While many listeners from the older generation are worried about the future of Carnatic music, we find every day not only a promising young performer but also a new outfit joining the bandwagon of the December Season. Trinity Art Festival conducted a series of concerts at the Kumara Rani Meena Muthiah College at Adyar.
The access to the venue was through a quiet residential area and even after entering the vast campus we were welcomed by silence, as we didn’t hear any music. The watchmen ushered us into the concert hall.
Subhashini Parthasarathy, a senior vocalist, was presenting her recital, like chamber music, for a select group of rasikas. The swara spree for the Thyagaraja Thodi kriti ‘Raju Vedala’ carried the verve. In fact , she had chosen all ghana ragas for her concert — Thodi, Khambodi, Bhairavi and Kalyani. Contrasting the sober ‘Himachala Thanaya’ in Anandabhairavi of Syama Sastri, Subhashini brought some vivacious colours through ‘Nenjil Niraindhidum Ranjani,’ a composition by N.S. Chidambaram connecting all Ranjani-suffixed ragas with chittaiswaram for each segment.
After Thyagaraja’s ‘Marugelara’ in Jayanthasri came the commanding phrases of Khambodi. Subhashini with her strong conviction in the archaic way of deliverance explored the raga in all three regions capturing the raga’s Khambodi. Her spreading and punctuation carried substance and style. Thyagaraja’s ‘Evarimata’ was once again dealt with in detail with a powerful ingenious niraval on ‘Bakta Para.’ The swara matrices landing in daivatam were crisp without extending to tiring lengths. Being the direct disciple of Muktha, Subhashini embellished the concluding segment of her concert with ‘Thatthai Mozhiyal’, a Tamil padam by Vaitheeswaran Koil Subbarama Iyer, a Javali in Bhairavi by Chinnayya, and a virutham from Nachiyar Thirumozhi.
Meera Sivaramakrishnan’s strokes on the violin were occasionally a bit hasty, but she managed to give her responses in good stead. Lakshmanan’s support on the mridangam was adequate.
