Rooted in tradition, groomed to shine
NEAT PRESENTATION Vechoor C. Shankar
It was a concert that demonstrated not only his dexterity in the field of music but also his commitment to the traditional musical values. Vechoor C. Sankar's concert, bereft of musical adventurism and gimmicks, under the aegis of Gayathri Fine Arts recently, enlivened the hearts of rasikas.
Sankar began his concert with a neat presentation of the Adi tala varnam "Chalamela jese", in the raga Nattakurunji, though only in one speed.
His brief alap and crisp swaraprastara while presenting Dikshitar's "Maha Ganapatim", in the raga Nattai, were not only appealing, but also indicative of his manodharma talents in the very beginning.
Swati Tirunal's "Paramapurusha Jagadeesha" in the raga Vasanta was presented aesthetically. Similarly, Tyagaraja's "Pakkala Nilabadi" in the raga Kharaharapriya was handled brilliantly, giving utmost care to the sahitya contents of the kriti. Earlier, he presented a fine alap of this raga.
Niraval and swara patterns
Niraval of the phrase "Manasuna talachi mymarachi unnara" from the charanam portion of the kriti and the subsequent swaraprastara were creatively handled.
Sankar then presented Dikshitar's slow-paced composition "Akhilandeswari" in the raga Dwijavanti, bringing the raga as well as the sahitya bhava of this kriti to the fore.
The main item of Sankar's recital was yet another Swati Tirunal composition, "Sarasaksa" in the raga Pantuvarali, which was marked by a fine alap and a swaraprastara rich in creativity. The only disappointment was, Sankar did not take up a phrase for elaboration as niraval.
This was perhaps due to a chit that was handed over to him by the organiser, possibly indicating to him to conclude his recital soon.
VSK Chakrapani on the violin, Kumbakonam N. Padmanabhan on the mridangam and R. Ramamurthy on the ghatam ably assisted Sankar, enhancing the overall outcome of the recital. While Chakrapani presented some outstanding phrases while delineating the ragas Kharaharapriya and Pantuvarali, Padmanabhan and Ramamurthy's understanding support and tani avartanam in the Adi tala were enjoyable.
Sankar has taken taken advanced training in Carnatic music from Vaikom Rajammal, Professor Vechoor N. Harihara Subramanian, P.R. Kumara Kerala Varma and Palai C.K. Ramachandran.
Sankar is also the grandson of the late Neelakanta Iyer, who had composed a large number of Ayyappa songs, and a nephew of Professor Vechoor N. Harihara Subramanian.
Youngsters to the fore
Despite his busy concert schedule in the Capital and outside, Kumbakonam N. Padmanabhan has also been training young students in his field. A few of them have already started performing.
It was therefore, a heart-warming experience to see yet another of Padmanabhan's young disciples, T.S. Shriram, providing mridangam support for C. Mahalakshmi in her two-hour recital, this past weekend at the Triveni Chamber Theatre. VSK Chakrapani provided violin support.
Though the event was termed as a "mridangam arangetram", one could surmise from the write-up in the invitation card that Shriram has been performing for quite some time.
Extracts of press coverage of his performances had also been published.
Shriram was enterprising throughout, without losing concentration even for a minute. One could see his sharpness in closely following the main artiste. He also had considerable laya control in the tani avartanam (percussion solo), in which Palaghat N.K. Sriram (yet another student groomed by Padmanabhan) played the kanjira and Mannai N. Kannan the ghatam. Shriram should, however, be a little softer in his beats and put in more effort to understand the kritis so that his mridangam accompaniment can integrate well with the kritis that are being rendered.
Another noteworthy feature of this recital was that all the participating artistes wholeheartedly encouraged this young lad in making the recital a memorable one, not only for him, but also his guru Padmanabhan, his parents and the rasikas.
VENKATESAN SRIKANTH
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