Bouquet of soulful ragas

A series of concerts and special programmes were organised as part of the Tyagaraja aradhana held at BHEL Township, Tiruchi.

The Sathsangam and Saraswathi Vidyalayam jointly organised the annual Tyagaraja Aradhana at Sathsangam Dyana Mandapam, BHEL Township, Tiruchi, on February 13.

The vocal concert of Neyveli Santhanagopalan took place as part of the festivities. He began with a virutham in raga Kanada followed by a varnam in the same raga. It was succeeded by ‘Giriraja Sudha,’ which is supposed to be the first kriti composed by Saint Tyagaraja, in raga Bangala. Kalpanaswaras was the highlight of the next kriti, ‘Gana Nadha Paratpara.’ It was followed by the popular Tamil kriti ‘Yaaro Ivar Yaaro’ in raga Bhairavi. The niraval at ‘Chandra Bimbha Mukha’ was excellent.

Elaborate alapana

The sub-main of the concert was Tyagaraja’s ‘Nidhi Chala Sukhama’ in raga Kalyani with exquisite alapana. The niraval at ‘Mamada Bandhana Yuthu’ was enjoyable and kalpanaswara was brilliant. Following Kalyani, it was ‘Janani Ninnuvina’ in Ritigowla. The raga alapana was elaborative which stood as a benchmark of his high standard.

He chose Khambodi as the main raga. The kriti was ‘Maa Janaki’ rendered at a faster pace.

Santhanagopalan was ably supported by V.V. Ravi on the violin throughout the concert. His raga alapanas and kalpanaswaras were fantastic and mesmerising. The percussion crew comprised Salem K. Srinivasan on the mridangam and S. Krishnaswamy on the ghatam who handled the thani avarthanam for Khambodi with brilliant tonal clarity and rhythmic vibrancy.

The concert concluded with thukadas such as ‘Maithreem Bhajatha’ (ragamalika), Thirupugazh (Hamsanandi), Dasar nama ‘Chandra Chuda’ ((Darbari Kaanada) and Thiruppavai (Surutti).

Earlier, the festival commenced with akhanda Rama nama and Sathvrithi in the morning. It was followed by the rendition of Pancharathna kritis by the students of Saraswathi Vidyalayam. The morning rituals was complete with the Narayana Tirtha puja and samarathanai. In the evening, before the concert, budding artists around the BHEL township, rendered kritis of Tyagaraja forthree hours.