HYDERABAD: Twenty year old Sunil Gargeyan of Chennai, a disciple of Padmabhushan awardee P.S.Narayana swamy gave a spellbinding vocal concert for the Swarajhari Sabha of Vijayawada. The young final year student of B.Com, is also a mridangam player learning his art from M.Sivaraman. He received his initial training from vidwans Nagai Bhashyam and B.Sivaraman. Sunil has performed in many prestigious Sabhas in Chennai and other major Sabhas in the country and won acclaim as a vocalist of great merit. The venue of the concert was the recently renovated, peaceful and spacious Ramalayam in Governorpet. It was a pleasant experience for the audience to listen to Gargeyan’s superb concert in the serene atmosphere and on the open air stage to a perfect sound system. It was the first visit of Sunil Gargeyan to the city and he won the admiration of the rasikas for his excellent tuneful voice and depth of musical knowledge. Deep voice and complete command over all manodharma aspects are the assets of Sunil.
Sunil’s concert began with a crisp atatala varnam in Kanada, a composition of Ramanadhapuram Srinivasa Iyengar. It was followed by Re Re Manasa Bhajare , a rare and beautiful composition of Cheyyur Chengalvaraya Sastri in Nata and Sasivadane of Thyagaraja in Chandrajyothi complementing it with fine alapana and swaras. Sunil’s sruti unison and precision of laya were exemplary. Deva Devam of Annamacharya rendered in Hindola was one the major items in the concert. Sunil presented an enchanting raga version before rendering this kirtana. The slow phrases in the lower and middle octaves and the brigas that followed were marked with prerfect sruti alignment. Another major item was the sumptuously presented Keeravani kitana of Thyagaraja Kaligi yunte Kada with excellent and elaborate alapana and sparkling kalpana swaras.
Next Gargeyan sang Patti Viduvaradu of Thyagaraja and then went on to present a fine ragam-tanam-pallavi in Hamirkalyani set to Chaturasra jati Jhampe talam in Khanda nada, an intricate exercise with a total of 35 aksharas in the avrittam. The raga was charmingly elaborated with great ease and Sunil Gargeyan sang a bhava-laden neraval and finishing the pallavi with fine kalpana swaras.
Sunil was excellently supported on the violin by B.V.Durgabhavani, a staff artiste of Akashvani and her solo versions of the ragas were melodious. She responded to Gargeyan’s intricate kalpana swaras with great alertness. Top class percussion support came from P.S.Phalgun, a senior lecturer of mridangam in the Music College and M.Haribabu, a mridangam lecturer in Guntur Music College. The tani the two artistes presented at the end of the pallavi was delightful and carried intricate laya patterns. Sunil Gargeyan closed his memorable concert with Paluku Tenela Talli an Annamayya kirtana and a fine thillana. The young vidwan has all the requisites of a top vocalist and is bound to go places.
Published - September 03, 2015 04:31 pm IST
