SRI PARTHASARATHY SWAMI SABHA
Youth come out with flying colours
LAKSHMI VENKATRAMAN
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If Saketharaman impressed with the reach of his voice, Nagai Sriram matched him on his violin. O.S. Arun chose an unconventional path by presenting `abstract music.'
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It was a case of youth and fresh talent guided and supported by experience in the vocal concert of Saketharaman.
Photos: R. Ragu and K. N. Muralidharan.
GREAT COMBINATION: (Top) Saketharaman and O. S. Arun.
The young vocalist was well supported on the violin by another youngster Nagai Sriram and they had the percussion accompaniment of veterans Umayalpuram Sivaraman on the mridangam and T.V.Vasan on the ghatam. The young duo came out with flying colours and was applauded by the seniors and the audience.
The clear voice of Saketharaman with good reach at both ends was an asset. The concert had a brisk start with Vasantha raga varnam, `Mahaganapathim' in Nattai and then `Salagallala' in Arabhi with a short spell of kalpanaswara.
The alapana of Varali was soothing with stress here and there on the characteristic note `ma,' but it would have been even better if sung in a slower tempo.
Dikshitar's `Seshachalanayakam' was the chosen kriti with neraval and swarams at `Aravindapatra Nayanam.'
After a breezy `Bhogeendrasayinam' in Kuntalavarali, came the main item Khambodi that lasted for almost an hour, without a single sagging moment.
Saketharaman's elaboration of Khambodi had some very imaginative sancharas along with the time tested ones.
Sriram proved equal in his essay of the raga.
The Tyagaraja kriti `O Rangasayi' complete with neraval at the charanam `Bhooloka Vaikuntam' and the cascade of swaras had unusual combinations woven by both Saketharaman and Sriram even in the korvai.
Sivaraman and Vasan, who were enjoying and encouraging the youngsters, followed up with an awesome thani.
Saketharaman also brought bhava to the lyrics as in `O Rangasayi,' `Enna Thavam,' etc., which were the concluding pieces.
It was listed as Special Concert, but O.S.Arun and his team presented what he called ``abstract music."
He invited the audience to join in the singing if they liked. He was accompanied by Madurai Balasubramaniam on the violin, Kumbakonam Saravanan on the angam, Ganapathi on the tabla and pads, Leslie on the keyboard, Ragavan on the morsing and Selvam with special effects.
There was no structured music like ragam and song but only a combination of sollus, tanam, swaras; even to the Bharatiar song on rain ``Mazhai" Arun had added sollus and there were special effects of echo, thunder, flood and rain! It was basically in Kapi raga but meandered in between.
Arun began with the sloka `Shantakaram' and then went on to a folk tune based on Sankarabharanam. This raga and Ranjani, which was chosen for tanam with swaram in between, had the same phrase repeated endlessly; also whenever Arun tried a bit of alapana it often ended off sruti, which got drowned by the noise of the percussion. The Ranjani piece ended in frenzied singing.
`Swaranjali' was a ragamalika of swaras; in some parts it was indeed abstract music because the tunes were unidentifiable.
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