At a time when instrumental music concerts are a rarity, it was heartening to get to attend a full-fledged flute concert in Carnatic style. And when the style of playing is steeped in rich classicism , it certainly has to be a rewarding experience. This is what exactly happened during the recent flute concert of Sikkil Mala Chandrasekhar in New Delhi. The concert, predominantly with Carnatic Trinity compositions, was jointly organised by the India International Centre and the Shanmukhananda Sangeetha Sabha at the IIC auditorium.
Mala started her recital in a sparkling manner with Muthuswami Dikshitar’s composition “Ganapate Mahamate” in Kalyani, as an invocation song to Lord Ganesha. The swaraprastharas at the very outset gave further fillip. Mala then played Tyagaraja’s "Raga Sudha” in Andolika before taking up “Kamakshi”, the Bhairavi raga Swarajati for a detailed rendition. The speciality of Swarajati is that the charanas are rendered both in swaras and then in sahityas. Mala handled this beautiful composition of Shyama Sastri in a delightful manner and brought out the lyrical value to the fore, which is a hallmark of her style of playing. Earlier, she played a fine alapana of the raga.
After presenting Dikshitar's “Maye Tvam Yahi” in the raga Tarangini and Tyagaraja’s “Marugelara” in the raga Jayanta Sri, Mala embarked to take up the central item of her recital. It was again a Tyagaraja’s composition, but a weighty one this time – “Mohana Rama” in the raga Mohanam. Mala's delineation of the raga, the process of bringing out the features of the raga, and the kalpanaswaras that she presented towards the end spoke very high of the depth in her creative talents.
However, one failed to understand the breakneck speed in which Mala executed this beautiful composition of the legendry composer. Neraval was conspicuous by its absence. She could have done some more justice to this central item, even if she had to cut down one or two songs in her miscellaneous session.
In fact, the time at the disposal of the artiste was around an 90 minutes only, which seemed to be a standard norm at the India International Centre. Keeping in view the fact that such short duration will not be enough for the visiting artistes like Mala to do more justice to weighty compositions, the organisers should consider increasing the duration of the concert.
Nevertheless, Mala continued to enthral the music lovers in the miscellaneous session too by playing popular songs like “Kurai ondrum illai”, “Katrinela varum geetham”, “Bhavayami Gopalabalam” and “Kavadi Chindhu”.
Young G. Raghavendra Prasath on the violin, Kumbakonam N. Padmanabhan on the mridangam and young P. Adhitya Narayan on the Kanjira (all Delhi based) provided excellent support. Raghavendra, a home grown violinist who is increasingly becoming a dependable accompanist to the visiting artistes, played scintillating alapanas of Bhairavi and Mohanam, besides playing the kalpanaswaras delightfully. The percussion duo (also a father and son duo) provided riveting rhythm support in the concert. The duo's tani-avartanam, though a short one, was enjoyable.
