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Setting the right mood

Seasoned PERFORMANCE: M.S.Gopalakrishnan and Narmada.

The violin duet by M.S. Gopalakrishnan and his daughter Narmada for Carnatica’s Bharat Sangeeth Utsav, in association with Sri Parthasarathy Swamy Sabha, served to stress the basic truth that intense discipline prepared a musician for sangita’s loftiness. To cite an instance his rendering of the song ‘Nenendu Vedakudura’ (Karnataka Behag) captured the mood in which Tyagaraja composed the kirtana. All that can render sorrow heroic was gathered around compositions after the loss of the idol. Gopalakrishnan chose this one at the beginning to create the proper ennobling atmosphere for the recital as a whole. It was pure musical eloquence and not barren technical exaggeration.

Gopalakrishnan’s raga picture of Ananda Bhairavi in his mind and its emotional contours found vent in telling expression and this faculty was coupled with artistic finesse. The sweet and short alapana followed by the song, ‘Marivere Gati,’ proclaimed him as a great musician full worthy of his stature. Played with superb vividness it spoke of his loyalty to the purity of Carnatic music scoring compromises. It also emphasised another pertinent aspect namely music and melody ought not to be dissociated.

A rasika would have been really amazed at how ecstatic it was when he connected his appreciative instincts to the true purpose of music — sublimation. This came to the fore in the rendering of the Khambodi song, ‘Evarimata.’ With his heightened ability to consciously tap the beauty of the piece, he got lost in his own sensitivity to taste its aesthetic grandeur. The broader the base of discipline, the higher the peak of performance!

All the solid graces of Khambodi were touched upon by Narmada in her alapana. Sancharas emerged with penetrative depth. It was Khambodi with grace and dignity unsullied, tempting rasikas to take note of her talent trained by her father.

J. Vaidyanathan on the mridangam played the role of a laya accompanist in such a way that a knowledgeable listener could weigh the general trend of emptiness of stridency of beats against his percussive persuasion. Like vocal music mridangam too can evoke bhava.

A deliberate forceful vocal thrust was the inspirational mainstay of Vijay Siva’s performing strength. The unrelenting tonal pressure he exerted sustained the booming alapana method that formed his understanding of nada. The depth and appeal of his kutcheri sprang from the sophisticated technique of intermingling vidwat and over-stressed vibrancy.

A vein of musical fervour permeated his elaboration of Poorvikalyani. (‘Parama Paavana Rama’) and more pulsatingly animated Khambodi (‘Kaana Kan Kodi Vendum’).

Methodical and symmetrically arranged sancharas were the block from which he drew the swarupa of ragas and sangati structure of kirtanas. This enabled him to make his singing graphic. It was a rhetoric of spontaneity.

‘Sri Kalahastheesa’ in Huseni with an alapana, a song on Vayulinga by Dikshitar, slipped unnoticed between two major items.

R.K. Sriramkumar was the violinist. In his solo versions of the ragas, the sancharas were rich in expression and magnitude. Manoj Siva (mridangam) revealed better familiarity with his brother Vijay Siva’s thinking. Sobriety marked his beats and korvais.

Vijay Siva.

For a young artist making rapid strides in gaining recognition as a talented performer, Savita Narasimhan’s concert laid bare two favourable aspects – one, the command over the dais and the other, music guided mainly by instinct.

Regarding the former, she revealed that her performing pattern was not oriented to the mridangam. As for the latter, she made it clear that over-anxiety about maintaining tempo to create an artificial impression of excellence was not her objective. So, she addressed music as music and not as a showcase of talent.

Considering her stature today, the kutcheri was a remarkably restrained exposition.

Natural talent can take one to the top but to maintain it and make the final climb to greatness require patience and continuous sadhaka. Current quality ought not to lead to complacence.

Savita’s training has certainly conferred on her the capacity to blend sampradaya with classic creativity. Her facile voice permitted both madhyamakala and speedy movements with superb balance, particularly in the negotiation of tara sthayi sancharas.

While not isolating herself from the contemporary competitiveness, Savita did not lose sight of the eternal values that Carnatic music demands.

This ideal, she realised through easy grace to light up the image of the alapanas and in handling of sahitya. In this sense, her performing style was smart, confident and successful.

Refinement was the cornerstone of her alapanas of Vasanta (‘Sri Kamakshi Katakshi’, a composition of Subbaraya Sastri) and Vachaspati (‘Pahi Jagatjanani’). She let some flashy bursts of sancharas to give a boost to the rasika experience.

The ragas carried depth as well as amiability. There was fluency and effortlessness in framing and developing the contours of the ragas.

As regards renderings of songs, Savita imparted lyrical intensity through the clarity of sahitya articulation.

This suggested that she held the purity of the lyrics in great respect, without unnecessarily cluttering it with many sangatis which are only aids to the enthusiasm of the mridangist.

The list of kirtanas included ‘Siva Siva Sivaenaradha’ (Pantuvarali), ‘Entanerchina’ (Udayaravichandrika) and ‘Garudagamana’ (Nagaswaravali).

Meticulous in violin support, Charulatha Ramanujam made her expressions speak of her commitment and compelled attention.

Since Savita’s aim was not percussion oriented, mridangist Kallidaikuruchi Sivakumar paid due concern to her ways and so was rhythmic and not rhetoric.

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