Thyagaraja Swamy remembered 

Vijayawada Music Academy has started a five-day music festival in memory of Saint Thyagaraja Swamy from Wednesday January 4, at Sri Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao Government Music and Dance college.

The chief guest of the meeting LV Subrahmanyam, IAS, Special Chief Secretary, Sports and Youth Advancement, Government of Andhra Pradesh said that music is divine and it gives immense pleasure even for the common man. He opined that students of the music college will gain more knowledge by engaging themselves in such festivals by observing the skills of eminent musicians.

Dr Bhusurapalli Venkateswarlu spoke on Thyagaraja swamy and his writings. He said that Thyagarajaswamy is a great saint who always rendered ‘Rama namam’ without expecting any returns. He wrote many divine keerthans and gave to this music world. Dr MC Das, Annavarapu Ramaswamy, Turlapati Kutumbarao, Manepalli Lakshmi Kumari were on the dais. Dr PA Raman presided over the meeting.

The festival was inaugurated with a vocal concert by Manda Sudharani of Visakhapatnam. She commenced her concert with ‘Sobhillu Saptaswara’ in Jaganmohini ragam and received applause from the audience. She continued with other Thyagaraja kritis like ‘Dandamu pettemura’, ‘Kaligi unte kada’ in Keeravani ragam, ‘Matadava veminato’ in Neelambari ragam. The concert was ably supported by BV Durgabhavani on violin and K Sadgurucharan on mridangam.

Aknodi Srinivasarajarao mesmerised the gathering with great manodharmam in his concert. He started the concert in Todi ragam ‘Brindavana’, ‘Rama neve elanu’ in Narayani ragam and ‘Paramatmuni Velege’ in Ragadheswari ragam. Ch Sanyasirao on violin and BVS Prasad on mridangam supported the vocal concert.

Malladi Karthika Triveni captured the attention of spectators with her excellent modulated smooth traditional voice. She rendered the keerthanas “Atuga karaadani balka” in Manoranjani ragam, “Divam sukhama” in Reetigowla ragam, ‘Gwanamosaga rada’ in Purvikalyani ragam and Kamalaptukula’ in Brindavan ragam. Excellent support was given by BV Durga Bhavani on violin and Parupalli Subbaraya Phalgun on mridangam.

The flute concert of K Uma Venkateswarlu of Hyderabad was received with a huge round of applause from the audience. He played flute for the compositions “Sarasa Samagana beda’ in Kapinarayani, ‘Enduku daya radu Ramayya’ in Todi ragam. Splendid support was rendered by Ch Sanyasirao on violin and Parupalli Balasubramanyam on mridangam and M Haribabu on Ghatam. Seeram Subrahmanyam, N Ch B Acharya, M Vijayakumar conducted the programmes.