All grace and melody
G. SWAMINATHAN
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In the quiet ambience of Dakshinamurthy Auditorium, Padmavathy Ananthagopalan presented meditative music.
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DEVOID OF GIMMICKS: Padmavathy Ananthagopalan.
Can age wither the quality of an artist? Not really. Listening to Padmavathy Ananthagopalan's veena, one in fact thought age added grace to art. Veteran Padmavathy's veena recital for Nadopasana relaxed minds stressed by the pace of modern life style.
Instrumentalists, generally, choose to impress by producing sounds that the vocal chords cannot. Padmavathy, however, prefers to capture soft nuances that cannot be brought about by the voice. With the result, the concert turned out to be a genuine exercise on meditative music in the quiet ambience of Dakshinamurthy Auditorium of P.S. Higher Secondary School at Mylapore. It is indeed a perfect place, lcoated far from the madding crowd, to refresh oneself with the elixir of music.
Typical Lalgudi patanthara
Having absorbed the best qualities of the `gayaki' style of playing from the veena maestro S. Balachander Padmavathy has burnished it with the typical Lalgudi patanthara. The pluck and pull of the strings decide on the calibre of the composition played on the veena. Padmavathy rendered the kritis on the veena reflecting the same reverence a vocalist would have shown. While the opening ``Vallaba nayakasya" in Begada by Dikshitar whetted the appetite gently, the solemnity of Dharmavati alapana touched the hearts with ``Parandamavati yuvati," her favourite raga as well as composition.
The stately Sankarabharanam was the centre-piece and the alapana was replete with smooth layers of phrases in the lower and middle registers especially chosen and picked with care. The precise tanam and the majestic ``Enduku beddala" of Tyagaraja mesmerised the connoisseur by their sheer traditional style and values.
At no point of time did the performer exhibit an inclination to entice the listener through extravagance. The sangatis were ornate without being ostentatious; the swaras spartan but elegant. The rendition of each kriti was uncomplicated but soulful.
The other significant numbers included ``Durusuga" in Saveri (Syama Sastri), ``Palukavademira" in Devamanohari (Vasudevachar) and ``Srinarada" in Kanada (Tyagaraja). The post tani avartanam had the usual quota of bhajan, tillana and a verse from Tiruppugazh.
Neyveli Narayanan's soft play on the mridangam was yet another graceful aspect of this mild and mellow music session.
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