~KS Rao
The South Indian Cultural Association (SICA) conducted a memorial concert in memory of Dr. Radha Chakravarthy at Ravindra Bharathi recently. On the occasion, Dr. S Chakravarthy shared his memorable events with Dr. Radha. The Chief Guest, Dr. Dephne de Rebello IAS (Rtd), distinguished guests, M Gopalakrishna, Dr. Sujatha Rao, Kuchipudi exponent Deepika Reddy, Dr. Hema Raghvan and Srinath Chakravarthy participated in the meeting. The speakers shared their association and affection with Dr. Radha Chakravarthy.
After the glorious tributes, the memorial concert by Chennai-based renowned artist, Nisha Rajagopalan commenced. She was accompanied by VSP Gayatri Sivani on violin, Jayabhaskar Peravali on mrudangam and TPBS Balasubramanian on ghatam.
The evening’s concert began with Muthuswamy Dixitar krithi, ‘Vathapi Ganapathim’ set in Hamsadhwani raga and Adi tala followed by ‘Vande Vasudevam’, an Annamayya composition, in Sree raga in Khanda chapu tala. Next Nisha mesmerised the audience with Tyagaraja Krithi, ‘Venugana Loluni gana’ set to Kedaragowla and Rupakam tala and moved to Swathi Thirunal’s ‘Paramapurusham’ a Lalithapanchakam set to Jhampe. Next she took up Bhairavi alapana and presented Balagopala a Dixitar composition.
The main item in Bhairavi enthralled with nice follow-up by Shivani on violin and a beautiful Thani by Jayabhaskar on mrudangam and by T P Balasubramanyam on ghatam.
In the second part, she took ‘Chali nene’, a composition of Chinnayya in Faraju set to Adi tala and concluded with a Krishna Bhajan ‘Baro Krishnayya’ a Mond raga kruthi of Kanakadasa set to Adi tala. The proceedings were conducted by Dr. K V Ramana and Mahidhara Seetaram.