Tyagabrahma Aradhana, conducted during the course of Coimbatore Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s Pongal Music Festival, started with the auspicious nagaswaram recital by Pollachi Kathiresan. Music teachers, students and music lovers of Coimbatore gathered to sing the Ghana raga Pancharatnas of the saint. Later, floral tributes were paid to his portrait.
‘Sowkhya bhava’ ruled throughout the saxophone concert of Shimoga Kumaraswamy, who is honing his skills under the tutelage of the multi-faceted mridangist T.V. Gopalakrishnan. Incidentally, the guru also performed with the sishya. Kumaraswamy could bring out the nuances of the Carnatic ragas through the Western instrument, with effortless ease.
Following the varnam ‘Evvari Bodhana’ in Abhogi, he presented ‘Nammamma Sharadhae’, set to tune by TVG. There were many popular kritis such as ‘Endharo Mahaanubhaavulu’, Ninnu Vinaa’, Paavana Guru’ and ‘Raghuvamsa Sudhaambudhi’. ‘Nagumomu Galaneni’, a favourite of the instrumentalists, was the main kriti, followed by a shower of swaraprastharas. The thani that followed proved TVG’s mastery over rhythm, as he wove magical patterns along with Ambur Padmanabhan on the mridangam and Sunil Kumar on the kanjira. Pradesh Achar on the violin was lively and supportive.
Malladi Brothers Sriram Prasad and Ravikumar presented the concluding concert that was steeped in purity and depth. They began with the Begada Varnam, ‘Intha Chalamu Jesithae’. ‘Sri Naathaadhi Guruguho Jayathi’ in Mayamalavagowla by Dikshithar gave the concert a firm grounding. After a brief depiction of Huseni by Sriram Prasad, they sang ‘Raamaa Ninnae Namminaanu’. Then, Ravikumar introduced Bilahari and the brothers followed it with Tyagaraja’s ‘Tholi Janmamula’ by Tyagaraja.
The niraval for ‘Naaga Shayana Tyagaraja’ was enjoyable with fertile elaborations from the brothers, embellished by Embar Kannan’s violin. A lovely alapana of Mandari by Ravikumar followed, preceding ‘Ninnu Jeppa Kaaranamaemi Manasa’ (Patnam Subramanya Iyer) that almost echoed what Tyagaraja stated in ‘Toli Jenmamula’, both composers attributing their suffering to bad deeds in their previous birth. Ramaswamy Sivan’s ‘Ananda Nataesha’ in Todi was full of life.
The main was in Sahana, and the brothers took turns to sculpt it beautifully. As Sriram Prasad prepared a solid background, Ravikumar took over and built upon it. They then presented ‘Giripai Nelakunna’, with the introduction that this song was sung by Saint Tyagaraja five days before his siddhi, after he had the darshan of Rama on the Suvela Mountain. It was a most appropriate choice, as the following day was the aradhana of the saint of Tiruvaiyaru. The rendition was full of bhava and they gave due respect to the kriti with niraval and swaras. Melting melody flowed through Kannan’s fingers as they glided smoothly up and down, coaxing the violin to yield delectable music. Veteran K.V. Prasad on the mridangam and S.V. Subramanian on the kanjira gave good rhythmic support.
Each day, during the earlier slot, up and coming artists were given opportunities to showcase their talent. On the first day, the
students of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s Ajjanur School presented bhajans. S. Krishna Srinivas, disciple of Rajalakshmi Padmanabhan; Anugrah Lakshmanan, disciple of Jayashri Aravind; K. Meera, disciple of K. Sivaramakrishnan; and Aparna Gopalakrishnan, disciple of Chandrasekara Bhagavathar presented vocal music on the other days.
