ConcertFlautist G.S. Rajan impressed the audience with
his soulful recital in New Delhi recently.
Manjari Sinha
Delhi-based cultural organisation Sangeetam invited Vidwan G.S. Rajan for a Carnatic flute recital in their bi-monthly music concert series at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, recently. What Rajan played in the evening's recital was true raga sangeet which had both, the gamakas of Carnatic music and the steady tuneful notes of Hindustani music. Raga is, in fact, defined in music treatise as “Ranjako jan chittanam” i.e. one that delights the hearts of listeners and Rajan did just that.
Born into a musical family, G.S. Rajan was initiated into classical music by his parents Gayatri and G.S. Srikrishnan. He was further groomed by gurus like M.D. Ramanathan and Pudukode Krishnamurthi in vocal music and H. Ramchandra Shastri in flute at Kalakshetra. A regular broadcaster at the All India Radio from a very young age, Rajan is a creative composer also. His musical group Malabarian-raga Symphony won accolades for his composition, “Oasis”, also appreciated by maestros like Pandit Ravi Shankar and Zubin Mehta.
The greatest asset of this gifted artiste is his sensitivity towards the swaras. He caresses them with utmost care and literally revels in total tunefulness. The tonal quality of his resonant flute itself strikes music lovers, the moment he touches the first note. This was evident right from the beginning when he opened his melodious flute recital with a Varnam in raga Mohanam. Rajan carved the soulful and subtle essence of the pentatonic raga in the close confines of just five notes.
He played the famous composition of Muttuswami Dikshitar in raga Nattai set to Adi tala, “Mahaganapatim manasa smarami…” in a truly reposeful manner unlike the hurried way in which normally musicians render it as an opening item and finish it fast to proceed further. Rajan took his time to unfold the beauty of the riveting raga and the composition both. After “Maha kavya naatakadipriyam…” for instance, he gave a pause of one full ‘aavartanam' and aesthetically adorned the line with a variety of quicksilver taans. One savoured totally a different flavour of this oft-heard song in Rajan's imaginative rendering.
He played raga Hansadhwani as the main piece of the concert and here again he offered a mesmerising sense of wonder by treating the Muttuswami Dikshitar's kriti “Vaataapi Ganapatim bhajeham…” in ragam-tanam-pallavi format. He played a detailed aalapanam as ragam-tanam (aalap-jod) and provided opportunity for Taani aavartanam to the violinist V.S.K.Annadurai. Rajan continued the aalapanam with raag-malika swarapastaras comprising ragas like Desh, Charukeshi, Shankarabharanam, Kanada and Chakrawakam et al before he came back to raga Hansadwani and played “Vaatapi.. ..” set to Adi tala. There were lovely niravals but Rajan left his listeners unquenched when he offered yet another long sequence of taani aavartanam to the Mridangam player K. Padmanabham and the tabla player Shailendra Mishra. The audience did not allow him to wind up the concert and he had to play ‘Vaishnava Jana ..' as a concluding piece, on popular demand.
The evening had opened with a Ganesh vandana presented as a beautiful bandish in raga Puria-Kalyana by Aseem Chakravarti and Galpo Ghosh, students of Sangeetam who were ably accompanied by Pradeep Chatterji on the tabla and Arundhati Joshi on the harmonium.
