Controlled exercises

Adhering to tradition and yet experimenting made for some soothing music

February 27, 2014 04:08 pm | Updated May 18, 2016 11:09 am IST - Chennai

Jeyashree and jeyaraj.

Jeyashree and jeyaraj.

Varalakshmi Anandakumar preferred comfort and sobriety rather than on any sort of over exuberance in her renditions. The ragas were essayed with care and were on the traditional lines. Ranjani, which came first for exposition, was developed with focus on its sensitivity through structured phrases.

Conversely, when she chose Khambodi as the main, she necessarily had to be authoritative as the raga image demanded it. Here too, Varalakshmi maintained her control over the sancharas not to land on overworked motifs to emphasise the raga. Well, she too had to go for a bit of falsetto expressions in upper registers during the niraval on the pallavi of ‘Kaanakkan Kodi Vendum’ by Papanasam Sivan. The swara passage here branched out a bit with convergence on dhaivatam before arriving on the concluding strokes.

Earlier, her Ranjani raga essay was appended with Tyagaraja’s ‘Durmargachara’ with swarakalpana on the charanam line. The kutcheri started with the Begada varnam ‘Inta Chala’, ‘Sri Naradathi Guruguho’ in Mayamalavagowla by Muthuswami Dikshitar, with extended swara threads and ‘Thaye Tripurasundari’ in Suddha Saveri by Periasami Thooran.

Varalakshmi’s swara segments moved smoothly but on the ultimate swara part she meandered to some extent instead of taking a definitive track before she set her mind on the finale. Purandaradasa’s ‘Nimma Bhagya’ in Atana and ‘Asai Mukham’ in Jhonpuri by Bharthi were special inclusions.

Violinist Raghul followed the vocalist with competence. His replies in the Khambodi raga alapana and swaraprasthara were significant. Mannarkoil Balaji kept cool in his support but let go during his thani creating blazing rhythmic patterns.

The veena duet by Jeyashree Jeyaraj and Jeyaraj made the evening balmy. The music was soothing to the senses and stimulating to the intellect. Jeyaraj’s alapana of Saveri passed through many beautiful and intense phrases.

Syama Sastri’s ‘Sankari Sankuru’ had lovely swara sallies between the duo on ‘Syamakrishna Sodari’. Such kritis need playing them with great reverence, in a proper tempo with bhava. They were in full measure in their rendition.

‘Niravathi Sugatha’ in Ravichandrika (Tyagaraja) led to the elaborate ragam, tanam and pallavi of Hamir Kalyani. This Hindustani flavoured raga’s Carnatic form portrayed by Jeyashree was multi-hued covering lingering, soft passages. A tanam in ragamalika (Revati, Chandrakauns, Bilahari and Nalinakanti) took forward into the pallavi ‘Sivaraatsova Vaibhavam’ set in Adi talam. The swara exchanges were crisp and neatly wound up to pave way for a dynamic thani by Madirimangalam Swaminathan and N. Rajaraman on the mridangam and the ghatam, respectively. The lilting Dhanashree thillana of Swati Tirunal was the concluding piece. The first part of the concert carried Kedaragowla varnam, ‘Varavallabha Ramana’ in Hamsadhwani (GNB) and ‘Annapoornae’ in Sama by Dikshitar.

Both the programmes were part of the 24th Annual Music and Drama Festival of Hamsadhwani.

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