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Music Season
BRAHMA GANA SABHA
Spirited singing
LAKSHMI VENKATRAMAN
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It was an emotional, spirited singing by Sankari while G.S.Rajan had to wrap up his otherwise appealing recital early.
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Photos: B.Jothi Ramalingam
Cheerful: Sankari Krishnan and (right) G.S.Rajan.
The morning concert of Sankari Krishnan was quite commendable. The main item was the Ragam, Tanam, Pallavi in Kalyani. She boldly but competently tackled a Pallavi set to Kandajati Jampa tala in Kandanadai with eduppu at one-fourth edam.
She had the understanding support of Padma Shankar on the violin, A.S. Ranganathan and K.V. Gopalakrishnan on the mridangam and kanjira respectively.
The beginning of the concert with a varnam by Lalgudi Jayaraman in Bowli and ‘Sogasujoodatharama’ in Kannadagowla was somewhat lacklustre. But the Arabhi raga kriti ‘Paalimparavademira’ set to Tisranadai in Adi tala helped to wake up everyone by its cheerful tempo, the raga delineation too was quite good. ‘Tillai Ambalatthanai’ in Surutti was emotionally appealing. After a racy ‘Anupama Gunambudi’ in Atana, Sankari took up the alapana of Bhairavi. It was a spirited singing, though the ideas were nothing new. If she had taken time to develop such a major raga a little leisurely, it would have been more interesting. ‘Neepadamule,’ not heard too often these days, was rendered with involvement. After the kalpanaswaras, a clever thani was presented by the percussionists.
The elaboration of Kalyani followed the same pattern as Bhairavi, though the complicated pallavi made up for it. There was a short thani in this tala also. It was then the turn of some lighter items like a Thirukkural and ‘Maasaru Ponne’ in Kaanada, ‘Varuvaaro’ in Sama, the popular Kapi number ‘Enna Thavam’ and a Tillana in Karnaranjani.
What happened at the flute concert of G.S.Rajan was unbelievable. How could V.V. Ravi, the violinist and T.V.Vasan, the mridangam accompanist do this to a fellow artiste? Just half hour down the two-hour concert, items which usually find place towards the end such as ‘Jagadoddarana’ and the Kamas Javali ‘Apatuku’ were taken up early by Rajan. Then he took up the Manirangu kriti of Swati Tirunal ‘Jaya Jaya Padmanabha’ making one feel that he might yet launch on a main item. But to the surprise of the audience and the consternation of the Sabha secretary the concert ended right there. On enquiry it was understood that both the accompanists had accepted other programmes at 6 p.m. and wanted Rajan to end his concert by early. Perhaps that was why he appeared a little out of sorts from the beginning. He was given no time for raga alapana or swarakalpana of decent length.
Rajan’s style was a leisurely one. In fact, a little faster here and there would have made the short concert more appealing.
After an unhurried rendering of the ‘Viriboni’ varnam in Bhairavi set to Ata tala, he played a kriti in Mayamalavagowla with a short spell of swaras. Then came a brief alapana of Nattakurinji. His vilamba style was quite suitable to this plaintive raga which was followed by Swati Tirunal’s ‘Mamavasada Varade,’ in which the swara segment was interesting. Then came a soothing, brief elaboration of Kapi followed by ‘Jagadoddarana.’
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Music Season
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