Connoisseur’s delight — makes an indelible impression
S. SIVAKUMAR
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The concert of S. Sowmya was full of nuances, both in terms of sahitya and raga.
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Genius: Sowmya
Sowmya always applies herself completely to the task while making her presentations and her flight of genius really knows no bounds. Her scholarly handling of Vagadeeswari at Krishna Gana Sabha that featured an RTP in this raga went to prove this point.
She must have made a mental appraisal of this raga gathering its essential structure and fundamental characteristics with Tyagaraja’s ‘Paramathmudu,’ as her reference point.
The song itself opens with the vivadi prayoga, “embedded in its very grain,” and this has been the practice followed by the saint while handling kritis in vivadi ragas.
Panoramic view
Sowmya’s alapana and the thanam gave a panoramic view of this raga relying on her gift of self-expression, always pitching around the vivadi element, to unerringly leave the imprint in each one of the phrases. The pallavi had ‘Easwari Jagadeeswari Vaagadeeswari Pahi’ for its lyric.
Apart from this, two Tyagaraja kritis had fulfilling alapanas — Thodi (Munnu-Ravana) and Harikhambodi (Rama-Nannu-Brovara) — with Thodi having sancharas and phrases more predominantly in the upper octave.
The swaras sung for these ragas and for Saranga (Entha Bagyamu, Tyagaraja) had all conceivable combinations.
Sowmya is known for her minute fine-brush sahitya nuances and such connoisseur’s delights could be spotted in ‘Devi Brova’ (Chintamani, Syama Sastri) for the syllables ‘Kalyani’ and ‘Koumari,’ that had bhava woven into their very utterance.
‘Nenarunchinanu’ (Malavi, Tyagaraja) came as a filler to lend variation in kalapramanam, and ‘Amba Meenalochani’ (Nayaki, Mayavaram Viswanatha Sastry), which touchingly reflected the raga, was included as a novel piece.
Gopalakrishna Bharati’s ‘Seidhi Solla Vandom,’ and Subramanya Bharathi’s ‘Thedi Unai Saranadaindhen’ were rendered in the post-pallavi phase.
Violinist T. Rukmani, who must have witnessed many such experiments showed a responsive approach during the alapanas and recreated the ‘Vagadeeswari-glory.’ Her high level of competence was also seen when she played for the pallavi and there was an amazing swiftness in her swara answers.
Mannargudi Easwaran (mridangam) was in step with the vocalist even while playing for the initial swaras and was on the spot during the pallavi session that served to enhance and enrich its value.
He teamed up with Krishnan (morsing) to offer a well-suited thani that was loaded with special sollus apt enough for Misra Jampai.
Some concerts make an indelible impression on the listener. This Vagadeeswari-concert of Sowmya belongs to that category.
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