Brevity is his hallmark

Sreevalsan J. Menon impressed musical stalwarts right from the beginning of his career

June 25, 2010 08:50 pm | Updated December 15, 2016 10:54 pm IST

AESTHETIC EXPRESSIONS Sreevalsan J. Menon Photo: R. Ragu

AESTHETIC EXPRESSIONS Sreevalsan J. Menon Photo: R. Ragu

At Sreevalsan Menon's concert at the Cleveland Tyagaraja festival, violin maestro Lalgudi G. Jayaraman, who had then accompanied the upcoming vocalist, was overwhelmed enough by his talent to offer the young artist auxiliary music sessions. ‘“The genius' offer is in itself a life-time credit to me,” Sreevalsan recalls.

Sreevalsan J. Menon, 40, an ardent admirer and student of Neyyattinkara Vasudevan from Kerala, isn't a new face to Bangalore connoisseurs. His concert at the BTM Cultural Academy was on rasikas demand, the academy president K. N. Ananthram had said.

Emotive style

Rewind to 15 years or so, when guru Vasudevan had just introduced Sreevalsan to the cognoscenti of the Music Academy in Chennai. Vasudevan flagged off Mukhari only to see Sreevalsan get drawn deeper into flourishes of the scale, his expressive Neyyattinkara schooling bringing out signature idioms in abundance. While Sreevalsan was rearing to articulate an intrinsically emotive style, Vasudevan saw the burgeoning creativity making waves with scholarly audience.

Sreevalsan says, “My journey traces its roots to the Semmangudi and Ramnad Krishnan school, my guru's training camps.”

Apart from this blend, Vasudevan's passion for M.D. Ramanathan and K.V. Narayanaswamy's approach soon saw him wield an open-handed influence. The amalgam, along with his own individualised interpretations, was further nurtured and wrapped into a stylised Neyyattinkara flow.

The progressively-evolved pathanthara also helped Vasudevan treat Swati Tirunal kritis in novel ways hitherto not attempted by other schools.

Five-year-old Sreevalsan was almost dragged from play one day when his mother took him to his neighbour Rajalakshmi Krishnan (a disciple of Chembai) to initiate him into Carnatic music.

“I also tutored under T.V. Ramani (mridandist TVGs brother) briefly in Trissur before I had a chance meeting with Vasudevan at AIR in Trivandrum when I was a student of B.Sc. in Agriculture.”

“The first day, he taught me Vasudevacharya's ‘Pranamamyaham' in Gowla, and the second day, I was seated beside him on a concert dias! In all his humility, my guru had selected kritis that I knew. Such platform experiences with star musicians were regular features of my learning experience.”

This was the beginning of the affable bond that Sreevalsan shared with his guru. “His meticulous grounding helped me understand the obscure aspects of bhava in aesthetic expressions.”

“Learn to appreciate beauty in everything surrounding you, understanding art and admiring nature are intrinsic to absorbing music,” Sreevalsan can't help being in awe of his guru's philosophy.

Restrained phraseology

Listen to Sreevalsan's concert and you will realise that it is not just the choice of kritis and ragas that transport his noteworthy expressions. It is his performance underlined with palpable brevity that makes it memorable. “Our creative exercises, alapane for instance, had Vasudevan monitoring us with a hawk's eye. He groomed us into developing a restrained phraseology, swiftly defining the raga contours, so we could get the audience to recognise the scale in the opening lines itself. Laboured terminologies, even though melodic, would be like over-eating, we were told.”

If Sreevalsan spent half his time learning by listening to old masters and contemplating on the spirit infused by saint-poets in their lyrical mastery, his guru also led him to analyse other styles and genres.

“This is how my understanding of the native ‘Sopani' written originally by 15th and 16th Century poets for Kathakali, opened up, and I sometimes infuse these Kathakali rouses in my Carnatic presentations.”

Sreevalsan preferred to be more than a contended musician. Armed with a Doctorate in Agriculture, Sreevalsan is a Professor at the Kerala Agricultural University. His foray into scoring music for Malayalam films saw him produce hits like “Maymasame” (in “Laptop”) and “Venchamara Katte” (in “T.D. Dasan Standard VI-B”). How does he view his journey into films? “Film scores are for instant satisfaction. How else can you explain the spiritual and emotional bliss that one derives from Dikshitar's Navagraha and Navavarna kritis?”

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