Instrumental artistes, if prodigious, have their own format for concerts. Flautist Shashank has always presented music in his distinctive style. He began with the Thodi varnam ‘Era napai’ after which came a smooth essay of raga Mohanam. It was appended to ‘Evarura ninnuvina’ (Tyagaraja) and followed by swarakalpana.
Artistes and audience love swara tsunamis. If it is instrumental music, the expectations are higher. Therefore, what started as a soft drizzle on the pallavi turned into a hailstorm with clipped swaras, alternating nadais, to never-ending lengths.
A quick ‘Nee kelana’ in Devamanohari (Tyagaraja) filled the gap before Shashank moved to Saramati. Here initially, there were soulful touches, suave glides and amazing arcs.
The kriti ‘Mokshamu galada’ was also presented with due respect. Then began the rain of swaras again. The kizha kalai swaras moved sans any glitzy manoeuvre but once the melkala section was taken up, they gained aggression.
Fine touches
It was time for RTP and Hamir Kalyani was Shashank’s selection here. The raga has a slow tenor, which cannot be violated. Therefore, there was not much of an exuberance in the raga alapana. There were fine touches, well-constructed passages and impressive karvais. The tanam was brief. The petite pallavi ‘Jagadeesa Parthasarathey’ was set in Tisra Triputa. A quick rounding off with niraval, the trikalam landing yet again on swara volleys. The package had a variety of combinations leading to ragamalika streams of Subha Pantuvarali, Kapi and Desh.
Violinist B.U. Ganesh Prasad did not lie low and showed off his prowess as much as possbile. K.U. Jayachandra Rao and N. Guruprasad on the mridangam and the ghatam had a good time during the powerful exchanges between the flautist and the violinist.
A commendable aspect of the concert was that Shashank gave clear introduction about all his presentations.
