Of styles and schools

Two instrumental concerts and a vocal lecture-demonstration in Thripunithura portrayed the melodious cadences of Hindustani music and Carnatic music.

Thamrakad Govindan Namboodiri.

Music lovers in Thripunithura got the opportunity to enjoy three different styles of music. The musical evenings at Sivapoorna Auditorium featured a flute recital, a lecture- demonstration and a Hindustani sitar recital on three different days.

Chalakkudi A.K. Raghunathan began his flute recital with a Navaragamalika varnam, ‘Valachi' by Patnam Subrahmania Iyer. Captivating blowing technique combined with an excellent sense of sruti elevated the concert to another level.

Hard work and devotion

Beginning with Dikshitar's ‘Swaminaatha Paripaalaya' in Natta, the flautist went on to a soothing alaap in Aandolika. His rendering of Tyagaraja's ‘Raagasudhaarasa' gave it a different feel and same was the case with ‘Bhajanaseyaraada' in Dharmavathi, composed by Mysore Vasudevaachaar. K. Jayakrishnan ably supported him on the mridangam, especially in top rhythm and while doing ‘thisra.' His perfect rhythm had interesting mathematical permutations, which highlighted his hard work and devotion.

A melodious and pacifying alaap of Vrindaavanasaaranga raag with harmonious taanam, that too in three octaves, won the appreciation of the audience. Thirunellor Ajith followed him like a shadow. The pallavi was ‘Vrindaavana saaranga paadame thunai, Neelamegha Syamakrishna.'

Raghunathan's virtuosity was evident when, after the swara, he played ragamalika in Sivaranjini and Hindolam; the route to shift from one raga to another was brilliant and the ‘kurappu' too. He showed his creativity in the niraval too. More particularly, Raghu played this in a difficult ‘Khandajaathi Thriputa' tala but Jayakrishnan and Haripad S.R. Sekhar (ghatam) rose to the challenge to make the tani a remarkable one.

‘Visweswara darasan' in Sindhubhairavi and a Dhanasree thillana, both compositions of Swati Tirunal, and ‘Bhagya Varalakshmeebaaramma' in Madhyamavathi, composed by Purandaradasa, concluded the recital. His deep knowledge, consistent laya and ‘sampradaaya sudhham' made the concert a remarkable one.

Scholarly lec-dem

Thamarakkad T.N. Govindan Namboothiri's lecture-demonstration (lec-dem) on Dikshitar (on the day of Deepavali) did credit to the legendary composer and the vocalist and teacher. “Dikshitar's admirers remember the great composer on the day of Deepavali, every year. It was on the day of Deepavali, that Dikshitar asked his students to render one of his compositions, ‘Meenakshi memudam.' While they were singing the line ‘meena lochani paasa mochani' in anupallavi, Dikshithar departed from this world,” Govindan Namboothiri explained.

Govindan Namboothiri covered many aspects of the kritis of the composer. He explained elaborately the beauty and peculiarity of Navagraha kritis, Abhayamba and Kamalamba Navavarana kritis. He also rendered some of them such as ‘Sree Abhayamba' in Sree ragam and ‘Kamalambika' in Kamboji. Abdul Azeez was on the violin.

‘Ramachandraaya Namasthe' in Thodi was the main raga, which was embellished with niraval and swaram. This was followed by tani by Kottayam G. Santhosh Kumar and Mangad K.V. Pramod on the mridangam and the ghatam respectively.

The vocalist also referred to various vibhakthi kritis, some temple kritis and Panchalingakshethra kritis of Dikshitar.

Alan Posselt's sitar concert saw him in the company of Sidhharth Roy Chaudhuri on the tabla. Alan, an Australian by birth, trained under many stalwarts in Hindustani music such as Ustad Allaudin Khan, Pandit Radhika Mohan Maithra, Kashinath Mukherji, Bimal Mukherji and so on. He has been trained in Hindustani vocal, sarod and guitar too.

Soothing renditions

Alan began with raag Puriya kalyan, a combination of Yaman (Iman) and Puriya, which has ‘Komal Re (Rishabh)' and ‘Tibro Ma (Madhyam)' Alan played this in alaap, jhod, theen taal. His soothing recital ushered in a serene ambience.

This was followed by raag Khamaj. This was in dhumri, theen taal. This is supposed to be a ‘chanchal prokriti' (unstable in nature) raag. One could remember the famous ‘Vaishno Janato Tere…' while listening to this raag. Sidhharth Roy Chaudhuri excelled in his part and the smooth coordination between the artistes was apparent.