Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Vibrant and creative
IT IS not rare that a musician who starts on a low note in the first phase of the concert would rise to excellence towards the core of the concert. It was this and much more in Shreyas Narayanan who performed at the Sree Poornathrayeesa Sangeeta Sabha, Thripunithura.
When he started in a sober, muffled voice with `Chalamela... ' the Adi thala varnam in Nattakurinji, one was not prepared for the wonders that were to be unravelled later. After the `Mapala velasina... ' in Asaveri by Tyagaraja, Shreyas flamboyantly moved into his elements in `Dinamani vamsa... ' in Harikhamboji. It was an exuberance, which R. Sankaranarayanan on the mridangam had to match, resorting to noise at `pallavi eduppus.' There were `swaras' in two speeds. The sound results at the Kalikota Palace are precarious, and the sound engineers need to follow a trial and error routine to get it right. This day was not an exception. `Eti Janmamidiha... ' in Varali in Misra Chappu talam, stood out for the `neraval,' the `ga ma dha' `prayogams' in the `swaraprasthara' and the sparkling rehearsed `mukthaippu' with the percussionists. `Chararaavathe... ' and `Parvatininune' in Kalgada in `tisra nadai adi talam' provided for the right interim pieces, not too light either. `Samaganalolane... ' of Papanasam Sivan in Hindolam was rendered with true relish to the `swara sahitya.'
On a whole, even though the concert stood out for the amazing vibrancy and moderate creativity, a lack of planning was observed throughout. The familiar pieces were given its due but there seemed to a predominance of Tyagaraja krithis. Asaveri found a place along with Thodi. There were few variations of talas. The vocalist seemed to be holding up his own tastes.
The Thodi alaapana was indeed a landscape painting, first an outline of the raga, the vocalist embellishing every note and `prayoga' in consecutive steps. The `swaras' in two different tempos were replete with `eduppus' on `dha ni sa' and `ma dha ni sa.' Abdul Aziz showed glimpses of virtuosity in the Thodi as well as the earlier Varali `alapana' but his bowing found frequent slips of rhythm in the `swara' passages. The `thani' with Sankaranarayanan and Gopinatha Prabhu on the ghatam was full with common phrases, but the precision and coordination was noteworthy.
The first of the `tukkadas' was the most charming of all. `Irakkam varaamal ponadenna karanam... ' in Behag, as Gopalakrishna Bharati pours his soul in `vatsalyam' to the Nataraja of Chidambaram. `Murukanai bhaji maname... ' in Jonpuri, `Narahari Deva... ' in Yaman, and a Javali in Paras was followed by ragamalika slokam `Yogeendranam... ' from Narayaneeyam. From the last raga Sindhubhairavi, Shreyas took on to `Hari Hari Govinda Narayana... '
At the annual general body of the Sabha held earlier in the evening, E. P. Sreekumar (president), K.V. Nath, K. Viswanathan (vice-presidents), and S. R. Natesan (secretary) were elected as office bearers for the coming year.
HAREESH BAL
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
|
