The covered terrace of a house was the venue for Pozhichalur Thrimoorthi Sangeetha Sabha’s 14th music festival. The thatched pandal absorbed sound. That evening, Thoppur Sairam’s offering was refreshing. His recital, punctuated by the noisy landing of airplanes, still made an impact.
Sairam, professor of music at The Tamil Nadu Government Music College, comes from Thoppur, a village located along the Madurai-Virudunagar highway.
He showed glimpses of his calibre in the few lines of Sahana that he hummed before the varnam.
His Hamsadhwani (‘Pahi Sripathe’, Swati Tirunal), Harikhambodi (‘Muruga’,Thanjavur Sankara Iyer), Hindolam (‘Ramanukku’, Arunachala Kavirayar) raga alapanas were enjoyable, with a judicious mix of brigas and plain and gamaka-oriented phrases.
Melakaveri Thyagarajan (violin displayed his virtuosity during the alapanas, especially the nagaswaram style rendition of the Poorvikalyani alapana.
Thoppur’s control over rhythm was evident throughout, as a young and zealous Delhi Sairam (mridangam), tried all the patterns he knew for every song.
Thoppur’s niraval for ‘Madhura Puri Nilayay’ and the swaras that followed led to a grand climax — a high-energy tani by Melakaveri Thyagarajan, Delhi Sairam and Giridariprasad (ganjira).
