The 90-minute violin
du et by Vittal Ramamurthy and V.V.S. Murari for the Federation of City Sabhas was proof of the fact that time is not a constraint if the musician has clarity about content. Ramamurthy and Murari hail from different schools, but they knew exactly what makes a concert work, given their long experience in accompanying several artistes of different
g enres.
Flagging off their duet with the grand Dikshitar kriti ‘Mahaganaptim’ in Nattai, they softened the initial vigour with Syama Sastri’s Anandabhairavi composition ‘Marivere,’ giving ample importance to the beautiful chittaswaram and sahityam. Murari brought out the charm of Hamsanadham with a few subtle strokes, followed by the Tyagaraja kriti, ‘Bantureeti.’ Here the violinists pepped up the tempo with bright and brisk niraval and swara patterns on ‘Rama nama mane.’ The tempo was further brightened up with Dikshitar’s ‘Ramachandram bhavayami’ in Vasantha with its dazzling chittaswaram.
Classic Kamboji
The main raga pick was the classic Kamboji. The raga treatise was started by Vittal and selectively shared by Murari at different levels. Though the raga essay was not too elaborate, it was a good preface for Tyagaraja’s magnum opus ‘O Rangasayee.’ Probably it could be said that the time constraint prompted the duo to opt straight away for swaraprastara on ‘Bhooloka vaikuntham’ sans niraval. Nevertheless, both kizhkala swaras and the madhyama kala swaras carried ample weight owing to permutations and combinations by both the players.
Patri Satish Kumar and V. Krishna were on the mridangam and ghatam, respectively, and they showed their prowess through the concert, with their tani avartanam especially producing fireworks.
The concert concluded with two popular numbers — Papanasam Sivan’s emotion soaked ‘Enna thavam’ in Kapi and Lalgudi Jayaraman’s thillana in Maund.
There was no domination or underplay. No showmanship. Both artistes demonstrated their camaraderie and musical understanding perfectly.
