On a roller-coaster ride
SVK
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Force rather than aesthetics seemed to be the concern of O. S. Thiagarajan, who sang for Parthasarathy Swamy Sabha.
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In today's music concerts, the main focus of an artiste is on external impressiveness in preference to internal exquisiteness. So much so the lyrical approach is kept at arm's length and only straight lines are chosen, a pursuit of fleeting pleasures. A tame texture to songs, lack of a feeling for their emotional content and an inclination to introduce sangatis, mostly unwarranted, are blatantly exploited.
An impetuous, roller-coaster performing technique played a central role in the kutcheri of O.S.Thiagarajan under the joint auspices of Sri Parthasarathy Swamy Sabha and Saraswati Vaggeyakara Trust in the special Tamil Isai festival. He chose items from different composers.
The main raga effort was to present Kalyani ("Kanden Kali Theerthen" of Gopalakrishna Bharati) and Begada. The early movements were in the nature of a search for the characteristic charms of the ragas, but gradually descended to a breezy routine, symmetrically spaced sancharas supplanting the nuances. Concert vichara has to be closely interwoven with sensitive sangita vichara too.
The concert began with the two familiar kirtanas - "Tatvamariya Tarama," (Ritigowla) of Papanasam Sivan and ``Thaye Tripura Sundari," (Suddha Saveri) of Periaswami Thooran, mainly chosen for the aggressiveness of the chittaswaram. From the Trinity was the Gowripantu song of Syama Sastri, "Tarunam Eedamma." Koteeswara Iyer was represented by the item, "Antaranga Bhakti" in Shadvidha margini. Thiagarajan's aim in rendering the kirtanas seemed to be to present them with forcefulness least concerned their emotive and aesthetic undercurrent.
In his solo versions, M. R. Gopinath (violinist) delineated tidily the cohesive design of the structures of Kalyani and Begada. The sancharas were framed with fragrant swaroopa of the ragas reflecting his sensitive perception of the core of their beauty.
The mridangist R. Ramesh vigorously supported the song session keeping in step with the vocalist's drive. His percussive pattern was absorbing. At the end of the concert the impression was a bunch of Tamil compositions rendered by an experienced vidwan.
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