Brisk start to a rainy morning
LAKSHMI VENKATRAMAN
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Gayathri Venkataraghavan's Sankarabaranam alapana was well crafted, touching the characteristics of the majestic raga.
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Photos: V. Ramamurthi and S. R. Raghunathan.
WOMEN OF SUBSTANCE: Charulatha Mani.
Gayathri Venkataraghavan exhibited a sense of displayed involvement in her concert both in the raga and kriti rendition. After the Padavarnam in Begada, "Pahimam Sri Raja Rajeswari" in Nattai set to Adi talam tisra nadai by Syama Shastri was a rare piece. The entire composition was in Madhyamakalam, which provided a brisk beginning to the rainy morning.
The main raga was Sankarabaranam, the alapana of which was well crafted, touching the characteristics of the majestic raga. Gayathri's akara singing came to the fore in this raga as it did in her delineation of Hemavathi earlier.
Aruna Ranganathan.
The chosen song was Tyagaraja's "Manasuswadhinamaina" with neraval and swarams. Though there were no new ideas she was able to infuse a sense of some freshness into it. H.N. Bhaskar provided an understanding accompaniment on the violin in the alapanas and kalpanaswaras. D.J. Vaidyanathan on the mridangam and Purushothaman on the kanjira did not disappoint with their tani; they also provided unobtrusive support to Gayathri through the concert.
Blessed with a voice that has a good range at both the lower and upper octaves, Charulatha Mani kept the audience engaged through her two-hour concert. She handled the alapanas in Charukesi, Karnataka Devagandhari and Varali in a leisurely fashion, allowing scope for exploration of nuances. In Charukesi though she could have avoided the obvious traces of Sankarabaranam. Srilakshmi Venkataramani on the violin displayed her talent in raga elaborations.
The chosen songs were Tyagaraja's "Adamodi Galade", Vasudevachar's "Bhajare Re Manasa" and Dikshitar's "Seshachalanayakam." Usually artistes render "Adamodi" in a fast tempo but the young vocalist avoided that and let the beauty of the raga emerge.
Charulatha interpreted the simple lyrics with devotional fervour in "Kannarakkandene" in Mukhari . Her rendition of Vanaspathi raga kriti "Pariyasarama" was commendable. "Brahmamokate" and the Tulsidas bhajan, "Sri Ramachandra," were sung with emotion. Tillaisthanam Suryanarayanan on the mridangam and Nerkunram Shankar on the kanjira played a brief neat tani and provided able support to the main artiste.
Gayathri Venkataraghavan.
Aruna Ranganathan seemed to have some problem with her voice that sounded rather strained throughout the concert. After three kritis, two of them with kalpanaswaras, Aruna launched into an alapana of Suddhasaveri; the kriti "Paripalintsu" had neraval and swaras. Then came a detailed elaboration of Latangi before "Aparadamula;" Usha Rajagopal's effort on the violin for the ragas was good. She showed imagination in rendering the kalpanaswaras of Latangi. The Begada composition "Azhaithavar Yaradi" by Nadapur Puduvai Amalan is not often heard in concerts and it was rendered attractively.
What came next raised many eyebrows. Aruna sang a longish alapana in Madhyamavati. But the kriti chosen was "Namakusuma," which is known to have been composed by Tyagaraja in Sri Raga !
The first couple of phrases in the alapana did sound like Sri but the rest certainly did not. There were lengthy neraval and swara segments too, without concern for time. Aruna should have planned the programme with more attention. A tani by Sivaraman on the mridangam and Sri Sundarkumar on the kanjira followed.
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