The Kadri-Kanyakumari musical combination is an evergreen one. They come, perform and conquer the hearts of their audience. It’s as simple as that.
At the recital, there was a breezy flow of popular kritis and ragas, devoid of too many technical intricacies, which was pepped with exemplaryaccompanying artists.What more can you ask for when two instrumentalists –one wind and the other string-merge their music to create a melody so enchanting that you are glued to your seat till they call it a day!
This time around, for the Bharatiya Saamagaana Sabha’s Navarasa Sangeetotsava, Kadri Gopalnath made the opening statement in tow with Kanyakumari on the violin with ‘Endaro Mahanubhavulu’ in Sri.
The saxophone effortlessly waded its way through the Tyagaraja Pancharatna, spelling out every line of the lengthy kriti with clarity. As it should be, Kanyakumari’s violin doesn’t just emanate swara from her bowing; it speaks.
For a moment, you can shut your eyes and you’d feel someone is singing in a fine voice. That of course is the ‘gayaki baani’ but in her hands it goes a step further- you will not be able to hear the twang of the string against the bow in all the two hours of the recital. A string of beautiful kritis followed contributing to the audience’s peaking applause. ‘Naada Loludai’ in KalyanaVasantham was embedded with a tri-kalai swarakalpana between the duo that was as gusty as it was amazing. The percussionists, Harikumar (mridangam) and Rajendran Nakod (tabla), were commendable especially in their winding down (muktayi).
Khamas and Amritavarshini rained dew drops with Mysore Vasudevachar’s ‘Brochevarevaru Raa’ and ‘Sudhamayi, Sudhanidhi’ (Muthaiah Bhagavatar ). Expounding the line, ‘O Chaturananadi Vandita…’ on the violin and touching upon the lilting chittaswara in cycles of speed gave a dimension to the well-known kriti; while the percussionist further enriched it with a crisp wrap-up. Kadri came up as a breathless wizard with the Amrithavarshini that was nectar to the ears. A racy rendition of the chittaswara by Kanyakumari buoyed up the lyric.
The RTP was in raga Surya (Sallapam). An extensive exploration of the raga by the violinist and saxophone, especially where both slide to single syllabic utterance was a piece of fine artistry. The tanam was vibrant, shared as it was between the two. The pallavi sounded refined on Kadri’s fingers as he changed tack from Brindavana Saranga to Revathi to Abhogi and Vaasanthi.
Kanyakumari swept us off our feet with her excellent swarakalpana amply backed by the morsing (Rajasekhar). Peaking it up in phases, she tapered it off smooth, not making us feel even an iota of a jerky note as she brought it to a close.
The tani was a must-watch. The enthusiastic ensemble threw musical challenges at each other in friendly combat, where all three were emerging winners in one round or the other.
A few more evergreen melodies like ‘Pibare Rama Rasam’, a Purandharadasa devarnama and ‘Kurai Ondrum Illai’ made for a blissful evening of music.
