Concert Date: Saturday, May 19, 2012 Concert Venue: Divine Science Community Center, San Jose, CA Sabha: Sri Ranga Ramanuja Maha Desika Fine Arts (S R Fine Arts) Veena: Hrishikesh Chary Mridangam: Vignesh Venkataraman
Thank you very much for inviting me to be a guest of honor for the wonderful veena recital of young Shri Hrishikesh Chary on 19 May 2012 under the auspices of Srfinearts. I was amazed at his competence and artistry -- he has a very bright future in the world of music. Having learnt to play the veena from his father Shri Srikanth Chary and vocal music from Smt. Hema Sista, he did them both proud by giving a memorable concert before a large, discerning audience at the Divine Science Community Center, San Jose.
Beginning with Shri Lalgudi Jayaraman's varnam in Huseni, the compositions he chose to play for the concert revealed his unusual and out-of- the-box thinking. The first raga alapana was Todi - (Ninuvina sukhamugana - Tyagaraja) -- in all its grandeur, followed by Kannada (Shrimatrubhutam -- Dikshitar) with its unique phrases explored beautifully. The main raga vinyasa was Kedaragowla (Saraguna palimpa --Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar) and it was a delight to listen to his bhava filled approach to this difficult raga dealt with the ease of a veteran. The neraval and kalpana swaras for all the songs as well as the elaborate Ragam Tanam Pallavi in Simhendramadhyamam with ragamalika swaraprastara established his credentials forcefully. The Ambujam Krishna piece in Kaanada, the bhajan and the tillana were impeccably rendered.
Shri Vignesh Venkataraman, disciple of Shri Umayalpuram Sivaraman, gave excellent support on the mridangam and proved himself worthy of his guru. His dexterous and skillful playing contributed in great measure to the success of the recital.
Indeed it was a concert to cherish! My congratulations to the young artistes. And best wishes to you and Srfinearts to organise many more such programmes to spread the awareness of music,