Strict adherence to Carnatic
GARIMELLA SUBRAMANIAM
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Tapping the melakartha reservoir, Veena Gayathri was careful while handling ragas with Hindustani parallels.
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CLEAR PERSPECTIVE: Veena Gayathri. Photo: V. Ganesan.
The two concerts under review are perhaps representative of the contrasting viewpoints artistes bring to bear upon the Chennai Music Season.
To some it is an occasion to showcase the musical tradition as understood in the more popular sense, whereas others tend to highlight its central scholastic dimensions.
From Esambati Gayathri's veena performance at the Music Academy, one got the distinct feeling that her focus was to keep the tone of the recital very Carnatic. She scrupulously eschewed externalities while handling ragas with Hindustani parallels and also tapped into Carnatic's own reservoir of melakarta scales.
The child prodigy got down to business after a few familiar compositions — the Navaragamalika varnam, "Yochana Kamalalochana," and Dikshitar's ``Seshachalanayakam."
The first evidence of her perspective came to light in the exposition of Madhyamavathi. Its interpretation often echoes shades of the Hindustani counterpart Megh, and Gayathri herself may not be lukewarm to the idea on a different day. "Aadigisukhamu" is not the first kriti you ordinarily recall in Madhyamavathi or among Tyagaraja's works. You can say the same for the composition, "Cheddabuddhimanara," in Atana, and Syama Shastri's "Deva Neepada Sarasamule" in Kambodi.
Gayathri's approach for the day continued into the ragam tanam pallavi. Her choice scale was Kantamani, the 61st in the melakarta system, which is surely not one of the routine expository ragams among either vocalists or instrumentalists. Kanthamani is roughly speaking, Mechakalyani up to the fourth and Kanakangi until the seventh notes. And "Palintuvo Palintuvo" of Tyagaraja is perhaps known to all but a few.
The contemporary vaggeyakara Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna's "Bhuvanesvari Pahimam" is another kriti in Kanthamani. R. Ramesh on the mridangam who had teamed up with Adambakkam K. Shankar on the ghatam presented a percussion duet that befits a sober concert.
It was a resounding Tyagaraja vaibhavam almost all the way when the Malladi Brothers, Sreerama Prasad and Ravikumar, sang in the early evening slot. The sprinkling of selection from other composers, especially Annamacharya, lent the performance the flavour of a Nedunoori Krishnamurthy recital. The choice of ragas — Nattakurinji, Anandabhairavi, Kanada, Ramapriya and Kambodi among others — spoke of a selection apt for the evening.
The brothers did well to present in complete detail Srirangam Moolaiveetu Rangaswami nattuvanar's pada varnam, "Chalamela." Once the duo began "Neeke Teliyakapote," the striking resemblance of Ravikumar's voice with guru Nedunoori's was only too obvious. The pleasure of listening to the siblings sing Tyagaraja's "Bhajarere Bhajamanasa Sriramam" was doubled, since a composition in Kanada, usually featured as an opener or a tail-piece, is rarely embellished with alapana and kalpanaswaram.
Muthuswami Dikshitar's "Matangi Srirajarajeswari," the lone Dikshitar kriti of the evening, kept the brothers locked in a dialogic exchange of swaram before Tyagaraja returned with a crisp "Kotinadulu" in Hanumatodi.
"Sriraghuvara Apremeya" and the ragam thanam pallavi in Saveri — the two centrepieces of the evening — were brilliant interpretations. The pallavi "Veduka Chelanga Koluvaiyunnade" in dhurita kalam had to be kept brief taking into account the time on hand.
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