Saraswathi Vidyalayam School of Music at BHEL Tiruchi, in association with the Sath Sangam celebrated a day-long Tyagaraja utsavam at BHEL Township recently.
Saint Tyagaraja's Pancharatna kritis were rendered in the morning by the Vidyalayam students. This was followed by rendering of various compositions of the saint by up-and-coming artists.
Mani Iyer's centenary
The highlight of the day's programme was the music concert by T.V. Sankaranarayanan, who presented a few kritis of the bard. Further, this being the Centenary year of the late Madurai Mani Iyer, his guru and uncle, TVS, with vocal support from his son, Sankar Mahadevan, also rendered songs popularised by Mani Iyer.
They were accompanied by N. C. Madhav on the violin, Palladam Ravi on the mridangam and Tiruchi Krishnaswamy on the ghatam.
The concert was brisk and lively from beginning to end. Setting the pace of the concert with ‘Rama Bakti Samrajyam' in Suddha Bangala, TVS followed it up with ‘Nee Daya Raada' in Vasantha Bhairavi and ‘Vasudevayani,' in Kalyani with a mellifluous alapana.
The niraval and kalpanaswaras for ‘Raga Tala' were laudable. Sankar Mahadevan exhibited his skill when he presented the alapana for the next kriti, ‘Needayaraa' in Thodi, with support from his father during niraval and swarams.
The prime item was ‘Maa Janaki' in Khambodi and Sankaranarayanan's alapana for the kriti reminded the audience of Mani Iyer. Many phrases in the tara sthayi were exemplary. Niraval at ‘Rajarajavara' followed by rich kalpanaswaras brought out the genius in him.
Madhav ably supported him on the violin during the alapana and swaram sessions and matched the flow. Artists, Palladam Sri Ravi and Tiruchi Krishnaswamy, were exemplary during the tani avartanam and kept up the tempo.
The lighter session consisted of the evergreen melodies of Madurai Mani Iyer – ‘Vellai Thamarai Poovil Iruppal' in Bimplas, ‘Eppo Varuvaro' in Jhonpuri and the famous Western Notes.
T.V. Sankaranarayanan concluded the concert with a ragamalika virutham, his own composition, followed by ‘Vinayakuni' in Madyamavati.
