‘S arkkarai Pandalil Thaenmaari’ That’s how you could describe V. Shankaranarayanan’s morning concert. He didn’t need any time to warm up. Right from the word go, it rained melody.
He is gifted with several qualities that make a first-rate vocalist - sonorous voice, sruti suddham, total control over laya, clear diction and above all, superb communication with the accompanists and the audience. His Vachaspathi alapana showcased the very grammar for the raga, having all the required elements. Nagai Sriram (violin) responded with an equally energetic elucidation.
In Thulasivanam’s ‘Sri Pathe Jaya’ on the Lord of Tirupati, the niraval and swaras were at ‘Padmanabha Murare’. The piece de resistance was Papanasam Sivan’s masterpiece in Thodi, ‘Karthikeya Gangeya Gowri.’ If raga elucidation was generous and widespread, niraval and swaras at ‘Mal Maruga Muruga’ were extensive.
A word of praise for Nagai Sriram’s raga exposition will not be out of place here. What melody!
The thani by B. Sivaraman and N. Guruprasad (ghatam) was crisp (perhaps owing to paucity of time) yet, brilliant. B. Sivaraman is a gifted mridangam vidwan and a much sought-after accompanist. He has the right-left-right balance and vallinam mellinam logic. If his father, Sethalapathi Balu, a great vocalist, were with us now, he would have been happy to see his children doing so well.
Shankaranarayanan rendered a lilting ‘Hariharaputram’ of Dikshitar (Khanda Ekam), preceded by an elaborate alapana of Vasantha.
Earlier, he commenced his engaging concert with the Begada varnam followed by ‘Pranathosmi’ (Nattai) of Thulasivanam with kalpanaswaras.
In an otherwise satisfying recital, the only shortcoming was the absence of a Tyagaraja composition.
