The music segment of the Parampara Series had the famed Carnatic musician duo, the Hyderabad Brothers (D. Raghavachari and D. Seshachari). Together with their accompanists D. Srinivas on the veena and DSR Murthy on the mridangam, both brothers too, they made for an awesome foursome. It was an enchanting evening with some of the most melodious music flowing our way.
Established as puritan vocalists whose pitch and rhythm are not prone to swerve, the Hyderabad Brothers’ recital left nothing wanting. For one, they have their fingers on the pulse of their listeners and tone down or accentuate their virtuosity. Catering to a Delhi audience, they kept themselves to brevity, be it in the alpana or swarakalpana or neraval without deviating from the katcheri format. The two kritis on mother goddess was rendered in the most emotive of tones, embellished as it were with an enveloping alaap that scaled the heights of the ragas; their own improvisation and the scaling down technique were balanced as it were sans gimmicks while the Thyagaraja kritis got a full-fledged treatment with the alaap that alternated between the brothers.
Srinivas on the veena replayed it in the gayaki style, vested each raga with his brand of nuances that complimented the vocalists’ rendition. DSR Murthy came out as a subtle percussionist who went with the gentle tones of the duo, displaying his virtuosity in the taniavarthanam to the Keeravani. With Hyderabad Brothers, moderation is the keyword and creating a blissful experience is the objective.
Kaushiki Chakravarty gave a brief recital opening with Bageshri and closing with Bhairavi in their full glory. With a rich texture of tone and tenor, the young, talented daughter of Ajoy Chakravarty (ITC Sangeet Research Academy) proved to be a chip off the old block. The treatment given to Bageshri and the individual lines of the composition thereof was immense as she delved into the depths of the raag and accentuated its singularities through swar bol alternating with aakar taan in the druth. She seemed a breathless wonder as she paused on a single syllable in the course of her taan and there was a torrential downpour of swar as she resorted to ornamentation creating rapturous patterns after patterns eliciting spontaneous applause from an appreciative audience. Her stress on the nishad was a superb play of swar. True to her gharana, the Bageshsri meandered its way into Tarana which was another bout of Spring season come alive through sheer music. The ease with which she scaled the upper octave (tara sthayi) and tail-spinned into the middle octave was creditable. The same could not be said of her base (mandra) which showed signs of disintegration and fatigue if she dwelt too long. The Bhairavi composition was beautiful and she enriched it with her lovely voice and treatment, especially as she delineates the very philosophical and meaningful line, na jaane kaun si khidki khuli thi ... with an emotive appeal. The young artiste is an adept at giving her best in keeping the present day listeners’ mindset in view which is a sure sign of her popularity and success.
Flute recital
Ronu Majumdar is a name to reckon with in today’s world of bansuri and he did full justice opening the recital with the lilting Zephyr Jaijaiwanti. The raag by itself is so captivating that it is difficult to pronounce whether the musician enhances its sweetness or vice-versa. In this case it was both. The ace flautist together with his pupil, ably supported by Ustad Akram Khan on the tabla, catapulted us to cloud nine without sounding hyperbolic. The notes, more so the distinct komal gandhar and shuddh gandhar emanated and encircled the auditorium leaving us spellbound. The artiste was amazing as he touched the mandra octave which created an illusion of a bird singing in human voice (gayaki), proving to be worthy son of the Maihar gharana.
