One of the wonderful things about the Music Season in Chennai is that the concerts, despite being tightly packed in, largely run on time. So it was unusual to have to wait 45 minutes beyond the scheduled starting time as the crew went about readying the stage, sound, lights and cameras. And after all the fuss, the sound was unbalanced for a while at the start.
Ambi Subramaniam’s concert on Sunday at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha was, rather strangely, billed as a debut concert. It may have been his first solo violin performance, but Ambi has, over the last few years, played alongside his father at several prestigious venues and it was difficult to review this concert as that of a debutante.
The defining moments of the concert for this reviewer were just four phrases of alapana in Bhairavi that, though rendered casually as a prelude to the Bhairavi swarajati , showed that there is a substantive potential within Ambi Subramaniam. Unfortunately, it was not displayed often enough in what was an overly choreographed presentation.
Ambi began the concert with a varnam in Kanada, a composition of L. Subramaniam. The varnam coursed multiple kalam -s and nadai -s from tishram (three aksharam -s per beat) to sankeernam (nine aksharam -s per beat).
The alapana in Chakravakam was pleasing but the explorations were limited to the scale’s structure and the raga bhava was given less attention. This was further highlighted when Tyagaraja’s kriti ‘ Etulabro ’ was taken up in the traditional mode of the raga. The kalpana swara -s in multiple speeds and nadai -s showcased Ambi’s dexterity in bowing and fingering.
Ambi took up Muttuswami Dikshitar’s Dwijavanti kriti ‘ Akhilandeshwari ’ at a leisurely pace and presented it well. This was followed up by a tani avartanam by the percussionists T.A.S. Mani on the mridangam, T. Radhakrishnan on the ghatam and G. Sathya Sai on the morsing.
It was with the next piece — Shyama Shastri’s Bhairavi swarajati ‘Amba Kamakshi’ — that glimpses of Ambi, the Carnatic musician, emerged. The stylistic L. Subramaniam gamakas were present but they enhanced Bhairavi and the swarajati without overwhelming it.
The concert concluded with Charukeshi where the kriti ‘ Ada modi galade’ received extensive treatment with an elaborate alapana and swaraprasthara including ragamalika swara -s in Dharmavati and Nagaswaravali.
The alapana was once again very scale-oriented in presentation and the kalpana swara- s were a repetition of the patterns in the earlier Chakravakam piece.
The percussion accompanists played their designated roles but did not excite at any time during the concert. The tani avartanam too was a tame affair.
A good actor worries about getting typecast. Should someone who is young and clearly talented carry the burden of sticking to a pre-determined style? Do we want to listen to a lesser version of another artiste?
Age and talent are on his side. Ambi would grow substantially if he widened his horizon of influences within the idiom of Carnatic music. The Carnatic music world would be richer if he grows from being imitative to being inspired.
(Viswanath Parasuram is a musician, educator and founder of Karadi Tales. He can be reached at vish1962@gmail.com.)
