Whistling tribute to Thyagaraja

Whistle wizard K Siva Prasad gave a scintillating recital on in the on-going Thyagaraja Aradhnaotsavalu being celebrated at Sri Ramalayam, New Nallakunta. Siva Parsad garnered world fame for rendering classical music via whistling. Eelapata Raghuramiah’s success in theatre with whistling inspired him to try the same in carnatic music. He was encouraged by the then Masrasthra Governor Late Kona Prabhakara Rao and Dr Balamuralikrishna.

Siva Prasad commenced his whistle recital with “Girraja Suta Tanaya’ (Bangala) as an invocation item and moved on to “Jagadananda Karakaa’ (Nata) rendered it in all its detail. He took meaningful works of Thyagaraja “Dandamu Pettedanuraa” (Balahamsa) and “Koluvai Unnadde Kodandapani” (Bhairavi) with good ragalapana and a brief swarakalpana.

He concluded the recital with semi classical items in the ragas Sindhubhairavi and Yamunakalyani, which drew a thunderous applause from the audience. SV Ramana Murthy (violin), K Srinivasa Rao (mridangam) and Dr P Srinivasa Gopalan (morsing) gave good instrumental support. In the brief kutchrey Siva Prasad showed tonal variations remarkably. His alapana and bhava elaboration was good his control over laya was excellent.

Soothing veena recital

Veena vidwan VL Narayana opened his recital with “Mahaganpathi Ravathu Mam” (Goula) of Deekhitar and followed it with “Eti Janmamidi” (Varali) of Thyagaraja, which was presented with a lucid swarakalpana. In his brief concert he touched many of the works of Thyagaraja. He was accompanied on mridangam by Peravali Jaya Bhaskar who made the show enjoyable.

By:Chivukula Rama Mohan