It was heartening to see on stage a team of young vidwans as the screen went up, at Kartik Fine Arts , and the music that came through the next two hours was of a high order, belying their age. Thankfully the team’s approach , that afternoon, proved its strong belief in classicism. The Ritigowla Ata tala varnam, pregnant with beautiful phrases, was Jayanth’s choice as the opener. The intensity of his blowing that has tremendously grown over the years reminded me of flautist of the yore, vidwan Dindigul S.P. Natarajan. His Bahudhari, though brief, was natural. Jayanth handled Hamir Kalyani deftly before proceeding to Thoomani Maadathu (Andal’s Thiruppavai).
K.J. Dileep’s (violin) exposition reflected the training he had under vidwan M.S. Gopalakrishnan. N.C. Bharadwaj’s (mridangam) arudis were captivating.
Sense of proportion is an important aspect in Carnatic music and Jayanth, has enough of it. His Rishabhapriya, spaced out well with elongated pauses between phrases, had a soporific effect. Dileep’s answer was full of grace. ‘Gananaya Desika’ (Koteeswara Iyer), was completed with a lengthy swaraprasthara. Nevertheless, it enabled him to establish the raga further. After a super fast ‘Sobillu,’ Jayanth took a ‘U’ turn to present Kharaharapriya in a slow and steady gait.
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His raga improvisations in all the three octaves with long rests in panchamam need to be mentioned, and this was followed by ‘Chakkani Raja.’ Bharadwaj’s keen sense of rhythm helped him to make his presence unobtrusive. His precision-oriented thani that followed maintained the tempo created by Jayanth.