Atma Nivedanam,’ a tribute to the Musical Trinity - concept and design by Umayalpuram Sivaraman - was part of the Kalpadruma Arts and Artists festival held at Sivagami Pethachi Auditorium. ‘Atma Nivedanam,’ which is one among the nava-vidha bakthi-margams that are commonly known, would translate to mean ‘surrendering oneself to Him.’ Three artists presented capsule-like concerts focussing on each one of the vaageyakaras.
Rudrapatnam Brothers, with their 50-year experience as performers, gave the audience a Tyagarajaubhavam rendering ‘Giriraja Sudha’ (Bangala), ‘Sambho Mahadeva’ (Pantuvarali), ‘Amma Ravamma’ (Kalyani), ‘Naamakusuma’ (Sri), ‘Uyaala Loogavayya’ (Nilambari) and ‘Pathikiharathi’ (Suratti). Stability and discipline were their watchwords which got reflected in the alapanas for Sri ragam and Kalyani. The demonstrative pace in which the Sri raga kriti was sung brought out its melodic bounty and served to sustain the divine merging mood.
Imprint of his guru
Pattabiram Pandit who sang next rendered Syama Sastri’s compositions and began with ‘Tharunam Idhamma’ (Gowlipanthu). ‘O Jagadamba’ (Anandhabhairavi) that followed probably needed an extra dose of chowkam to capture its bhava heights. Niravals are always the best part of his concerts and he found time for two, ‘Syamakrishna Sodhari’ (Saveri) and ‘Kamakshi Kancha Dalayadakshi’ (Thodi) that bore the visible imprint of his guru KVN. ‘Devi Brova’ (Chinthamani) was his other contribution to this concert.
Saketharaman’s portfolio was Dikshitar kritis and his foray into rendering an alapana for Dwijavanti (‘Akhilandeswari’) marked his courage and confidence though it had its unintended overlap to other suggestive ragas. His other songs were ‘Swaminatha Paripalayasumaam’ (Naattai), ‘Santhana Gopalakrishnam’ (Khamas) ‘Seshachala Nayakam’ (Varali) that had a detailed niraval at ‘Aravindha Pathra Nayanam.’ Mysore Nagaraj on the violin varied in his style as he accompanied adeptly to suit three distinguishable bhanis but the essence in him remained firm. Alapanas for all ragas had class and integrity that had both intelligent and liberal shuffles to present coalescing and individual notes that spelt mastery and refinement of technique.
Rhythmic patterns
Umayalpuram Sivaraman, being an inexhaustible resource of ideas, combined with Sri Sundarkumar (ganjira) and worked out three thani avartanams presenting them under as many distinct laya perspectives - simple and easy nadais and sollus (Draksha Pakam), more complex rhythmic patterns (Kadhali Pakam) and the most cerebral calculative exercises (Narikela Pakam). Sivaraman explained these briefly before the concerts began. Set in Adhi, Misra Chapu and Roopakam the thanis displayed all the constituent elements of laya exclusives in the ideally desirable proportion. The festival was dedicated to K.S. Parameswaran, founder, Kalpadruma, who was a music-lover and a musician himself.
