N. Ramsundar performing at the annual music festival of Tamil Isai Sangam in Madurai.
| Photo Credit: R. ASHOK
The sixth day of the Tamil Isai Vizha at Tamil Isai Sangam’s 46th anniversary started off with the vocal concert of N. Ritkeshwar, who was accompanied by Arockiya Manoj Raj on Violin, T. R. Sooraj on the Mridangam and R. Harikrishnan on the moharsing.
Ritkeshwar began with a Kalyani varnam. Then he went on to sing Papanasam Sivan’s ‘kapali irukka vin’ in Saveri on the presiding deity Kapaleeswarar of Mylapore and Muthuswamye Dikshitar’s composition on the presiding goddess of Madurai ‘minaksi me mudam’ in gamakakriya. Both were rendered effortlessly in quick succession.
The main raga of the evening ‘kharaharapriya appan avataritta kadam’ on Lord Ayyappa, the raga Alapana and violinist presented an enjoyable variations and won a round of applause from the rasikas.
Earlier in the evening Natyakalasagara Mohul Mukherjee presented a LECDEMO, on the nuances of Bharathanatyam, to the students of Rani Lady Meyyammai Achi music school, under the guidance of Mallika, principal of the school.
N. Ramsundar’s violin concert took the prime time of the day with percussion support from D. Srinivasa Rao on tabla and Premkumar on the moharsingh. He started off with an invocation on Lord Ganapathi in Gambeera Nattai kriti ‘nana vinayakane’ by Sharavanabhavananda. ‘Raghuvamsha sudhambudhi’ in Katanakutoohalam by Patnam Subramanya Aiyyar was his next selection.
The violinist’s next song by H.N. Muthiah Bhagavatar’s ‘VallI nayaka nIve’ in Shanmugapriya, had a pleasing effect as he played strains of popular ‘Varuvandi tharuvandi’, ‘Jagado dharan’, ‘Thedugindranadi Thillayile’, ‘Tirupati malaivazhum’, in the same song.
The Tabla artist Srinivasa Rao and Premkumar on the moharsing modulated their pace and volume to the style adopted by the violinist, who proved the mastery of the instrument throughout the concert.
