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The right notes

The vocal concert of Mahalakshmi arranged by Kalasagaram last week was yet another instance of the available talent in the field of Carnatic music. Thyagaraju accompanied her on the violin. Mahalakshmi has rich voice and controlled voice. Every artiste improves with experience and exposure and Mahalakshmi too needs that in plenty. Her choice of items was imaginative including popular ragas like Natakuranji, Sowrashtra , Ataana, Kalanidhi, Anandabhairavi,Pantuvarali, etc. but the sequence was not judicious. For instance, Atana following Sowrashtra and the place of P antuvarali did not bring out the contrast between ragas. The absence of anthara gandhra in the first few items was strikingly evident and the omission of misra chaapu did not depict the wholesomeness of the format.

Besides, the entire concert was confined to the higher octaves, as always happens with lady artistes and the design lacked the balance of the concert as a whole. She apparently lacks sufficient experience in the design and execution of the manodharma , which as in many cases can be achieved only by constant practice and application of innovative ideas. Nevertheless what she executed in these aspects was reasonably good. The other aspect she should cautiously guard against is the maintenance of kalapramanam. In almost every item where she did the exercise of swarakalapana, the pramana began to race up in the madhyamakala part of the exercise and virtually lost control. It is not only the cautiousness of the vocalist but equally so with the team as a whole. Otherwise the items were well set to the rhythmic configuration. The scholarship of the artiste was evident in her rendering of the item Thyagaraja yoga vaibhavam in Ananda bhairavi, projecting the alankaras (figures of speech) like gopuchcha and srothovaha. The concert was also marred by inadequate sound system. These failures are normally due to frequent change of gurus, as a result, there is clash of styles and what is left over is more of confusion than of any intrinsic value.

Peri Thyagaraju though young has good experience of accompanying senior artistes and has in turn made good use of that experience in playing the violin. Vidyasagar on the mridangam needs good exposure and must development in playing the instrument not only for the laya but must follow the different nadais embedded in the kritis.

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