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Fit to be savoured
ENDOWED WITH a flair for both Carnatic music and light music of the films, P. Unnikrishnan delighted a large gathering of his admirers with his vocal recital for Sri Thyaga Brahma Gana Sabha. He opened the concert with a serious rendition of the soulful varnam, "Viriboni" in Bhairavi set to Ata tala. The vocalist's diction of the piece, "Sugunamule", of Tyagaraja in Chakravakam was satisfying with a short spell of colourful swara formats suffixed to it. The singer exhibited the strength of his voice with a little over-enthusiasm through his tonally powerful presentation of a raga profile to precede the piece, "Ramanatham", of Muthuswamy Dikshitar. He completed it with some passionate vocal exercises of neraval and swara texts.
Following a lively execution of "Mamayure" in Bilahari in an accelerated "quasi-classical form", Unnikrishnan took up Saveri for elaboration. His exploration was exquisite in a modulated style of rigorous raga rendition. The piece, "Rajagopala", of Muthuswamy Dikshitar succeeded it in a calm musical setting. The endeavour of the violinist, H. K. Venkataraman, to reflect raga bhava in the course of his essay of Saveri drew special praise. Arjun Kumar (mridangam) and Madipakkam Murali (ghatam) energised the recital's rhythmic details.
Vijayalakshmi Subramaniam elated the listeners with a heart-warming vocal recital. Having gained considerable experience in handling the facets of Carnatic music as a skilful singer, she presented her musical delicacies with tasteful details. The pieces, "Gananathaya" (Gowlai), "Sarasasamadhana" (Kapinarayani) and "Himadrisude" (Kalyani) were presented by her with sharp foci on their captivating classical contents. The vocalist's profile of Kalyani and the sequences of swaras suffixed by her to the piece in it were illustrative of her imagination of finer musical expressions.
Usha Rajagopal developed a colourful form of Kalyani on the violin. B. Ganapathiraman (mridangam) and Tiruchi Murali (ghatam) added adequate metrical liveliness to the recital.
Perfect notes
Maintaining perfection of notes, K. V. Ramanujam gave an enjoyable recital on the flute. He won appreciation through a mellow description of Anandabhairavi highlighting the details of its beauty. "Marivere" of Syama Sastri was sweet with all the classically nuanced instrumental diction. The piece was concluded with a series of tuneful swara passages. It was noteworthy that K. V. Ramanujam presented even metrically intricate sequences of swaras in a tonally controlled soft style.
M. R. Gopinath (violin) drew a shiny sketch of Anandabhairavi with fascination for sophisticated expressions. Thanjavur R. Kumar (mridangam) added to the pleasantness of the recital with a profusion of tekhas tuned perfectly to the sruthi. The brevity of his thani in association with T. D. Balu (ghatam) merits mention.
Rigorous details
The vocal recital of Lalitha Sivakumar and Gayathri Sundararaman in the morning session was replete with the ingredients of a rigorous classical kind.
Trained effectively by their mentor, D. K. Pattammal, the duo delivered the Tamil piece, "Paramukham Enamma" (Kalyani) of Syama Sastri in an intensely appealing musical version. The piece was prefaced with a pleasing raga sketch drawn by Gayathri. Lalitha's painstaking delineation of Madhyamavathi in a style of disciplined vocal music won admiration.
The vocalists completed this phase with a deft depiction of the piece, "Adigisukhamu" of Tyagaraja.
Cherthalai Sivakumar's accompaniment on the violin was agreeable. Thanjavur Ramadoss (mridangam) supported the recital with clarity of percussion patterns. His thani in the phase of Madhyamavathi was planned and palatable.
Calm rendition
Young S. Mahathi gave a notable account of her artistic achievement. Her calm rendition of the musically intense piece, "Brovavamma" of Syama Sastri in Manji, set intricately to the misra chapu, was impressive. The vocalist's essay of Poorvikalyani was elegant. The singer completed it with a crisp execution of the piece, "Anandanatanamaduvar" extended through pretty swara patterns. Akkarai Murugan (violin) and Tambaram Rajagopal (mridangam) supported the recital well.
Shiny raga summary
Sangeetha Swaminathan has been trained to communicate the beauty of Carnatic music in a style delightful to the listeners who long for lively ingredients.
The vocalist surveyed the shiny scalar surface of the raga, Nithimathi, intelligently and completed it with an enjoyable execution of the piece, "Mohanakara" of Kotteswara Iyer.
The singer's delineation of Kiravani was fair and needed to be more effective with attention to be directed towards gaining a concern to image the details of the raga's deeper layers beneath its scale — a task not too difficult for this young and wise singer endowed with a melodious voice.
The vocalist suffixed her portrayal of Kiravani with a neat execution of the piece, "Kaligiyunde" of Tyagaraja.
H. N. Bhaskar's sketch of Kiravani on the violin was engaging.
Poongulam Subramaniam (mridangam) and Adambakkam Shankar (ghatam) provided interesting percussion support.
— R.V.
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