The program was organized by the Saraswati Vaggeyakara Trust and it was extremely well attended. On a day when there were atleast 10-20 other concerts going on at the same time, Sastry Hall was completely packed with people who wanted to listen to recordings of GNB's music and its analysis as offered by Vidwans K.S. Krishnamurthy (KSK) and T.R.Subramaniam (TRS), both of who are unabashed admirers of GNB and his music. I believe the recordings of GNB were provided by G.B.Doraiswamy (son of GNB) and S.Sivaramakrishnan (a GNB fan).
The program opened with a majestic AlApana in pantuvarALi followed by raghuvara nannu. KSK mentioned the elaborateness with which the pantuvaALi was sung and how many people used to say things like : is it really necessary that pantuvarALi be sung so elaborately? Apparently such questions never bothered GNB. He did the best he could for any raga - whether it was pantuvarALi or tOdi, mALavi or shanmughapriya. KSK quite rightly pointed out that there are no real limits for how much one can sing a raga - it is only limited by the artist's manOdharma. TRS pointed out the kAlapramANa suddham with which the kriti was sung. There was no variation in kAlapramANam between the song, neraval and swaraprastAra. The same kAlapramANam was also implicit in the AlApana - something that TRS mentioned specially. He also bemoaned the current tendency of speeding up/slowing down as the song proceeds.
Other songs which were played were nenarunchi nAnu - mALavi, parAmukham - suruti, an elaborate AlApana in tOdi (part of an RTP, the whole thing is about 1.5 hours long - this was apparently sung at a marriage concert in kadayam!!), part of a rAgam tAnam pallavi in rItigauLa and two rAgamAlikA slokas.
Some of the points mentioned by KSK and TRS :
1) GNB's habit of getting completely immersed in the music he was making, regardless of the surroundings. i.e. he gave off his best whether it was a marriage concert or a concert at the Music Academy.
2) His popularity which cut across distinctions of caste, community and religion. Apparently he has sung at marriages of people from varying backgrounds - muslims, bIdi vyApAris,....
3) TRS mentioned how his music was electrifying and how as youngsters they would all wonder if they would ever be able to produce such music. (quite rightly too! :-) - I also remember vaguely some story about Vidwan T.M.Thyagarajan deciding to quit singing after hearing GNB sing once, but am not sure of the details. Perhaps someone who knows the full story could post it here!) TRS also mentioned how GNB and his music were much misunderstood and how it was far advanced for his time. People didn't really try to match him with his appropriate level since the rest of the music was several steps below. He wondered if GNB was born before his time and how things would be if he were alive today.
4) KSK rightly pointed out that the charges that GNB's music was gamakA-less and that his voice range was limited were quite false. In the tOdi AlApana he went up to the tAra sthAyi dhaivata and even seemed to touch the nishAda at some points. (I have also heard a kalyANi AlApana where he seems to reach the mandhara sthAyi shadja at one point! - MVR) KSK said that the impression that GNB's eschewed gamakAs was because people could not follow the precise gamakAs at the high speeds at which he sang. He pointed out that in his compositions (one that he especially mentioned was mamakulEswaram in tOdi) GNB has used all the ten kinds of gamakAs.
5) KSK also made a special note of the clarity with which GNB used to sing. In particular he referred to a rare Dharmavati RTP that he had heard where he felt that no one had sung with such clarity at high speeds. In this he compared him to the nAgaswara/nAdaswara vidwAn T.N.Rajaratnam Pillai.
Some of the others who spoke in the program were Trichur Ramachandran and TN Balu, both disciples of GNB. Ramachandran spoke in a general sort of fashion about GNB's attitude to his students and so on. But TN Balu was the one who kept the audience in splits with his several anecdotes about GNB. One that I remember : when Balu first approached GNB to learn from him, he was impressed by the fact that GNB had removed his tuft (cropped his hair) and his own original teacher was very strict about this tuft business. So as soon as GNB accepted him as a pupil and told him to come to his house, Balu went and got a haircut. When he went to GNB's house, GNB's mother said something to the effect that she was expecting someone with a tuft and that Balu did not fit the description GNB had given her. Finally GNB arrived and clarified things and asked Balu in a joking manner, "couldn't you have waited till my mother saw you atleast before removing your tuft? I had specifically told her that a `good boy' with a tuft and ear-rings was coming to learn music from me".
I was also impressed by the gentleman who was sitting in front of me who started crying (really, tears and all!) on two or three occasions when GNB was singing. He also kept mumbling about how there was no one who could sing so well these days. What impressed me about this chap was that he seemed only about 40-45 years old and hence this was clearly not a case of just nostalgia about his youth and so on.
One last point : several of the popular performing (young) musicians of today were present in the program and one of them told me that (s)he was tempted to get up and say that even today when (s)he was planning to present some rAgA elaborately their main recourse was to listen to a GNB recording. Ultimately that person desisted since (s)he felt that there were several (one quarter?? People in the know may hazard their guesses! :-) quarters where such a statement would be received with antagonism and would ultimately affect his/her career.
For those of you who have read this far : if you aren't already a GNB admirer, then there is little hope for you! :-)
Ramana
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