It was a magical event for music lovers of Hubballi-Dharwad on Friday. They spent five hours in the company of artists and listened to a bouquet of musical performances at ‘Swara – Music for Life’ at Sawai Gandharva Hall in Deshpande Nagar.
Flautist Pravin Godkhindi began with a classical music piece based on Ragaas. He later enthralled the audience with a Pahadi dhun. He ended the performance with his signature style of using different flutes for parts of the same composition. Rupak Kallurkar accompanied him on the tabla.
The highlight of the evening was the performance by Pandit Venkatesh Kumar, Padmashree winning Hindustani maestro. He began the concert with a long rendition of an aalap, vilambit and cheez set to Raag Kaunsi Kanada. He later presented a piece set to Raag Sohni, an evening Raaga, which later extended to a dhrut cheez set to Raagas Lalat and Malkauns.
Yielding to audience demand, he sang the Kanaka Dasa composition Toredu Jeevisisabahude’a Kannada Bhajan. He also sang Sa Re Gama Padanais Saptaswara, a devotional song by his Guru Sri Puttaraja Gawai, written in praise of his Guru Sri Panchakshari Gawai. Pandit Venkatesh Kumar ended the performance with the popular Purandara Dasa Bhajan Sharanu Sakaloddhara. He was accompanied by Shreedhar Mandre on tabla, Satish Bhat on harmonium. Earlier, young artists Pradyuma Karpur presented tabla and Sinchana Danageri a violin performance.
Banyan Tree Events had organised the festival ‘Swara – Music for Life’ at Hubballi for the first time this year. It was supported by Edelweiss Foundation.
“The music lovers of the region thank these two organisations as they have pledged to showcase the talent from Hubballi- Dharwad and surrounding areas,’’ Pandit Kumar said. He said that the best of Indian classical singers had performed in Hubballi Dharwad as Vidushi Gangubai Hangal had decided to settle here. “After her death, however, it is not easy to organise performances of national level artists here,” he added.
Mahesh Babu of Banyan Tree assured to provide a platform for budding talent from the region. We will take these talents to shows across India and outside, he said. Govind Joshi, founder of Kshamata cultural organisation, Rajendra Belgaonkar, governing council chairman of Gogte Institute of Technology and others were present.
