Kalyanapuram S. Aravind has a clear, ringing voice that traverses the octaves with ease. His open-throated singing and musical involvement with the kritis made his concert thoroughly enjoyable. He sang a bright Latangi (‘Pirava Varam’) with niraval and swaras at ‘Parvati Neya.’ He has a free-flowing style of singing niraval, which appears to be one of his key strengths. He chose the middle path in swara singing, with a judicious mix of the free-flowing and the arithmetical permutations. Durbar was a welcome inclusion. He showed a good grasp of the raga though there was an avoidable bit of repetition of a few phrases.
It was refreshing to hear Tyagaraja’s ‘Nithya Roopa,’ a composition that is seen more in the books than heard. Sankarabharanam was the main raga for the evening but had to be sung with restraint and with an eye on the clock. Three raga alapanas in a junior slot of 75 minutes was, perhaps, overambitious. Nevertheless, he portrayed a dignified picture of the raga in which the essence compensated for the missing elaboration. He sang Dikshitar’s masterpiece, ‘Akshayalingavibho,’ soaked in classicism. There was also the expected niraval and swaras at ‘Badarivana’ with a tricky rhythmic setting. Again, he sang the niraval with aplomb and negotiated the tricky eduppu of the line with a fair degree of ease.
Mannarkoil Balaji took on the thani with relish and enjoyed the three-syllable offset in the Misra Chapu talam. He made a mark even in this brief thani. Nerkunam Sankar compelled attention each time he played, for the violinist’s rhythmic essays were a treat to the ear. S.P. Ananthapadmanabha (violin) impressed with his alapana of Latangi and showed himself as a team-player while curtailing his alapana for Sankarabharanam. The post-thani session had a verse from ‘Amalanadipiran’ sung in Kapi and Hamsanandi, followed by Ambujam Krishna’s ‘Punnagai Onre’ in the latter raga. A thillana of Seshagopalan rounded the concert off.
Aravind has imbibed a lot of good music from his gurus, the iconic Seshagopalan and his senior disciple, Kasturirangan. He has acquainted himself well with classy renditions and improvisations that are the hallmarks of the T.N. Seshagopalan’s school of music. He has successfully crossed the imitative phase of his guru’s singing and must now reflect on taking his music to the next level where the foundation laid by his gurus is visible but the music has his individual stamp.
