True to lineage

Athul Kumar’s creativity did have echoes of his illustrious grandfather

The highlight of Athul Kumar’s flute recital was melody in measured amplification. His musical lineage — Athul is N. Ramani’s grandson — is to his advantage and with an exposure to experimental forms, Athul Kumar kept his renderings neat and without any excessive frills.

Two vivadi ragas are unusual in a concert, but in this case both — Vanaspati with suddha madhyama and Kantamani with prati madhyama — were well presented. Quickly touching suddha gandharam, Athul Kumar began the alapana of Vanaspati without any ambiguity. ‘Pariyachakama mata’ of Tyagaraja (Rupakam) was rendered pleasingly interspersed with madhyama kala kalpanaswaras.

A lilting varnam

The concert began with ‘Parama karuna sagara,’ a lilting varnam in Garudadhwani, composed by Lalgudi Jayaraman. A neat sketch of Nattai preceded Dikshitar's ‘Swaminatha Paripalayasu maam’ with a sprightly swarakalpana. N. Ramakrishnan on the mridangam and N. Guruprasad on the ghatam took forward the creative syllables of the flautist and drew much attention to their accompaniment.

Another notable feature of the recital was Neyveli Radhakrishna’s sweet sounding double violin. Well tuned, the instrument added beauty in the lower octaves and Radhakrishna utilised the opportunity to expand his imagination in different octaves and bring out beautiful music from the instrument.

A bubbly Kuntalavarali was packed in between the two vivadi ragas. ‘Bhogeendra Sayinam’ of Swati Tirunal was set to an enjoyable pace. Well aware of the limitations of the wind instrument, Athul Kumar took extra care that he did not sound squeaky in the fast numbers and upper reaches.

The lovely essay of Kantamani raga was full of phrases that stood out with elegance. In many of its sangatis, ‘Palintuvo’ (Tyagaraja) reminded one of maestro Ramani.

Building up slowly with graceful proyogas, Harikambhodi was polished to sparkle with the characteristic tonal embellishments of the flute. Radhakrishna’s solo session of the raga alapana needs a mention for his creative detailing. ‘Chani thodi theve’ of Tyagaraja had a gait that swayed and glided in relevant places, culminating in exciting swara exchanges with the violinist, in varying nadais. A lively tani by Ramakrishnan and Guruprasad with a streak of nadai variations was splendid.

Gopika Tilakam, a janya of Shanmukhapriya was Athul Kumar's choice for Ragam Tanam Pallavi. ‘Sundara ramaniya venu ganame gopika tilaka raga’ was the pallavi line. Three minutes each of raga alapana and tanam of this ragam devoid of dhaivatham was reasonable and both the flautist and violinist presented it with verve. After a brief trikalam, they wrapped up the pallavi with swift mel kala swaras.

Athul concluded the concert with a pleasing Meera bhajan in Darbari Kanada and a tillana in Madhyamavati, composed by N. Ramani.