Flute: Vid. Herambha Vid. Hemantha
Mridanga: Vid. ArjunKumar
Khanjira: Vid GuruprasannaG
Morsing: Vid. BharadwajSathavalli
Song List:
01 valachi navarAgamAlika Adi paTNam subramaNya Iyer (O)
02 mAmava sadA janani kAnaDA rUpaka swAtitirunAL (O)
03 mAmava mAdhava nIlAmbari Adi nArAyaNa thIrtha
04 nagumOmu ganalEni abhEri Adhi tyAgarAja (A, N, S, T)
05 enna tavam saidanai kApi Adi pApanAsam sivan
06 Medley (Rahda sameta, Payoji Ram Ratan, Hari Sundara Nanda, AChyutam Keshavam, Om Jai Jagadisha Hare)
07 bArO krishNayya mAND Adhi kanaka dhAsa (A)
08 nI nAma rUpamulaku mangaLa sourAshtra Adi tyAgarAja
A Flute Evening at Sri Venugopala Krishnaswamy Temple
There is something particularly appropriate about listening to a flute concert in the precincts of a Krishna temple. The instrument itself seems to carry an association with the divine, and when the repertoire moves between compositions of devotion, melody and bhakti, the setting becomes part of the listening experience. Sri Venugopala Krishnaswamy Temple in Malleshwaram hosted a flute concert by Herambha Hemantha, accompanied by Arjun Kumar on mridangam, Guruprasanna G on kanjira and Bharadwaj Sathavalli on morsing.
The concert had an interesting repertoire, beginning with Patnam Subramania Aiyar's “Valaci Vacci”, the Navaragamalika varNa in Adi tala. It was a fitting opening—bright, energetic and capable of immediately establishing the melodic personality of the flute.
From there, the concert moved into Swati Tirunal's “Maamava Sada Janani” in Kaanada, set to Roopaka tala. Kaanada brought a different shade to the proceedings, and the movement from the opening ragamalika into this composition gave the concert an early contrast in melodic colour.
The next selection, “Madhava Mamava” in Nilambari, composed by Narayana Teertha, introduced yet another dimension. Nilambari has an unmistakable capacity for repose, and the choice of this composition in a flute concert allows the instrument's sustained and lingering tonal quality to come naturally to the fore. The repertoire was already beginning to reveal a thoughtful balance between compositions that invite rhythmic movement and those that allow melody to breathe.
This was followed by one of Tyagaraja's most familiar and deeply appealing compositions, “Nagumomu” in Abheri. Familiarity with a kriti such as this can sometimes work against it, because the listener comes with very definite expectations. On the flute duet, however, the composition has its own possibilities: the lyric is no longer articulated through words, and the melodic contours have to carry the emotional content. That makes the treatment of such a composition especially dependent on phrasing and expression.
The concert then moved to Papanasam Sivan's “Enna Tavam Seithanai” in Kapi, a composition that sits naturally within a devotional atmosphere. Kapi, with its expansive emotional vocabulary, is particularly well suited to the flute. Following Abheri, it also maintained the concert's predominantly lyrical character without making the sequence feel monotonous.
An interesting feature of the programme was the inclusion of “Radha Sametha Krishna”, attributed here to G. N. Balasubramaniam, followed by Meera's “Ram Ratan Dhan Payo.” These choices moved the concert further into the devotional space, while also widening its musical canvas beyond the strictly classical concert format. The latter part of the programme consequently felt less like a conventional succession of kritis and more like a gradual unfolding of devotional music.
The devotional sequence continued with “Hari Sundara,” “Achyutam Keshavam” and “Om Jai Jagadisha Hare.” These pieces brought an accessible and familiar dimension to the concert. After the more formally structured Carnatic repertoire, such songs can create a different kind of connection with the audience, where recognition itself becomes part of the musical experience.
Kanakadasa's “Baro Krishnayya” in Mand brought the programme back to a composition strongly associated with Kannada devotional tradition. Placed in a temple setting in Malleshwaram, the choice seemed particularly apt.
The final item in the logged repertoire was Tyagaraja's “Nee Nama Rupamulaku” in Saurashtram, in Adi tala—an appropriate conclusion to a programme that had travelled through several shades of melody and devotion.
What stands out from the repertoire is its variety without excessive dependence on the standard concert template. Rather than building the evening entirely around a large central ragam-tanam-pallavi, the programme appears to have chosen a more song-centred route, allowing the flute to inhabit several contrasting melodic worlds: Kaanada, Nilambari, Abheri, Kapi and Mand, alongside the ragamalika opening and the devotional selections.
The percussion team of Arjun Kumar, Guruprasanna G and Bharadwaj Sathavalli also gave the concert a distinctive rhythmic complement, with mridangam, kanjira and morsing forming the accompanying ensemble. The combination is capable of producing considerable textural variety while retaining the flute as the central melodic voice.
Ultimately, the appeal of an evening such as this lies not merely in ticking off a list of kritis, but in the way the repertoire creates an atmosphere. A temple, a flute, compositions invoking Krishna, Rama and the divine mother, and a concluding devotional offering together make for a concert experience that is as much about rasa and bhakti as it is about musical structure.
The choice of Sri Venugopala Krishnaswamy Temple as the venue therefore feels almost inseparable from the programme itself. The flute began with the energy of a ragamalika and travelled through the many colours of Carnatic melody before arriving at familiar devotional territory. It was, in that sense, less a concert built around a single grand musical statement and more an evening of melodic and devotional vignettes, each adding another shade to the overall experience.
A concert that leaves the listener with melodies lingering in the mind—and perhaps, in the surroundings of a Krishna temple, a little more bhakti in the heart—has accomplished something worthwhile.
