Tradition sweetly nurtured

THE EFFECTIVENESS of the performing standard of Gayatri Venkataraghavan provided a measure of the sound guidelines she has received. In her concert for Sri Thyagaraja Seva Samiti on Bahula Panchami day, she brought a touch of freshness to the items she handled.

The use of the natural voice at all levels of singing and not crooning in the top octave gave her music the required depth and the briskness with which she rendered the kirtanas contributed to a uniform tempo throughout.

A noticeable feature was the way she nurtured the songs on the lines of the unspoiled tradition built over the decades by great vidwans. Her tonal manipulations carried enormous communicative power well revealed in the sancharas of alapanas and sangatis in the kirtanas - ``Dinamani Vamsa'' (Harikambhoji), ``Sri Kantaneeyeda'' (Bhavapriya) and particularly ``Koluvamaregada'' (Todi). The rendering stuck to sampradaya patantara which gave the concert the desired impact.

The raga alapana technique too was marked by a sense of proportion and aired by vigu-sugu and gana-naya, which to a large extent conform to the subtle aesthetics of Carnatic music. The accuracy of the raga scale in an alapana is not the main task of an artiste, but the way the characteristic gamakas that bring out the peculiar beauties of a raga are stressed.

This canon was well adhered to by Gayatri Venkataraghavan in the precise Todi raga alapana. The expressive possibilities of a natural voice, as Gayatri expounded, greatly influenced her creative instincts.

If the evaluation of a concert has to be according to the defined guidelines built over the years by veterans, Gayatri's can be said to follow those footprints, ``Yevarikaiavatara'' (Devamanohari) and ``Maanamuleda'' (Hamirkalyani) were the other kirtanas sung.

The success of the performance was stated by the accompanists - Akkarai Subbulakshmi (violin) and Manoj Siva (mridangam). The happy blend of movement and exactitude exploring the avenues of beauty in the alapanas was impeccably placed before the listeners by the violinist.

In her play there was the catchy technique of stylised elegance and gracefulness of musical animation. The alapanas as she rendered were an expression of spontaneity and refinement. In Manoj Siva's accompaniment there was percussive sumptuousness with fluent patterns enhancing the charms of the structure of kirtanas. The laya support was not weighed with erudite heaviness, but progressed with smooth movements.

Feeble voice

The state of her voice dictated the quality of the performance of R. Vedavalli for Nadopasana. She found difficulty in raising her voice beyond the tara shadja, which was left for her sishya to complete in raga alapanas and swaras. So much so that the raga vinyasas of Mayamalavagowla, Kanada and Shanmukhapriya had minimal phrasings. Being confined for the most part to the madhyamasthayi, the impact of the recital too was uninspiring. Expressional maturity had to submit to vocal feebleness.

The kirtanas she sang were ``Pavanaatmaja'' (Nattai), ``Merusamaana'' (Mayamalavagowla), ``Nenarunchinaanu'' (Malavi), ``Maamava Satatam'' (Jaganmohini) and ``Sukhi Evaro'' (Kanada), which normally at the hands of such a senior vidushi as Vedavalli should have uplifted the performance.

Reflectively, Mullaivasal Chandramouli's accompaniment on the violin and K. R. Ganesh's mridangam support also appeared to be meek.

Anuradha Krishnamurthy, in her concert for Narada Gana Sabha, addressed her music primarily to portray the style of her father K. V. Narayanaswamy and it was pedigree in low key. Intense in giving vocal pep to articulation of the sahityas of songs and to sancharas in raga alapanas, she gave more importance to imparting verve and vigour to her effort than to melodic elegance and grace.

Instead of an even flow, the development of raga moved in spurts of energy in the higher reaches in particular. Her Carnatic music foundation is quite strong.

The concert began with a Sri raga kirtana, ``Vande Vasudevam,'' which gave a noble start followed by the familiar Varali song, ``Kaa Vaa Vaa''. Following her father's tracks, she at length elaborated Nagaswaravali raga and the Thyagaraja kirtana, ``Sri Pathe''.

The main ragam happened to be Simhendramadhyamam alapana and Vasudevachar's song, ``Ninnenammithi''.

The violinist R. Hemalatha dealt with the alapanas of the two ragas delineating them with cohesive design, and they were engagingly pleasant in colour and softness. Mridangam accompaniment was by Kumbakonam Ramakrishnan who nurtured the songs with ebullient, fast-paced laya patterns.

SVK

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