The magic of team spirit
VENKATESAN SRIKANTH
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Sree Shanmukhananda Sangeetha Sabha's music festival in Delhi provided a great listening opportunity.
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It was a concert driven by team spirit. All the artistes not only participated enthusiastically, but also had a good understanding amongst each other. The outcome of such a concert is sure to win the hearts of the rasikas. That's exactly what happened during one of the concerts in the Thyagaraja Music and Dance Festival organised recently by Sree Shanmukhananda Sangeetha Sabha.
S. Sowmya, enjoying an excellent rapport with the accompanists, was in the driver's seat, steering every phase of her three-hour concert, starting with the Bhairavi raga Ata tala varnam "Viriboni" and ending with the tillana in the raga Ravichandrika, to a delightful experience.
Sowmya began her concert with the varnam in two speeds. Tyagaraja's "Brocheva revare", in the raga Sriranjani, was marked with emotive portrayal of the sahitya and crisp swaraprastaras. Dikshitar's "Kamakshi Sri Varalakshmi" in the raga Bilahari, which followed, was marked with an excellent alap of this raga and swaraprastara rich in creativity.
While presenting Papanasam Sivan's, "Chittam irangaden", in the raga Sahana, Sowmya could bring the emotional contents of both the raga and the sahitya to the fore.
Soon after presenting a rare composition of Shyama Sastri, "Parvathi ninnu" in the raga Kalkada (a janya raga of the 13th melakarta, Gayakapriya), Sowmya paused a bit to explain some theoretical contents about this raga, which were just in the right quantity - not less not more. Dikshitar's slow tempo "Kshetijha ramanam", in the raga Devagandhari, also underwent fine treatment.
In the ragam-thanam-pallavi section, she presented the pallavi "Shanmuga Muruga Guha Valli Deivanai Manala", in the raga Shanmukhapriya, set to Adi tala. Her delineation of the raga was comprehensive, presentation of the taanam melodic and ragamalika swaraprastaras in the ragas Valaji, Revathy, Amritavarshini and Suruti, lively. Sowmya was accompanied by Raghavendra Rao on the violin, who displayed a good degree of his manodharma talents while delineating the ragas Bilahari, Sahana and Shanmukhapriya, and while handling the taanam and swaraprastaras. J. Vaidhyanathan's mridangam support and R. Raman's morshankh support were a treat to the rasikas. They also excelled in the tani avartanam, which was in the tala Adi.
Impressive
In another concert, Gayatri Venkatraghavan put up an impressive show with a spirited performance. After a crisp Adi tala varnam in the raga Nattai, Gayatri presented Tyagaraja's "Tulasi dala" in Mayamalawagowla, in which the niraval of the phrase in the charanam, "Sarasiruha punnaga champaka patala kuravaka karaveera mallika" and swaraprastara she handled, were rich in creativity. Shyama Sastri's "Mariveregathi", in the raga Ananda Bhairavi was handled excellently with adequate maturity. Though the alapana of the raga was brief, Gayatri's expression was good. Portrayal of the sahitya contents and the swaraprastara towards the end were also good. Similarly, Tyagaraja's "Natachi natachi" in Kharaharapriya also underwent fine treatment, though she seemed to be racing against time with a hurried swaraprastara. A little more planning could have helped her in avoiding this hurry, even if that meant dropping one or two songs. The same team of accompanying artistes provided support to Gayatri in this concert too.
One noteworthy feature of this festival was that without any exception, all the artistes who performed in the main slots made it a point to present a ragam-taanam-pallavi during their concerts (whether on the insistence of the organisers or on their own, one does not know). This was not only a rewarding experience for the connoisseurs, but also closely resembled Chennai's famous `December music season' scene.
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