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Music Season
MYLAPORE FINE ARTS CLUB
Graceful style, offbeat presentation
M.SOWMIYA
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Bhushani Kalyanaraman exhibited her expertise in manipulating her voice. Better planning would have made Jayanthi Sridharan’s recital more gripping.
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Photos: R.Ragu
Lucid: Bhushani Kalyanaraman
Bhushani Kalyanaraman’s morning concert under the banner of Mylapore Fine Arts Club on December 14, commenced with the Ata tala varnam in Bhairavi sung in traditional two speeds. ‘Sabapathikku’ (Abhogi-Adi-Gopalakrishna Bharati) wa
s rendered in the first part of the concert. An elaborate alapana of Hemavathi followed by ‘Srikanthimathim’ (Hemavathi-Adi-Dikshitar) deserves special mention. The niraval and swarakalpana were rendered with ease. The power-packed Kedaragowla alapana for ‘Venugaanalola’ (Rupakam-Tyagaraja) was good. The composition ‘Akilandeswari’ (Dwijavanti-Adi-Dikshitar), which followed, was interesting because of the juxtaposition of Kedaragowla and Dwijavanti revealing an understanding of the ragas. The magic of GNB’s composition, ‘Srichakra’ (Sivasakti-Adi) gave Bhushani the chance to show her musical lineage.
In the later part of the concert Bhushani sang a brisk Khambhodi (‘Kailaasanaadena’-Misra Chapu-Dikshitar) with neat niraval and kalpanaswaras.
With a full grasp of the style of Bhushani Kalyanaraman, Usha Rajagopalan gave full scale alapana with the matching speed and precision showing her technical virtuosity in her fast sculpted phrases. Throughout the concert the artist showed a naturally sruti aligned voice, lucid and pleasant, which was enhanced by the smooth edged madhyamakala phrases. This gave her concert a graceful style. She exhibited an understanding of how to use her voice uniformly in all the registers with ease. Her niraval and swarakalpana could have added to the impact of the concert if the phrases were well punctuated with meaningful silence in between bringing a sukha bhava inducing the listeners to reflect and enjoy.
Jayanthi Sridharan.
Her warm relaxed presence on the stage with pleasant manners communicative to both the fellow artistes and the audience were remarkable. The soft and deft fingers of A.S. Ranganathan (mridangam) gave excellent support to the performance with an understanding of the flow of the songs. The short thani in Misra Chapu at the end of the concert was beautiful but rather inadequate considering his brilliance as a mridangam player, and the length of the whole concert.
Jayanthi Sridharan’s vocal performance was off-beat with respect to the presentation which included slokas from Bhagavatam before some of the kritis.
‘Akhiyaaharidarshanki Pyaasi’ (Surdas bhajan-Yamunakalyani-Adi) came as a surprise as a third item in the first part of the concert. There was a predominant bhakti flavour but the presentation lacked uniformity. For instance, the meaning and context of some songs were explained, while others were left out. This was confusing. It would have given a different flavour and a point of interest to the audience if there was better planning in the presentation. Currently, Carnatic music is given a platform to showcase the individuality of the artistes in so many ways. In this respect this concert was a welcome change in bringing the bhakti bhava with the aim of educating the audience with explanations. But the flow of the concert suffered on account of the sporadic interludes of explanation every now and then with little planning.
Alapana, niraval and kalpanaswara for Dhanyasi (‘Meenalochana’-Misra Chapu-Syama Sastri) were sung elaborately. Subhapantuvaraali (‘Ennaalu’-Misra Chapu-Tyagaraja) was sung well. ‘Mangalaalaya Maamava’ (Tarangam- Behag-Misra Chapu) was a pleasant addition.
The upper register (tara sthayi) in her voice showed less power and clarity lacking an overall continuity. This smudged the gamaka precision and the lyrical beauty as well in her enunciation. Jayanthi Kesav (violin) gave adequate melodic support while Delhi Sairam (mridangam) and Narasimhan (ghatam) gave meaningful rhythmic support. Sairam’s performance was particularly marked by neatness in presentation.
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