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Refreshing experience
Sreevalson Menon.
SRIVALSA MENON is a promising artiste on the musical firmament. Almost all the songs he chose in his concert for Nada Inbam were those not heard often and thus were very refreshing. The Daruvarnam in Kamas `Mathe' set a cheerful tone. Valson's alapana of Anandabhairavi was reasonably paced and was soulful. He rendered Dikshitar's `Thyagaraja Yogavaibhavam' in the correct tempo, adding strength to his music.
After a quick `Paramapurusha' in Vasantha, he explored Poorvikalyani in depth. Intelligent phrasing could be discerned in the neraval of ``Kotimanmatha" in the Kriti `Satileni.' The rendition of ``Thulasamma" in Devagandhari had an emotional touch to it. An exhaustive but very good Sankarabharanam preceded Swati Tirunal's ``Devi Jagatjanani."
If V.V.S. Murari was good in the earlir Raga alapanas, he simply excelled in Sankarabharanam. The neraval and swarams were equally good by both the artistes.
Neyveli Narayanan generally understands the kritis and gives good support and this time he was ably assisted by Venkatasubramanian on the ghatam. During the Thani Narayanan beautifully alternated the ghumki with the clear tone of the percussion instrument making it an exhilarating experience. The ghatam artiste too successfully tried to match him with interesting tonal variations.
Menon's light item ``Sagarasayanavibho" too was appealing. But why did he have to sing Dikshitar's ``Srinathadi" in Mayamalavagowla so fast? The great composer has set the kriti in an ascending order from a chouka Pallavi, Madhyama kala Anupallavi and a Dhuritha kala Charanam beautifully. Why tamper with it?
Trivandrum Venkatraman is a senior veena vidwan; his concert was flawless and chaste but it was not particularly lively, except for a few flashes of touching sangatis in the songs or alapanas.
It followed a somewhat set pattern with a raga alapana of medium duration, a kriti followed by neraval and swaras or just swaras alone. Thus was heard, after the Sahana varnam, Mayamalavagowla, Poorvikalyani, Abhogi, Devagandhari and Saveri each with their respective kritis, etc. Trivandrum Surendran on the mridangam and Vaikom Gopalakrishnan on the ghatam provided understanding support.
Sumitra Vasudevan's adherence and devotion to tradition and classicism are quite commendable. She has a good voice and sings with self-enjoyment and is not a victim of the current trend of fast music.
But if the audience's interest were to be sustained, she needs to plan her concert carefully interspersing some fast paced songs - and not another choukakala Kriti like `Kshitijaramanam' in Devagandhari - in between otherwise leisurely and chaste rendition of ragas and kritis.
Sumithra sang an excellent and evocative Lalitha before `Seethamma Mayamma,' to the astonishment of many in the audience. Tyagaraja has composed this song in Lalitha and not in Vasantha as is generally understood; it generated a debate among the listeners.
After the Vachaspati alapana and the kriti `Ennadunee', she began Aberi; her extensive and scholarly delineation once again confused many of the listeners; she sang the Raga as it should be done with Suddha Deivatam and the way she sang `Nagumomu' also should have sounded strange because of that.
Though in the earlier raga alapanas Amritha Murali did well, this one tested her a little.Sumithra was in control of the subtle nuances of the magnificent Raga Bhairavi in her unhurried alapana. Amritha met the challenge well.
The Kamalamba Navaavarna kriti in this raga is set to Misra Jampa Tala and is quite lengthy; somehow the neraval did not seem quite suitable for such a composition; unless the violinist also knows the song it would be difficult to follow as each avarta of the tala filled with several words would be tough. Amritha managed successfully.
LAKSHMI VENKATRAMAN
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