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| Thyagaraja aradhana in Hyderabad By Dr. A. Ramayya Mulukutla / Hyderabad |   | |||
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| In January 2004, the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad enjoyed a feast of Carnatic music, which rasikas have not had during the years past. Several of the lesser known cultural organizations of the twin cities organised programs on the occasion of the 157th anniversary of Saint Thyagaraja, the great saint-composer.
Most of these organizations brought top notch artists from Andhra and Tamilnadu for the event The notable of these functions are listed here. The Andhra Music Academy, under the guidance of Satguru Sivananda Murty, arranged concerts by Hyderabad Sisters - Lalitha and Haripriya, Nedunuri Krishnamurthy, Malladi Brothers Sriramaprasad and Ravikumar, Malini Rajurkar the noted Hindusthani classical ,musician and a grand finale of a violin duet by Padmabhushan M.S.Gopalakrishnan and his daughter Dr. Narmada. On the last day, M.S.Gopalakrishanan, Mahamahopadhyaya Nookla China Satyanarayana and Bharata Kala Prapurna Nataraja Ramakrishna were honoured. Padmavibhushan M. Balamuralikrisha, the Cultural Advisor to the Government of A. P,. presented these artists with the 'Sanmana Pathras' and gold medallions.
Sri Chandrasekhara Sangeeta Educational Society did a great service in arranging concerts by Sangeeta Kalanidhi T. V. Sankaranarayana, Hyderabad Brothers Seshachari and Raghavachari, Neyveli Santhanagopalan and several other unrecognized artists. T. V. Sankaranarayanan and C. V. Kittappa, a well known retired lecturer of the Government Music College, were felicitated at a special function.
Vijnana Samithi of Ananda Nagar had a violin concert featuring a ' members of the Peri family ' that is, Peri Subbarao the father, Sriramamurthy the son, and Thyagaraju, the grandson. Emani Kalyani (daughter of noted vainik late Emani Sankara Sastry) on veena, and K. V. Ramanujam of Chennai on flute were some of the notable performers. Thyagaraya Gana Sabha of Chickadapally honoured several gurus and artists. Their program included kutcheris by Malladi Shanta (veena), Dr. S. K. Venkatachari and Dr. K. Muralikrishna. The highlight of their series was a dance drama on 'Ramayan'a by the well known dance exponent Dr. Sobha Naidu and her disciples with Thyagaraja's 'Jagadanandakaraka' as the theme.
Many musicians, amateur and professional, sang and played on instruments the several compositions of Thyagaraja. The efforts of Radha Rangarajan (daughter of former Governor of Andhra Pradesh) and of K. Kameswari were commendable in this respect. At Radha Rangarangarajan's house, Geetha Ganesan presented a Bharatha Natyam item based on the kriti 'Nagumomu Ganaleni'. A novelty of this year celebrations is that rasikas were treated to lec-dems in Carnatic music by stalwarts like Nookala Chinna Satyanarayana and noted critic B. R. C. Iyengar. Certainly, this was one of the most enjoyable season for rasikas in Hyderabad and Secunderabad. |
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Sharada Bhakta Mandali, run by an all women's team headed by Sharada Krishnan organized concerts by T.M. Krishna, O.S.Thyagarajan, Sankari Krishnan, Amrutha Murali, D.V. Mohana Krishna, Jayaprada Ramamurthy (on flute) and Malladi Brothers.
Several informal organizations, also organized 'goshti ganams' of the Pancharatna keerthanas of the saint, at their homes.