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Music Season
MUSIC ACADEMY
Unfamiliar made accessible
GOWRI RAMNARAYAN
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Vijayalakshmi made the pallavi appealing by making the flow continuous, melody gliding over the rhythm grids.
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Photo: V. Ganesan
Simple: Vijayalakshmi Subramaniam.
Though a pallavi is mandatory in major concerts at the Music Academy, not many go for a really unusual talam, with unfamiliar divisions, nor concentrate on making it more complex with rhythm coils. Especially as they cannot be sure of making an impact beyond the few experts in the hall.
Vijayalakshmi Subramaniam essayed one in tala Trayadwayam, literally two threesome segments, conceived by B.M.Sundaram who also had composed the pallavi. It was divided as 3 chatusra plus 3 tisra, maintained as far as the eye could see from a distance, with 3 laghus followed by tisra beats.
Varali fell well into place here. In alapana Vijayalakshmi intelligently highlighted its ghana aspects rather than its wistful expressions, as more suitable for a pallavi prelude. The tanam was less structured. Also, in trying to build substance it lost out on rakti. The formatting too suffered from flimsy syllable enunciation — and imprecise brikas, echoed in the violin (V.V.Srinivasa Rao) essays.
The pallavi ‘Palaya Srimaate’ rode easily on the tala cycle, including kalai shifts slow and fast. What Vijayalakshmi did to make it appealing to all was to focus on making the flow continuous, melody gliding over the rhythm grids without jerks and bumps, and giving the rare tala an air of familiarity. The swara-singing too followed this method of making the unfamiliar accessible, testifying to remarkable, but unobtrusive laya grasp and sadhakam. The violin followed suit. Ragamalika swaras from Sahana to Behag made pillion riding easier for the listener.
The beginning of the concert was not so smooth. ‘Ra Rama (Asaveri) and ‘Ananda natamaduvar’ (Purvikalyani) could not extricate themselves from tedium. Surutti (with the kriti ‘Srivenkatagirisam’) was introduced with bright bold notes, but as vocalised and conceptualised it made an uncertain patchwork.
The voice gained timbre with Shadvidamargini (Antaranga bhakti, Kotiswara Iyer). Vijayalakshmi naturalised the vivadi notes, without undue emphasis on eerie prayogas. ‘Brovavamma’ that followed had the strength of Nilambari sans sentimentality.
The main raga Kaapi benefited from this warming up of voice and assurance, and more akaram, but could not avoid some sangatis scale-based as against ragaswarupa-drawn.
The repetitive violin responded with its own alapana unmatched in spirit to the vocal. Niraval and swara (‘Inta sowkhya’) followed the same unvarying gentle approach, suited to the raga, but losing out in depth expected of a mid concert main fare. After this the tani (Thanjavur Ramdas mridangam, Pudukkottai Ramachandran-ghatam) wove in gati and tone contrasts to create some vivid moments.
Balamuralikrishna’s Amritavarshini tillana finale was rendered with delighted teamwork in a concert which, despite its bright spots, remained uneven in quality and presentation on the whole.
Even non-mandolin fans will agree that U. Shrinivas is a master in extracting raga essence with remarkable ease. His mellifluousness can enchant. Unfortunately his concert with U. Rajesh (who proved that he had technique at his beck and call) gave little space to melody.
The entire exercise chug-chugged through beats accelerated to a level where strings (violin by H.K.Venkatram), mridangam (B. Harikumar ), ghatam (S.V.Ramani) and kanjira (V. Selvaganesh) produced never ending fusillades, all sounding like third speed chatusra beats whether Ata tala or Mishra Chapu.
Brief respites came with a flash of lovely gamakas in the Bhairavi outline, followed by a relishable varnam, and later in Charukesi (with ‘Kripaya palaya’) where the plain was alternated with the oscillated in parts which were kind to melody.
Kiravani tantalised. It started on liquid glides, and a how-can-I-find-the-cream-of-this-raga approach. Then it dived headlong into turbulent waters. The attitude became what can I do to this raga with my instrument? The tanam took some time to be identified as such. Rhythmic phrases were scattered in the flow which went in several directions, each ending in a tanam-like phrase. This listener’s sense of kalapramana was lost in the virtuosic accelerations of tempo.
Since the entire concert had followed the same pattern of staccato beats whether Natanarayani (‘Mahaganapate’) or Kannada (Ninnada), there seemed no difference between the kritis and the pallavi in treatment. The latter was tagged with ragamalika swaras in which Yagapriya transformed Carnatic into jazz. The tani? Perfect co-ordination in terrific speed where vyvaharam, if any, was smudged in the resounding noise. This twin mandolin recital was a wake up call to dreamers who believe that Carnatic music means sukhabhavam and visranti.
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