Live music has its own charms and the high of it that one experiences is difficult to put into words. Carnatic music, enjoyed in chamber style, is getting trendy in Kerala too, after Chennai started it many years ago.
The chamber music concert by Vivek Moozhikulam and party was hosted by PR Nair at his home in Edappally recently. Just three years into professional singing, young Vivek displayed a maturity far beyond his years. The 25-year-old, recipient of the Bharat Ratna M.S. Subbulakshmi Fellowship in Music instituted by the Sri Shanmukhananda Fine Arts and Sangeetha Sabha, Mumbai, has already performed on 75 stages including the Chennai December music festival. The timbre of his voice is well suited for Carnatic music, with both a rich baritone and bass. Homework done by way of listening to the masters and research into the intricacies of ragas, coupled with a keen interest in the current Carnatic music scene and singers, shows in his performance.
Beginning an Ata tala varnam in Thodi raga, he went on to sing the G. N. Balasubramaniam kriti, ‘Saraswati namosthuthe’. ‘Manasu vishaya’ in Nattakurinji raga is a Tyagaraja kriti with very difficult lyrics, Vivek explained before singing it. After ‘Sree Mathrubhutham’, a Dikshitar kriti in Misra chapu tala and Kannada raga, Vivek sang the not-so-common ‘Sree Valli Devasenapathe’ of Papanasam Sivan in Natabhairavi, explaining that this was a favourite raga of M.L.Vasanthakumari. Another Tyagaraja kriti in Saranga raga with Khandachapu tala and he was ready for the Ragam Thanam Pallavi. He chose Mohanam in Adi tala, a composition of M.D. Ramanathan. It was a swarakshara pallavi, ‘Padasaroja mula nammiti sariga daivamugada’ and Vivek’s voice traversed the lower notes well.
The thillana in Kamas raga was a composition of Lalgudi Jayaraman’s while the mangalam was in Surutti raga.
In between the numbers, he answered the doubts of the listeners as well, often elaborating on the history and demonstrating the aarohanam and avarohanam of the raga in question.
As it was held in an open hall, mikes of low output were used for this concert.
The accompanists were in equally fine fettle. Mridangam was by Tripunithura A.S. Neelakandan, who used the chappu rarely but when he did the nadam resonated.
Krishna Kumar, a doctor by profession, was the other musician on the mridangam. On the violin was Tripunithura Mahesh and the ganjira was handled with verve by Vinod Mallaya, a disciple of Balakrishna Kamath.
