Gayathri Fine Arts and Lok Kala Manch recently came together to organise a Carnatic music concert to pay homage to veteran vocalist, the late Palghat K.V. Narayanaswamy at the latter’s auditorium. The quietly organised programme without much fanfare turned out to be a delightful experience and the organisations deserve credit not only for the gesture but also for the choice of the artiste.
Hemminge S. Prashanth, disciple of late KVN, sang for about two hours and regaled the music lovers with his talent. Old time music lovers – who had an opportunity to listen to the renderings of late KVN – fondly recalled the vocalist and his style of singing.
Endowed with a good voice, the vocalist from Bengaluru structured his concert intelligently, interwove his creative talents with the compositions that he rendered, in an appropriate proportion and established a quick rapport with his Delhi-based accompanists.
Late KVN’s singing style was noted for a number of distinctive features including adherence to classicism, lyrical purity and emotional renditions. He had also received numerous awards and titles for his contribution to the field of Carnatic music, including the most prestigious Madras Music Academy’s Sangita Kalanidhi award.
Prashanth started his concert elegantly with an adi tala varnam “Chalamela” in raga Nattakurinji. The kalpanaswaras that he suffixed for the subsequent Tyagaraja’s “Guruleka” in raga Gowrimanohari was indicative of his creative talents in the early stage of his recital. Another Tyagaraja’s composition “Sitamma mayamma” in raga Vasanta livened up the proceedings.
Prashanth also sang Syama Sastri’s “Marivere” in raga Anandabhairavi and Muthuswami Dikshitar’s “Annapurne” in raga Sama bringing out the emotive contents of the lyrics to the fore.
Muthuswami Dikshitar’s “Ramanatham” in raga Pantuvarali and Tyagaraja’s “Evarimata” in raga Kambhoji came in for detailed renditions. He handled the compositions in a matured manner. Besides presenting a scintillating alapanas of both these ragas, Prashanth also sang neraval of phrases from both these compositions and kalpanaswaras, highlighting his depth in creative music.
Delhi R. Sridhar rose to the occasion to provide good support on the violin and played delightful takes of ragas Pantuvarali and Kambhoji. Kumbakonam N. Padmanabhan on the mridangam and Mannai Kannan on the ghatam too provided riveting percussion support and played an enjoyable tani avartanam in Adi taal.
On the whole, the first concert of Prashanth in the Capital will linger long in the memories of the music lovers of the capital. Morning concerts, which are rare in the capital, have their own appeal. More organisations should come forward to try this out too.
