MADRAS MUSIC MELA 2002 |
RASIKANUBHAVA - 2 |
V Balakrishnan via email...
Starting with the Sriraga varnam "Sami ninne", she
continued with the Sahana kriti of Papanasam Sivan "Sri vatapi ganapatiye"
followed by a few rounds of kalpanaswaras. She has a strong, sweet and briga-laden
voice, which could be further moulded with rigorous practice. Quite
appropriately, she sang "Uzhiyil vazhum" (Hamsadhwani), a composition of
Ramana Maharshi. Following an alapana in Subhapantuvarali, "Ennallu urage"
of Tyagaraja was rendered. This raga has to be sung with a lot of bhava to
bring in the right atmosphere. Its beauty is best brought out when it is sung at a slow
pace; fast phrasings should be avoided. G N Balasubramaniam's "Neeyillaginil
yarenna" (Kanada) has soul-stirring sahitya. Charulata sang this with
precision, paying attention to the lyrics. The same mood was continued in
Gopalakrishna Bharati's Devagandhari piece, "Enneramum undan",
although there could have been a little more visranti in it.
Charulata then chose Dikshitar's sthala kriti on the deity of Tiruvannamalai, Lord Arunachaleswarar. "Arunachala natham smarami" (Saranga) wasindeed very appropriate for the occasion. The next was once again a composition of Ramana Maharshi in Todi (Tatparanan). However, one felt that the raga swaroopa of Todi could have been brought forth more strikingly in the alapana, by a gradual step by step development. GNB's "Srichakraraja nilaye" in the rare and difficult raga, Sivasakti, could be sung by musicians more often. Charulata's rendition of the same kindled rasikas' interest. Bhairavi is a raga that generally does not permit any hurry in its expression. Further the kriti "Balagopala" is best rendered in Chowka kala without unnecessary frills and brigas. This musical sense has always to be kept in view while rendering any raga or kriti. Some drawbacks were noticed in Charulata's exposition of this major raga. Bite only what you can chew, should be the guiding factor for upcoming musicians while attempting brigas. Finally, there is no substitute for rigorous practise, if somebody aspires to strike a mark. Lakshmi Venkataramani was good in Bhairavi. G S Krishna gave good overall support.
Dr. Sunder commenced his concert with a brisk varnam, "Mal marugan" in Hindolam. This was followed by "Ganapatiye" in
Mohanam. Sankara Iyer is the creator of the raga Vishnupriya. The kriti "Balasubramanyam" in this raga was very attractive. "Taye" in Lalita and "Saravanabhava" in
Sahana were rendered after brief alapanas. "Ezhiludai" in Hamsanadam was very
soothing. "Paripoorna chandra vadane" in Poornachandrika was a brisk affair
followed by "Muruga tirumal maruga" in Harikambhoji, an intensely devotional
kriti, very often sung by Dr. Sunder's guru, the late D K Jayaraman. It
is not perhaps very well known that "Manadirkuhandadu" (Sindhubhairavi) and "Mahadeva Siva Sambho"
(Revati) are Sankara Iyer's compositions. They were sung very feelingly
by Dr. Sunder. He concluded the concert with a Thillana in Kapi. Raga alapanas,
neravals and swaras were rendered at appropriate places by the vocalist. A
cassette containing the compositions of Sankara Iyer and sung by Dr.
Sunder, was also released on the occasion. Sankara Iyer, who was present was honoured. Kandadevi Vijayaraghavan on the violin performed well.
Trichur Narendran on the mridangam gave the required stimulus to
the concert.
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Posted on December 17, 2002 |