Unfolds in new dimensions
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With slow soft steps Savitha Narasimhan built up an enchanting Kalyani.
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PHOTO: K. N. MURALIDHARAN
CHASTE RECITAL: Savitha Narasimhan.
What ensures the satisfactory success of a concert? Certainly, the musician's choice of the songs. Some rasikas facilely comment that artistes sing over and over again a set of few songs. Are they more competent than the vidwans themselves to examine minutely which kirtanas give life to a performance?
The veterans of an earlier generation sang about twenty to thirty select items. Why? They knew their inherent value towards enhancing the level of their effort. They chose them because they were not only inspirational but posed a challenge to their expositional depth. To a sensitive ear, every time they sang a kirtana there would be some new arresting nuances even as every time the Ramayana is read new revelations can be discerned.
Today, perhaps at the instigation of music organisers, new compositions are aired, mostly fit to find a place in the thukkada parts, but conferred the status of ``Chakkani Margamu" or "Koluva Maregada."
Stamp of smoothness
In this respect, the selection of kirtanas by Savitha Narasimhan in her recital for the Fifty-Fifty Club deserves compliments. Her voice, not strong in timbre, but thin and soothingly soft, set a stamp of smoothness on the expression of her musical sentiments. "Yagna Dulu Sukamanuvaariki" (Jayamanohari) was an appetiser to the Asaveri kirtana, "Ra Ra Maa Intidaaga."
The gentleness of Asaveri and the endearing terms "Raghuvira" "Sukumaara" and "Dasaratha Kumara" with which Sri Tyagaraja invites Sri Rama to his house, were juicily reflected in her interpretation, not only charming but equally meritorious.
The melodic modulation transformed the kirtana into a glowing edifice of expression.
There was a fine feeling of relaxation when she took up the Pantuvarali alapana followed by the song, "Appa Ramabhakti."
The raga alapana turf was well mowed with care and creativity. The response of the violinist, Usha Rajagopal, was equally attractive. The kirtana was sung undefiled.
The main thrust of the performance was Kalyani ("Etaavunara.") With slow, soft steps she measured the alapana stage by stage inspiring the violinist to do likewise. Both scanned the raga with an eye on rakti sancharas. In rendering the kirtana Savitha gave primacy to pataantara suddha.
The mridangam accompaniment by Venkatasubramanian was both vigorous and relevant. The mike arrangement and amplification played an inhibitive role by interfering with the free flow of music of the vocalist and the violinist.
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