Delightful Sarasangi
S.SIVAKUMAR S. SIVAKUMAR
PHOTO: E. Lakshmi Narayanan.
Bangalore Shanker.
Chennai Fine Arts is making its contribution to the music festival — with a tangible difference. Lecture-demonstrations are held on various composers (vaggeyakaras) and on the nuances relating to various instruments (vadhyanubhava), in conjunction with modular concerts. The event is being held at the Shanmugasundaram Hall (Gokhale Sastri Institute, Luz). Maintaining an equilibrium through the concert, Bangalore Shanker affirmed that he is a mature musician. He sang to the accompaniment of S. Varadarajan (violin), Neyveli Venkatesh (mridangam) and Amrith (kanjira). The theme was Patnam Subramania Iyer's compositions.
Shanker began with the Abhogi varnam and gave a brief alapana of Bhairavi for the song `Nee Padhamule Gathi.' `Parithanamichithe,' a song that naturally lends itself to kanda chapu, came next with an unambiguous alapana of Bilahari. One wondered why the chittaswaram was omitted. The raga-breadth of Patnam's compositions was made evident when he rendered `Marivere' (Shanmukhapriya) and followed it up with `Garudagamana' (Nagaswaravali). His Saveri came forth with a stirring rendering of `Entha Nerchina' with a special sangati at "Enthuku Ee Chapala" that had Saveri painted with a fresh set of colours — some new gain for Saveri's integrity. The raga alapana for Sarasangi (`Manaviche') was a delight both for the hard grammarian and the aesthete.
The main kriti in Kalyani (`Nijadasavaradha') had an easy flow and one wished Shanker had given the characteristic gaps at "Ajapurandaradhi Vinutha." The concert concluded with the Behag Javali, `Samayamithe.' Shanker's is a stentorian voice that needs to adopt nalinam to become winsome.
Varadarajan played a superlative Bilahari and was infallible while giving the much-needed support during the other raga alapanas. Neyveli Venkatesh and Amrith gave a balanced tani well aware of the size of the concert hall.
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