Hard to shed Lalgudi leash

She is an artiste in her own right but Vijayalakshmi didn’t wish to experiment

Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi performing at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha in Chennai

As is to be expected, Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi took great care to preserve her father’s legacy and the sanctity of the brand of music that he stood for. The solo violin concert for Sri Krishna Gana Sabha was based on musical piety — full orthodoxy and no transgressions. The Hamirkalyani varnam (Lalgudi Jayaraman) is a delicate choice for the first item that set Vijayalakshmi on a less impactful start. It’s only when she moved into ‘Bhajare Bhaja Manasa Ramam’ (Tyagaraja, Kannada) after another sedate ‘Tatva maria tarama’ (Sivan, Ritigowla) that she freed herself sufficiently to explore higher planes. The Lalgudi stamp of laya and non-mechanical swarams was in full play in this song. The sweet ‘Ksheera sagara’ (Tyagaraja, Devagandhari) and a brisk ‘Manavyala’ (Tyagaraja, Nalinakanti) were engaging even in their contrast. The pristine bowing in Devagandhari was one of the highlights.

Vijayalakshmi’s Bhairavi ragam had a bit of everything — the usual phrases, karvai-laden creativity in the madhyastayi, more serenity than acrobatics and clinical time sense.

Showing her expertise

‘Balagopala Palayasumam’ (Dikshitar) was rendered with prim and proper conventionality. The expertise came out in the apt kalapramanam of the kriti (though it’s tempting to slow it down) and some fascinating slow swara korvais at “Drona Karna” (an unusual but interesting place). This underlined the principle that in a concert, you need standard play as the main layer of cake with a few special moments as toppings. ‘Akhilandeswari’ (Dwijawanti, Dikshitar), ‘Eppo Varuvaro’ (Jhonpuri) and Lalgudi’s Karna Ranjani tillana lent the ladder to the high finish.

One felt though that Vijayalakshmi, an artiste in her own right even without the town prefix, confined herself to the dictum more than necessary that seemed to keep her on a leash and eschew even mild experiments.

There were two shades of Patri — delicate adjunct to the songs and Vijayalakshmi’s style and a more raucous tani. It is not clear why tani should be a celebration of liberation. Ganjira Guruprasanna had no option but to play ball.