The choice of the International Music & Arts Society to carry out a commemorative quantity to have fun its 40th 12 months resulted in a beautiful guide, a useful document of Bengaluru’s cultural exercise.
The concept of beginning a cultural society was prompt in 1974 by the erstwhile Maharaja of Mysore Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar to his sister Rani Vijaya Devi of Kotda Sangani, who had settled in Bangalore.
Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar, the Maharaja of Mysore, was a famous scholar of Sanskrit, a connoisseur and practitioner of each Carnatic and Western classical music.
| Photo Credit:
The Hindu Archives
A fortuitous naissance certainly, because the Mysore royal household was recognized for its wealthy cultural heritage. An distinctive polymath, Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar was a famous scholar of Sanskrit, a connoisseur and practitioner of each Carnatic and Western classical music. Mysore’s patronage additionally prolonged to visible arts [many of Ravi Varma’s oil paintings were commissioned by Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV].
The household needed to share this vital legacy with folks, thereby persevering with from court docket to courtyard, a practice of royal patronage that enabled artistes to thrive and share their abilities with the general public, although IMAS has been cautious in sustaining its excessive aesthetic requirements whereas collaborating in a wholesome democratisation of the humanities. The quantity is, by the way, additionally a document of how patronage of the humanities has shifted from royalty to corporates.
Chaired by Vijaya Devi, an IMAS committee was shaped with a devoted band of associates, who shared her views on selling music and the humanities. Accompanying her diplomat-husband, Thakur Sahib of Kotda Sangani, she had developed a beautiful community of Indian in addition to worldwide associates, exponents and specialists in tradition [from Rachmaninoff and Menuhin to Constance Keene; from Vilayat Khan and Russian yoga adept Indira Devi to George Mitchell].
Rani Vijaya Devi greeting M.F. Husain at his exhibition for IMAS within the 1970s. Former Karnataka Chief Minister S.M. Krishna seems on.
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Special Arrangement
The opening essay is appropriately by Vijaya Devi on rising up in Mysore, these early years when the varied strands of tradition have been woven indelibly into her life.
Thereafter, the guide is split into handy sections, coping with the society’s historical past and a few of its main programmes [editors Prateeti Ballal, Indira Brunner and Urmila Devi had the unenviable task of having to choose 130 events from 368]. Music starting from Indian [Carnatic: M. Balamuralikrishna, L. Subramaniam, Prince Rama Varma; Hindustani: Pandit Jasraj, Vilayat Khan, jugalbandhi between Zakir Hussain and Mandolin U. Srinivas] to Western [classical solo performers, chamber concerts and full orchestras, as well as jazz groups]. Dance contains Indian [Sonal Mansingh, Mallika Sarabhai, Sanjukta Panigrahi, Madhavi Mudgal], and Western [Brigham Young University’s Contemporary Dance Theatre, Russian folk dances]. Visual artists vary from M F Hussain and Ok Ok Hebbar to Balan Nambiar.
A number of occasions notably linger in reminiscence. In 1982, Rostropovich’s cello’s sheer acoustic magnificence touched one deeply. Even in an unsuitable bleak cavernous corridor, he managed to convey his humanity and sensitivity to the human situation.
In 2000 IMAS celebrated its Silver Jubilee with L Subramaniam’s violin live performance, unforgettable for his hour-long sensible rendition of the favored Dikshitar music, ‘Vatapi Ganapatim’.
This part is adopted by essays on the humanities, and pleasant private snippets by Urmila Devi [Vijaya Devi’s daughter ], Ila Chandrasekhar [founder-member and later chairperson] and different founder members. The guide’s articles are accompanied by fantastic images.
IMAS’ inaugural occasion was a dance recital by Vyjayanthimala Bali [whose mother had performed in the Mysore court]. Still in her prime in 1975, her dancing was splendid, her magnificence enhanced by the actual jewelry she insisted on sporting.
Vyjayantimala Bali’s dancing along with her personal actual jewelry on the inaugural occasion.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Medtner-Mysore connection
Canadian pianist Paul Stewart performing for IMAS 35th anniversary on the Durbar Hall in Bangalore palace. He performed Nicolai Medtner’s compositions as a tribute to the late Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar of Mysore in 2010.
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Special Arrangement
Pianist Paul Stewart shaped a detailed private reference to IMAS, having performed a Medtner piece in an early look. His essay, ‘An Indian Fairy Tale’, paperwork Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar’s patronage and beneficiant promotion of this uncared for Russian composer of whom few had beforehand heard. His live performance in 2010, to have fun the Society’s 35th anniversary, was held on the Bangalore Palace, underlining the Medtner-Mysore connection.
Vijaya Devi’s rare performances made them particular, her solo appearances rarer than her duo concert events. With her diffident self-effacing nature, she felt extra snug sharing the limelight along with her buddy, Annarosa Taddei, maybe reminiscent of her childhood performances along with her cousins on the a number of magnificent palace pianos.
The Essay part alone would make this guide value buying, containing insights on the Arts by specialists: Malavika Sarukkai’s ‘Tradition and Change in Bharatanatyam’; George Mitchell, well-known for his explorations of Hampi, gave slide lectures for IMAS as early as 1996. His ‘From Vijayanagar to Mysore: Palace Architecture of Southern India’ is a precious contribution, as are Prateeti Ballal’s observations on Chamber Music, and Meera Pranesh who paperwork ‘The Mysore Wodeyars as Patrons of Music’.
Such a overview can not start to do justice to the amount’s riches. Only the readers’ private perusal of it may well achieve this.
