He came, we saw (since he cannot see), he conquered. Veteran violinist M. Chandrasekharan tugged at the heart-strings of the audience, as many a connoisseur remarked.
Contrary to Sica's ‘young brigade' concerts over the week-long celebration, the closing day was the icing on the cake - a delightful treat in the form of the violin maestro. He opened to Dikshitar's Siddivinayaka in Shanmukhapriya and literally imbibed his rendition with his (naa ) jeevadhaara set to Bilahari. Every piece he chose to play was like a celestial shower that could purify the entire being, drenched as it were in the divinity of his violin. His bowing looked so effortless and the music that emanated so elating that it was hard to correlate the two.
Vocal touch
The elaborate swarakalpana in duritha kalam was stunning coming from the octogenarian. He was one of those violinists who could also lend a vocal touch to their ‘vidwat' during their heyday. So, we also had a peek into his vocal rendition of quite a few songs echoed by his adroit fiddle. Entha muddo, entha sogaso .. in Bindumalini scaled the heights of pathos while Kalyana vasantham (Naada loludai…) gently swung us in melodic improvisation . The master strokes swept the listeners off their feet. His accompanist daughter Bharati Gopalakrishnan gave a short intro to Revati as an interlude but nothing would stop her expert father. The fiddler seemed charged with high voltage energy as he bowed on and on from one masterpiece to another as the audience wanted more and more of it. The laya-vinyaasam following the Madhuvanti (DSR Murthi on the mridangam and Sivaramakrishnan on the ghatam) was a delight. Baalakrishna paadam.. in Dhanyaasi, Jagaddhodharana and Bhagyada Lakshmi baaramma in Sri rounded up almost all the popular kritis that could ever adorn the music firmament.
