Lively in GNB style

THE VOCAL recital of Thrissur V. Ramachandran featured by Sri Krishna Gana Sabha in its 46th Gokulashtami Sangeetha Utsavam was a delightful and passion-filled demonstration of his affinity to a style of lively vocal artistry employed profusely by his illustrious mentor, the late G.N.B. He was the recipient of Sangeetha Choodamani conferred by the Sabha this year.

The vocalist's representation of the opening varnam, ``Sarasijanabha'' (ata tala) revealed his appreciation of its finesse as a piece illustrative of an appealing combination of musical delicacies and metrical intricacies. ``Sri Mahaganapathim'' (Atana), came next in a musical form extended through sprightly swara sequences.

The singer presented ``Entarani'' of Tyagaraja in Harikambodi deftly and completed it with a series of smart neraval and swara passages.

Hamirkalyani was thoughtful in a mode of sufficiently serious raga rendition. Equally refreshing was his execution of the piece, ``Parimala'' of Muthuswamy Dikshitar.

M. Chandrasekharan's tasteful accompaniment on the violin added to the pleasantness of the recital. Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman's erudite expression on the mridangam and G. Harishankar's gleeful patterns played on the kanjira enhanced the recital's rhythmic shine.

Meticulous alignment

An ensemble of five young artistes belonging to the Ramani Acadmey of Flute gave a pleasant recital on the inaugural day of the Gokulashtami music festival at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha.

Aligned meticulously on the sruti and planned in a style of close co- ordination, the flute recital of the artistes - Prapancham Balachandran, Tiruvarur Swaminathan, Tiruchi Saravanan, Karthikeyan and Rangarajan was convincing. They impressed the audience with the tidiness of their recital of the pieces, ``Viriboni'' (varnam in Bhairavi) and ``Endaro'' (Pancharatna kirtana of Tyagaraja in Sriragam).

The artistes had adequate support from the accompanists, Usha Rajagopalan (violin), Mannargudi Eswaran (mridangam) and Tiruchi Thayumanavan (kanjira).

- R.V.

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