There he was, one of the living legends of Carnatic music, violinist Lalgudi Jayaraman, sitting in the front row and looking on as his daughter Vijayalakshmi received the title, Sangeetha Choodamani, bestowed on her by Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, at the inaugural session of its 54th annual Gokulashtami Music Festival, on August 1. It was surely one of the most fulfilling moments in Papa Lalgudis life, as it must have been when his son G.J.R. Krishnan received the same at the same venue in 1998.
(For the record, Lalgudi Jayaraman and flautist N. Ramani were the first two musicians who had together received the Choodamani award in 1971, which was instituted by the Federation of Sangeetha Sabhas in Madras and was subsequently adopted by the Krishna Gana Sabha.) Vocalist Aruna Sairam and the sabhas secretary, Prabhu, showering well-deserved praise on Vijayalakshmi, couldnt help recalling a memorable occasion about 20 years ago, when Lalgudi Jayaraman had similarly sat among the audience and proudly watched his children giving one of their earliest violin duet recitals on the concert platform.
Sister sabhas
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In a remarkably graceful response to the compliments and the citation, Vijayalakshmi expressed her gratitude to her father and guru, to the institution that was honouring her and to all those who had encouraged her to progress as a musician.
Among other things, she said she enjoys her natural role as Number Two behind her brother whenever they perform together, since his superior skills provide a challenging setting for her. And talking about siblings makes me also think of two marvellously successful sister Sabhas in Chennai. In this centurys rapidly changing cultural scenario, Sri Krishna Gana Sabha is the most consistently active institution among the oldest surviving sabhas. Among the new Sabhas which have emerged in the past 20 years or so, Hamsadhwani is the most dynamic. Theres great affinity between these two sabhas, thanks mainly to the rapport between their late founder-secretaries, R. Yagnaraman and R. Ramachandran (RRC). I am sure RRC enjoyed his role as Pioneer No. Two!
The vital common feature of these two leading sabhas is that each of them has a unique ambience and an exceptionally enthusiastic and permanent audience, which encourages all musicians, regardless of their seniority, status and popularity. Mentioning Hamsadhwani makes me recall the recital of by Lalgudi Krishnan and Vijayalakshmi there a few months ago, which was as memorable as always.
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Reviewing their concerts in that venue in the past two years, I had touched upon the merits of their music as follows: The wonderful legacy which violin maestro Lalgudi Jayaraman has handed down to his gifted children is a streamlined style of producing a luminous crystalline sound and the spiritual vision he had inherited from the great vocal masters he had accompanied long ago... When they perform together as a team, one hears intriguing echoes of the sparkling and soulful solo violin recitals of their legendary guru, Lalgudi Jayaraman. (For detailed discussions. please see thehindu.com, Friday Review, Sound and spirit of the violin: Feb. 2, 2007, and Like a multi-hued rainbow: April 18, 2008).
The same qualities were displayed at their performance in Hamsadhwani in March this year. The concert was notable for its solid structure and meditative quality; the highlights were Tyagarajas kritis Entamuddo (Bindumalini) and Koluvamaragada (Thodi), Dikshitars Ananda Natana (Kedaram), and a stylish RTP (Hamsanandi). So let us just wait a little while to find out what rich dishes they will be serving at their Gokulashtami concert at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha this evening!