listen to him accompanied by Anantha Souri Rajan on violin, Viahnupriya on Tambura Dr P Srinivasa Gopalan on Mrudangam and Koluppor Shyam Kumar on Kanjira. The space was instantly lit in the brightness of music as the master of ragalapana, Komanduri plunged into his realm with a scintillating Ragamalikavarnam by Patnam Subrahmanya Iyyer – Valachivacchiunnanaapai, as he took the audience along.

The soft and sonorous voice commanded over the gamakams as he weaved through the swaras embellishing the many kritis that followed – Muthuswamy Dikshitar’s ‘Sri Saraswathi Namostuthe’ in Arabhiragam, Thyagaraja Swamy’s ‘Evvare Ramayya Nee Sari Bhushini’ in Dessadiragam, PurandaraDasu’s ‘Jaya JayaJaya Janaki Kantha’ in Naataragam, Swathithirunal’s ‘Visweswara Darsana Kara’ in Sindhu Bhairaviragam and Sri Mysore Vasudevachaarya’s ‘Srimadaadi Thyagaraja Guru Varam’ in the beautiful Kalyani ragam. In fact, what marks the accomplished musician’s concerts are the rare kritis and the variety of vaggeyakars he introduces to the listeners. It was a pleasant experience to listen to Subbaraya Sastri’s ‘Janani Ninu Vina’ and the slokas like ‘Chintayami Harim Satatham Nanda GopaBalam’ in Raaga Malika.

The main item ‘Thyagaraja’sTodikriti ‘KaddanuVaariki’ acquired a striking edge when Komanduri’s flawless rendition gave way to the instrumentalists who took on with aplomb. An extended Thani Avarthan was thoroughly enjoyed with audience joining in with thalam.

BY Rajeshwari Kalyanam