Rare nagaswaram gems
V. BALASUBRAMANIAN
|
A CD on T.V.Sivasubramania Pillai’s nagaswaram recitals was released recently.
|
A collector’s item.
The 80th birth anniversary of late Tirucherai T.V.S.Sivasubramania Pillai was celebrated recently under the auspices of Sri Ragam Fine Arts, Chennai. A CD of his various nagaswaram recitals was also released on the occasion. Tirucherai T.V.S.Sivasu
bramania Pillai had his initiation in nagaswaram at a very early age from his father T.V.Subbaraya Pillai. Groomed well in the basics, he went to his maternal grand father Tiruveezhimizhalai S. Natarajasundram Pillai for further training. Also he learnt vocal music from Tiruppambaram T.N.Swaminatha Pillai.
Once confident of his competence, T.V.Subbaraya Pillai made T.V.Sivasubramania Pillai accompany him in concerts. Later, he began to give performances with Pudukottai Muthuveeruswamy and Nagai Vellipalayam K.A.Govindarajan. He continued playing till his last breath in 1994 with son T.S.Bhaskaran, who is carrying on the mantle.
Sivasubramania Pillai has won several awards, notable among them being ‘Nadhaswara Selvam’ from Muthamizh Peravai. Thanks to the strong foundation laid by his gurus, TVS learnt the importance of sahithyam based rendering and always laid great stress on it. He was equally adept at raga alapanas, swaraprastharas and pallavis and adroit at presenting the compositions of the Trinity and Tamil composers which is evident from the audio CD (Rs. 99) released by Apporva Audios, Chennai-28. The CD commences with a crisp alapana of Suryakantham (‘Muddu Momu’-Adi-Tyagaraja). The rich classicism this CD is to offer, becomes evident, even before the end of the first item. The Panthuvarali alapana that begins from the upper shadjam, oozes with rich colours. The swaras for Tyagaraja’s ‘Raghuvara’ (Adi) are simply breath-taking. A brilliant Thodi precedes Tyagaraja’s ‘Munnu Ravana,’ as pristine as a mountain stream.
The highlight of the collection is a well-etched Bhairavi. A rare composition of M.M.Dhandapani Desigar in Kedaram is also included this pack apart from Magudi. ‘Chinnanchirukilye Kannama,’ a ragamalika tuned beautifully by yesteryear music director, C.R.Subbaraman, is the penultimate piece followed by Tiruppugazh.
A must in the collection of musicians and connoisseurs.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
