Featuring the mandolin recital of Arvind Bhargav was perfect as the Sabha had dedicated the day to the memory of Mandolin U. Shrinivas.
Arvind Bhargav, a disciple of the Mandolin maestro, presented a jugalbandhi along with Vedanth Bharadwaj (banjo). They commenced the recital with Kalyani alapana. While Arvind brought out a lovely Kalyani, Vedanth created an alap in Yaman – the former deep and solid, while the latter, soft and supple. Arvind’s traditional moorings could be seen in the raga sketches, which had a rich bhava.
They played Dikshitar’s ‘Ganapathe Mahapathe’ in Rupaka tala. Arvind’s rendition stood out. The swaraprastara was interesting since the different styles displayed their own identities.
Arvind’s style surely reminded one of Shrinivas, especially when an RTP in Gowrimanohari (Patdeep in Hindustani) was rendered. Incidentally, Shrinivas had played a lovely Gowrimanohari at his final concert and definitely Arvind’s playing was his way of paying tribute (to the maestro). Both expanded the raga with emphasis on melody with Arvind taking the lead.
He played the alapana while Vedanth played the alap. Tanam (Jor-Jala in Hindustani) gave them a chance to further improvise.
The pallavi, ‘Sangeetham, Swaralaya Soundaryanandam’ was set to tune by Arvind’s mother, N. Gnanaprasuna, a disciple of M. Balamuralikrishna. Vedanth sang the Pallavi. They played trikalam. In the swaraprastara the duo played a ragamalika – Nasikabhushani (Arvind), Hamsadhwani (Vedanth), Amruthavarshini (Arvind), Charukesi (Vedanth) and Bindumalini (Arvind). Vedanth offered a few charming phrases. Mandolin was mostly accompanied by mridangam (Sumesh Narayanan), while tabla (Saurabh Joshi) accompanied the banjo. It was a vibrant thani by the percussionists.
Sumesh Narayanan’s gumukki prayogas created a brilliant effect.
The team wound up the concert with a composition, ‘Dances in breeze,’ of Mandolin Shrinivas in Kadanakuthuhalam. It sounded like a nottuswara, a fascinating number.
Thus, the tuneful vibes of Mandolin Shrinivas filled the auditorium throughout the recital.
