The Indira Gandhi National Centre For the Arts and the Shanmukhananda Sangeetha Sabha organised a Carnatic music concert recently as part of “Sri Muthuswami Dikshidar Day” celebrations. The concert was held at the lecture hall of the IGNCA. The Delhi-based Jyothi Sridevi structured her vocal concert based entirely on the compositions of this legendary composer. Dikshidar is considered one of the musical trinity of Carnatic music (the other two being Shyama Sastri and Tyagaraja). Despite her voice not being in fine fettle on the day of the performance, Sridevi sang brilliantly by interweaving her talent in the thoughtfully selected compositions of the composer. She sang both the popular compositions as well those not heard frequently in the concerts.
Sridevi began her concert with the invocation song to Lord Vinayaka “Vallabha Nayakasya” in Begada raga. The short and creatively crafted kalpanaswaras in rupakam tala for this song as well as for the succeeding song “Swaminatha Paripalaya” in Natta and in Adi tala was reflective of her musical talent in the creative sphere.
After rendering “Sri Nilotpala Nayike” in Reetigowla and “Sri Ranganatam Upasmahe” in Poornachandrika in a delightful manner, Sridevi took up “Hiranmayeem Lakshmeem” in Lalitha and “Meenakshi Memudam” in Poorvikalyani for detailed renditions. In the detailed and unhurried alapanas, she brought out the features of these ragas to the fore in a scintillating manner. Besides, she also took up a phrase in each of these songs for neraval. These and the subsequent kalpanaswaras once again brought to fore her creative talent. The Delhi-based Uma Arun on the violin and K.N. Padmanabhan on the mridangam provided appropriate support to Jyothi Sridevi.
Two things were noteworthy in popular vocalist Sanjay Subrahmanyan’s recent concert in the Capital. One was the seating of students and rasikas of music on the stage around the area where Sanjay himself was performing, bringing the memories of similar such concerts that take place at the Madras Music Academy during the famous December season. The other was Sanjay was not in the company of his usual accompanist (S. Varadarajan- violinist and Neyveli B. Venkatesh – mridangam). Instead, he was in the company of Nagai Muralidharan (violin) and Srimushnam V. Raja Rao (mridangam), besides K. V. Gopalakrishnan (kanjira).
The beauty of Carnatic music is that every accompanying artist is an expert in his chosen field and their musical talent gel swiftly with that of the main artiste. Here too, the situation was no different and it was an enchanting musical evening.
Sanjay sang on the first day of the two-day event titled “Swar Sangam”, organised by the Gurukulam Foundation at the auditorium of the Delhi Tamil Sangam.
His central item was Marimuthu Pillai’s composition “Enneramum oru kalai” in the raga Todi, a song not heard frequently in concerts.
An outstanding raga alapana, the delightful manner in which he sang the composition to a riveting tempo and the kalpanaswaras that flowed with rich creativity were a treat to music lovers. Sadly, the Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi session (“Baktharukku Sahana Sadguru nin malaradi paniyum” in Sahana raga and set to Chadusra jathi tripuda tala) that followed did not get the kind of treatment and was not even in Trikala (three speeds). On their part, the seasoned accompanists regaled the music lovers.
