Fascinating swara strands
G. SWAMINATHAN
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The stress and sensitivity in T.V. Sundaravalli’s articulation were admirable.
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PHOTO: B. VElankanni Raj
T.V. Sundaravalli.
The distinctive feature of T.V. Sundaravalli’s pleasing vocal concert for Shanmukhapriya at Swamy’s Hall was the expansive Kalyani presentation. Sundaravalli articulates with stress and sensitivity. Her voice is blessed with good tenor and her open throated delivery is admirable. The choice of the kriti was also different — Sundaravalli took the less popular Syama Sastri composition ‘Rave Parvatha Rajakumari’ set to Jhampa talam. The kriti was full of raga bhava integrated to bhakti.
The slightly disconcerting aspect was the perceptibly peripheral touch felt in the alapana. Surprisingly, Sundaravalli negotiated the phrases with shorter length while a little more reposeful extension and insight into the melodic expression would have made her raga treatise weightier. Conversely, the niraval on the line, ‘Neeve Gatiyani Nammi’ was handled with greater perception and piety.
Rhythmic patterns
Unwieldy swara exercises hardly go well with Syama Sastri’s emotional idioms. Realising this, Sundaravalli carefully framed and connected her swara strands converging on panchamam and concluded with a fascinating variety of janda and thattu swara groups. This main item was followed by a little over-zealous account of tani avartanam by Mannarkoil Balaji and N. Rajaraman on the mridangam and ghatam. The extended play of the tani carried many beguiling layers of rhythmic patterns.
The programme was, in a way, dedicated to the late G.N. Balasubramaniam. His compositions and his favourites formed the list of items. ‘Amboruha Padame’ in Ranjani was the opening varnam exhibiting the maestro’s mastery in coupling mesmerising patterns of swaras.
Sivasakthi, and the famous and solitary number ‘Sri Chakra Raja Nilaye’ went on in an inspiring style. The spirited ‘Kamala Charane’ in Amrita Behag, another brain child of GNB, with a spicy chittaswaram, a fast paced ‘Ninnu Joosi Danyu’ in Sowrashtram of Patnam Subramania Iyer and Tyagaraja’s serene ‘Nada Loludai’ in Kalyanavasatham were worthy inclusions.
The post tani numbers also were favourites of GNB — ‘Radha Mukha Kamala’ in Kapi (Sivan) and ‘Sama Gana Priye’ (Periaswami Thooran) in Anandabhairavi. V.V. Srinivasa Rao wasn’t in his elements; otherwise his raga sessions would not have been so lukewarm.
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