The highlight of Chitravina Ravikiran’s concert was the detailed Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi in Kiravani. The raga detailing was done fairly in an exhaustive manner covering the raga image to paint the best picture. Kiravani’s pensive tone has innate charm. Though melody is the watchword of Ravikiran’s playing, the melkala sancharas were surprisingly a tad pompous. Violinist Mysore M. Manjunath substantiated it in his version with smooth and passionate touches.
The tanam was in full form with a pallavi set to tisra triputa duvi nadai (lyrics were not sung, which was normally done by Ravikiran). The ragamalika blend was confined to Valaji, Hindolam and Kalyanavasantham. It was followed by thani by Tiruvarur Vaidyanathan (mridangam), E.M. Subramaniam (ghatam) and G. Guruprasanna (ganjira).
The concert started with ‘Varana Mukhava’ in Hamsadhwani with a volley of swaras and this style of swara rains surfaced later in ‘Paraloka Bhaya’ in Mandhari. Melodic Lalitha essay formed the prelude to the soft and sedate playing of ‘Nannu Brovu Lalitha’ of Syama Sastri. An impressive and vibrant Shanmukhapriya foreword was attached for Annamacharya’s ‘Parama Purusha’. Here too there was a supplement of fast rolling swaras on the charanam, which as expected drew a huge applause. There was ‘Sriramam Ravi Kulapathi Somam’ in Narayanagowla of Dikshitar, a slow and soft kriti to calm the senses.
It is sad that most of the time, the artists go overboard on the swara section to elicit applause from the audience. This onus becomes stronger on the instrumentalists. Further, it would have been better if the instrumental players had announced the details of the compositions they played. It would not squelch the musical wisdom of the audience in anyway.
Sreevalsan J. Menon is blessed with a malleable masculine voice. It sounds pleasing, soft and deep in all octaves. There are no artifices or countertenor; Perfect open-mouthed and open-hearted articulation. That is his music.
After the customary varnam, ‘Brova Barama’ in Bahudari (Tyagaraja) ushered the proceedings further with a crisp niraval and swaras on ‘Karunakara Sri Vasudeva.’ A brief Arabhi was appended with ‘Sri Saraswathi’ (Dikshitar) and an array of swaras titivated. ‘Teliyaleru Rama’ in Dhenuka (Tyagaraja) and ‘Janani Ninuvina’ in Ritigowla (Subbaraya Sastri) infused a sense of majesty and devotion.
The Varali raga essay was carefully structured with special touches on the salient features of the raga. The reason being obvious as the kriti here was Tyagaraja’s Pancharatnam ‘Kana Kana Ruchira,’ moving only on sahityam eschewing the swara passages. Here Sreevalsan had chosen the ‘Rama Nama Rasikudu’ for improvisation and swarakalpana. After the initial rounds of swaras, it gathered momentum with panchamam as the landing note.
The tani avaratanam by R. Ramesh (mridangam) and Bangalore N. Amrit (ganjira) breathed fire and brimstone.
Menon chose Kedaragowla for his RTP, set to khanda triputa. ‘Sarade Veenavadana Visharade’ was a bit sketchy. Of course, blame it on the time.
Sreevalsan Menon’s music is endearing because of its inherent preference for lofty deliverance rather than propensity for racy swaras, boisterous raga treatments and high decibel articulation. But today, audience preferences are as unpredictable as the weather conditions.
H.K. Venkatram (violin) was immensely cooperative and his raga treatises and swara sallies were as short and sweet as those of the vocalist.
There are many artists emerging in Carnatic music who have impressive credentials. But it is the rasikas, who ensure their popularity. Sikkil Gurucharan has been climbing the ladder of fame steadily. The Gurucharan one heard a few years ago has definitely improved. His approach to raga delineation, swaras, kriti rendition, in every aspect he showed his maturity. There was more involvement in his renditions with stronger perception and confident presentations.
Gurucharan communicated two ragas and kirthanas with elegance. The first was his essay of Ganamurthe, where he handled the melakarta raga with vivadi swaras in vivid shades. His elaboration on ‘Navaneetha Chora’ for Ganamurthe by Tyagaraja projected the range of the raga aesthetically. It sounded good since there was no swara addendum.
The second one was Bilahari. Here the audience could accompany the singer in his exciting expedition; the extra long karvais, the lilting akaras, breathtaking brigas and poignant stop overs brought the myriad faces of Bilahari hitherto not experienced. When the oeuvre of Tyagaraja ‘Na Jeevathara’ appeared, it opened the floodgates of surfeit of sangatis on the pallavi itself. Gurucharan meticulously stuck to every minor variation and inflection and rendered them with complete professional sincerity and grace. Adding extra charm, there was a catchy chittaswaram also after the anupallavi. The swara segment was another great experience where the panchamam-centred notes were lined up and linked to a grand finale.
V. Sanjeev, violinist, took each challenge from the vocalist with alacrity and his versions of these ragas and the final swaras, especially in Bilahari, were expertly textured.
Veteran Umayalpuram Sivaraman (mridangam) believed in softness as an accompanist. His percussion pact with S. Karthick (ghatam) was subdued and an encouragement to the vocalist. However, the duo set the auditorium ablaze in their thani by exchanging very soft to highly strong rhythmic patterns.
For the records, there were other items such as ‘Sankari Neeve’ in Begada, ‘Kamalambam’ in Anandabhairavi and RTP in Shanmukhapriya.
