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Regional flavour
A CLASSICAL musician needs to be different. He needs to stand out from the crowd with some quality that is unique which would enable him to keep his audience focussed throughout the performance. And this is exactly what makes a concert by Dr. Sreevalsan J. Menon so appealing.
His recent concert at the Kalikota Palace, Thripunithura, under the auspices of the Sree Poornathrayeesa Sangeeta Sabha, served to confirm this view.
There was nothing special about the ragas and krithis he chose for the evening, but what stood out was the strong regional flavour that he imparted to them. There was a strong influence, unintentional perhaps, of many traditional art and music forms, like sopanasangeetam, in his singing style. Also significant was the manner in which he kept a close watch on the pulse of the audience, never letting their attention wander. He succeeded in his attempt with his effortless, spontaneous singing style that indicated a measure of his confidence and physical assurance in the handling of his voice.
Sreevalsan started off with a Bhairavi varnam rendered full and clear with all the intricacies and then set up the mood for the entire concert with an enchanting elaboration of Gambiranatta. The krithi he chose was the popular `Rakshamam saranagatham... ' Even as the audience had settled down there was a break. The inaugural Yuva Sangeetaprahtibha Puraskaram by the Sabha was given away to Sreevalsan by Kaithapram Damodaran Namboodiri. This function that was to have preceded the concert had to be delayed for various reasons.
This break was a challenge to the singer who now had to take his audience back to the mode into which he had taken them. This Sreevalsan managed to do with a pacy, captivating exposition of Atana. Like most vocalists today he began the Tyagaraja krithi, `Ela Nidaya... ' with the anupallavi beginning `Balakanakamayi... ' and then moving on to the pallavi. "This is done, like in the case of many other krithis, to bring out the essence, real meaning of the krithi, which is in the anupallavi," explains Sreevalsan.
Once he had his audience focussed, Sreevalsan moved on to the serenity and calm of Neelambari. `Ambanilayadakshi... ' (Dikshitar) was simply enchanting. This was certainly the pick of the concert. The pathos of Ranjani raga was then soulfully portrayed in the alapana and in the exploration of the krithi `Durmargacharu... ' (Tyagaraja). Sreevalsan chose Sankarabharanam as the main raga. The Tyagaraja krithi `Entuku pedalavale... ' was brought alive with his purity of intonation and expressive rendering style. He wound up the concert with `Karunadaivame Karpagame... ' (Sindhubhairavi) and `Krishna nee begane... '
K. Viswanathan (violin), Kumaranelloor V. Rajamani (mridangam) and Thripunithura N. Gopalakrishnan (ganjira) provided effective accompaniment.
K. P.
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