When the twain met
JITENDRA PRATAP
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Combining Hindustani and Carnatic streams, violinist M. Narmadha delighted with the contours in her variations.
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A WINNING COMBINATION M. Narmadha displays equal skill in the Hindustani and Carnatic genres.
The good old adage `chip off the old block' applies aptly to the noted violinist, M. Narmadha, daughter and pupil of the noted violin maestro, M.S. Gopala Krishnen, known for his masterly handling in the Carnatic as well as the Hindustani systems of music.
Narmadha studied Hindustani classical music under sitar maestro Pandit Debabrata Choudhury and the late Agra gharana maestro Dr. K.G. Ginde. Like her illustrious father, Narbadha also performs both Carnatic and Hindustani music with equal facility and mastery.
Narmadha received her doctorate from Delhi University in Indian Classical Music for her thesis on A Comparative Study of Selected Study of Hindustani and Carnatic Ragas.
She has further enriched her scholarship by regularly contributing articles on Indian music.
Honoured with numerous awards, she has performed widely in India and abroad.
The choice of the serene raga Puriya for commencing her recital was indeed challenging, and she did prove her mettle by giving it a befitting handling without giving it the slightest tinge of the other two ragas, Marwa and Sohini belonging to the same mode with exactly the same set of notes.
After a brief and succulent alap, she rendered the well-known composition "Phoolam Ke Harawaa" set to the 12-beat slow ek tal with many a reposeful melodic sequence.
Scented with variations
One liked the manner in which she unfolded the Puriya raga's several contours with reposefully inserted variations, followed by neatly released fast passages and some bold gamakas to create an architectonic edifice of the raga.
The mid and fast rendering of the teental composition, too, was redolent with refreshingly executed variations.
The next rendering in raga Jog, with a seven-beat rupak tal composition, followed by yet another in teen tal delighted for many a soothing strain, which the artiste embellished with charming effects.
The tunefully rendered bhajan in raga Bhairavi, composed by the Musician King of Travancore, Swathi Thirunal, though meant to be the finale to her recital of the evening, had to be followed by yet another super-fast composition in the same raga.
The latter had the form of a tarana and was rendered on persistent audience request.
Both the Bhairavi pieces revealed her superb command over her instrument, besides her well-developed aesthetic insight.
Kudos to Akhtar Hussain for accompanying Narmadha with understanding, and for his steadily maintained rhythm and tempo - besides his few, but charmingly, executed solo variations.
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Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
