|
Vijay TV's Sangeetha Sangamam
 Vijay TV conducted a 'Sangeetha Sangamam', a festival of classical and devotional music at the Image Auditorium in Chennai on November 15 and 16, 2003, which turned out to be a real treat for music lovers.
The programmes would be telecast on Vijay TV from December 15 for a month (in the evenings) to coincide with the December music festival in Chennai. Vijay TV's programmes on classical music have always been looked forward to by rasikas during the annual music festival. This year too the programmes on the channel would be a delight for the
rasikas.
A feature of the programme was the presentation of classical and devotional music by noted playback singers from the film industry. However, the organisers would do well to pick a proper venue for such a major music festival.
 Singers like Vani Jairam and Hariharan were not happy with the reverb -- the feedback from the hall was disturbing the musicians performing on the stage. In fact, Vani Jairam's programme was delayed for more than half an hour as the reverb factor had to be overcome.
The highlight of the two-day festival was a performance of ghazals, thumris and devotional numbers in Tamil and Kannada by Hariharan. The auditorium was overflowing as Hariharan, endowed with a rich voice and a strong mooring in Hindustani music, rendered ghazals in his own inimitable style. The audience lapped every moment of the concert. 'Sutrum vizhi sudarthaan' and 'Krishna nee begane baaro' receiveda thunderous ovation from the essentially Tamilian audience.
H e was ably accompanied by Ustad Liaqat Ali Khan (sarangi), Pradeep Pandit (harmonium) and Rajiv Mahaveer (tabla) among others.
Earlier, Anoorada Sriram and Sriram Parasuram's Hindustani regaled the audience with a brilliant rendering of Hindustani and Carnatic songs.
 The emphasis on sruti was evident throughout the concert.
Unni Menon too did well, though he concentrated almost totally on songs on Aiyappa and Guruvayurappa, both in Malayalam and Tamil, especially those rendered by K J Jesudoss. He was accomanied by a key-board player and a pad, besides the traditional instruments.
V ani Jairam was at her brilliant best, picking compositions in various languages and rendering them perfectly, taking care to protect the lyrical beauty of the song in every language. The emphasis on identification with the God through the bhakti rasa was apparent in her concert.
Among others who performed were Sriram Parthasarathy, Sriram, Harini, Chinmayi and
Srivardhini.
The programmes were ably co-ordinated by Vijay TV producer
Mahendran.
|
