FROM THE ARCHIVES
A competent veena recital
Smt. Kamala Thyagarajan's veena concert held under the auspices of the Triplicane Arts Academy last Sunday, at the Hindu High School Hall was competent, but lacked the essential grace notes, the subtle nuances and elegant charm of the ragas, as they were delineated by the artiste.
For the first one hour, one heard either the loud bang of the instrument with echoes or the faint sounds of inaudible swaras, or songs. May be it was due to the faulty amplifier, or the contact mike fastened to the bridge of the veena. The fingers traversed with dexterity on the frets as the artiste wrestled with the instrument without producing any melodic beauty in the ragas or bhava in the kritis.
The Varnam in Kalyani was rendered in routine way, followed by "Vathapi Ganapathim" with kalpanaswaras. The Amrithavarshini piece and swaraprastharas in it, were rendered with a heavy coating of western touches. A sketchy alapana of Bahudari was followed by "Brovabharama" of Thyagaraja. Begada was full of verve and the kriti in it was neatly rendered. Two pieces in Tamil and a pleasing tillana in Kapi, concluded the programme. P.S.Gopal played with restraint on the mridangam.
(An extract from a review published in The Hindu on December 1, 1967)
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