A new hall, a new event and a hitherto unknown composer!
A combination of all these came to the fore as Mattrusri Tarigonda Vengamamba's compositions were presented by a group, recently at the PRCC Centenary Hall, T. Nagar, Chennai.
Vengamamba, who belonged to the pre-Trinity period, had indulged in many metaphysical explorations through her songs. Each song was preceded by a narration of the context in which it was composed.
Vengamamba’s Telugu flows like Sanskrit. Committed compere Srimathi Ramnath provided apt English translations of her Telugu statements.
Fine musical sense
The event commenced with an invocation by Shreya. The 10 compositions were set to tune with a fine musical sense by V.L.V. Sudarshan.
A broad range of ragas was used. With their husky and thin voices respectively, Kuravi Lalitha and Bhuvanagiri Vishnupriya complemented each other admirably.
The accompanists were Shyamali Venkat (flute), GRS Murthy (veena), Kandadevi Vijayaraghavan (violin), Ramamurthy (tabla), Vijendran (mridangam) and Venkata Subramaniyam (ghatam). The artists blended beautifully – result of practice.
A tribute to the conductor, Sudarshan. The brief Konnakkol interlude by ghatam artist Venkatasubramaniyam meshed well with the proceedings.
The sound mixing was handled professionally, each musician coming through distinctly.
Sarvani Sangeetha Sabha, a seemingly all-women outfit and a path-breaker in bringing to light many less-known composers, is doing yeoman service to music. And they are meticulous in taking care of minor details.
The way in which they keep the lamp lit at the beginning alive by constantly replenishing oil is worthy of emulation.
Vengamamba, who belonged to the pre-Trinity period, had indulged in many metaphysical explorations through her songs
(sivakumar2004@gmail.com)
Published - November 08, 2012 07:01 pm IST
