Beauty and dignity intact

STYLES MAY differ, but the core of traditional Carnatic music remains the same was the message of the performance of the violin trio - M. S. Anantaraman, M. A. Sundareswaran and M. A. Krishnaswamy - for Narada Gana Sabha in association with G.A. Trust Gnanananda Sangeetha Sammelan. The invisible beauty of music could be sensed with grace and dignity unsullied. It mattered little what style they adopted. The vision they had of the sensitivity of Carnatic music counted. Deeper the base of stern discipline rooted in sampradaya's musical idealism and devotion to the art, the higher the peaks of interpretative excellence.

Whoever visualises the exclusive and enchanting flavour of Begada, he is really a classical vidwan and Krishnaswamy, in his alapana of the raga, presented himself as one such. The rasikas experienced a rare pleasure of the flow and flowering of the raga's radiant beauty. It was interesting to watch how he transformed the sanchara combinations into glowing images of Begada's facets. This was well-matched by the crisp and telling rendering of the Kirtana, ``Anudinamunu'', intense, precise and compelling rapt attention. Anantaraman joyfully watched the son's serenity of exposition.

The main raga essay was Kalyani by M. A. Sundareswaran. The few sancharas at the start of the alapana were resonant, but the finale was a spectacular display of the Parur school of fingering prowess, somewhat in excess. It was followed by the song, ``Ninnuvina-gatigaana,'' of Subbaraya Sastri. These two items played a predominant role in the recital.

Madirimangalam Swaminathan (mridangam) and N. Govindarajan (ghatam) were quite supportive, but in the overpowering excellence of the violinists, their play was thrown into the shadow.

Fails to impress

Flute Ramani's recital was highly disappointing. Feeble blowing could hardly confer solidity on ragas and songs. The main thrust of the cutcheri was the Mohanam alapana going over the scales and the magnificent Tyagaraja kirtana ``Mohana Rama'' was trivialised. The arithmetical swarams, with a few slips, and the violinist Durai Balasubramaniam trying to toe to the extent possible the lines of the flutist failed to impress.

In such an uninspiring environment, the three percussive artistes - Thrissur Narendran (mridangam), Mayuram G. Somu (kanjira) and Srirangam Kannan (morsing) - were satisfied with modest assistance.

Sanjay Subramanian lived up to his reputation of keeping rasika interest in tact more through his attractive bhani than through melodic expression. Assertiveness still continues to rule his methods with distorted vocal modulation deployed to negotiate sancharas in his alapanas of Harikambhoji and Natabhairavi. The latter was elaborated in great detail at the end of which he announced the raga as Natabhairavi to clear the curiosity of some in the hall. ``Saketa-Nagara-natha'' (Harikambhoji) and ``Valli- Devasenapathe'' (Natabhairavi) formed the early part of the programme in the company of Varadarajan (violin) who followed the musician's pathways and Palakkad Raghu (mridangam) and Harishankar (Kanjira) providing pertinent percussive padding.

Carnatic music gains in beauty when a sensitive artiste is able to link the gracefulness of raga lines with madhyamakala expressiveness and in rendering songs impeccable clarity of sahityas and subtleties of traditional sangatis are observed. These two qualities contributed to the effectiveness of the performance of Lakshmi Rangarajan under the auspices of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Kala Kendra. The shapely finesse of ``Sogasuga- mridanga-talamu'' (Sriranjani), the lilting movement of ``Sobillu Saptaswara'' (Jaganmohini) and the tranquilising ``Paramaatmudu- velige'' (Vagadeeswari) were interpreted with due respect to the characteristic charm of each kriti.

The raga alapana of Sriranjani was gently put before the rasikas with her well-endowed vocal richness that set much store by restraint rather than on rhetoric. There was abiding passion in the way she articulated the sahityas both in this and in the Vagadeeswari kirtana that created an atmosphere of peacefulness at the start of the cutcheri. Even swaraprastaras were within the limits. Compared to this part of the programme, the one following it with ``Kaa-vaa-vaa'' (Varali) and ``Arivaar-yaar-unnai- arivaar'' (Mukhari) was rather prosaic.

The violinist, V.V.S. Murari, was sastrically precise in the solo versions of Sriranjani and Varali but aesthetically wanting. D.A. Srinivasan (mridangam) and Adambakkam K. Shankar (ghatam) extended their percussive build-up with easy assurance.

There was a feeling of kirtanas galloping in the cutcheri of the Hyderabad Sisters, Lalita and Haripriya, for Nadopasana. Technique and correctness cannot camouflage a lack of the sukham aspect. There was an abandon of vocal profligacy in the elaboration of alapanas lacking in crispness. The aesthetic response of the thin audience was not commensurate with the effort and laboured movement of the raga Rishabapriya by Haripriya, song ``Mahamule'' with neraval and swarams. The mechanical drive not to let slip the tempo of the recital was very much in evidence. Lalita presented the vistara of Hindolam and developing the raga swaram by swaram which in the process abounded in repetitive sancharas. It was followed by tanam and pallavi. Pakala Ramadas, violinist, routinely brought out the raga lines of Rishabapriya and Hindolam with very little of colour and variety. Anantakrishnan (mridangam) and S.V. Viswanathan (ghatam) were vigorous and energetic in their laya support. The Amritavarshani Kirtana ``Sarasiruha nayane'', not a genuine Tyagaraja Kirtana, followed by ``Teliyaleru'' (Dhenuka), ``Mayamma-manu-brova-vamma'' (Nattakurinji), ``Anaathudanugaanu'' (Jingala), ``Abhayambikaya'' (Kedaragowla) were the items handled by the sisters.

SVK

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