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Concerts with a stamp of CLASS
T.V. Sankaranarayanan
FOR MUSIC lovers in Kochi, the New Year had a sweet beginning. From January 8 to 10, there were four vocal concerts by established exponents of Carnatic music. The Kerala Fine Arts Society, in association with AVT, presented vocal concerts of Kavalam Sreekumar, T. V. Sankaranarayanan and Sanjay Subramaniam. And on January 9, two musicians were honoured for their unique contributions to music. At the Bharat Hotel, Nadopasana honoured musician and musicologist N.P. Ramaswamy. This was followed by Ramaswamy's vocal concert. On the same day, the Kerala Fine Arts Society felicitated M. R. Hariharan Nair, who was recently honoured by the Sangeet Natak Akademi.
The Musical Trilogy, as the event at the Kerala Fine Arts Hall was labelled, stood out for the sheer class and calibre of the musicians. Top-rung performer T. V. Sankaranarayanan and the two rising stars Kavalam Sreekumar and Sanjay Subramaniam explored subtle ranges of different ragas to convert the festival in to virtually a raga mela.
Kavalam Sreekumar had as his accompanists Vazhamuttam Suresh on the violin; Cherthala Jayadevan on the mridangam; Krishna Kumar and Payyannur Govinda Prasad on the ghatam and morsing respectively.
Kavalam Sreekumar
Sreekumar began with `Vande nanda thanayam... ' a varnam in Pathpathi, composed by his guru B. Sasikumar, the violinist. After `Pranamamyaham... ' in Gowla, Muthiah Bhagavathar's `Sarasamuki... ' in Gowdamalhar and `Sukhame sukham... ' in Shanmukhapriya, he picked up another Sasikumar krithi, `Paramasantham sachnmayam... ' composed in Dwijavanthi. The krithi was presented with a raga alapana and swaraprasthana. After a brief `Bhajami Sree Raghuramam... ' in Madhyamavathi, the stage was set for the main item of the evening. Delightful delineation of Mohanam was followed by Tyagaraja's `Nanupalimpa... '
The way Sreekumar presented the niraval and manodharma swaras brought out the alluring potential of the raga. After the thaniavarthanam, shot pieces like `Vandanam Raghunandana... ' in Sahana and `Omkarakari... ' in Lavangi by M. Balamuralikrishna were presented.
T. V. Sankaranarayanan, the torch-bearer of the Madurai Mani Iyer style, never disappoints his admirers. He was accompanied by Nagai Sreeram on the violin, Vellore Ramabhadran on the mridangam and Thiruvanamthapuram Murali on the ganjira. Kalyani and Kapi were the main ragas he chose for elaboration. Syama Sasthri's `Himadri Suthe... ' and Tyagaraja's `Entha saukyamu... ' were the highlights of his lively concert, marked by the exposition of manodharma element in raga alapana, niraval and swara singing. Bits like Purandaradasa's `Sakala graha... ' in Atana, Swati Tirunal's `Smarajanaka... 'in Behag, `Jaya Jaya swamin... 'in Natta, `Saranam Ayyappa... ' in Mukhari and `Brovabarama... ' in Bahudari were helpful in maintaining the lively tempo.
The last day was reserved for a class performance by Sanjay Subramaniam who skilfully manipulated his voice to bring out the distinctive features of different ragas. Instrumental support was provided by S. Varadarajan (violin), Arun Prakash (mridangam) and Thripunithura Radhakrishnan (ghatam).
Sanjay Subramaniam
After Pattanam Subramania Iyer's Navaragavarnam `Valachi vachi... ' and Tyagaraja's `Chalamelara... ' in Margahindolam, Subbaraya Sasthri's `Janani ninnuvina... ' in Reethigowla was presented with a brief elaboration of raga. But the star pieces were `Enthuku... ' in Sankarabharanam and a ragam, thanam, pallavi in ragas like Ganamurthi, Behag etc.
January has set the trend. The music lovers have been served a treat and they would be looking forward to similar musical feasts that will bear a stamp of class.
M. K. BALAGOPAL
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