Warning : I am not very familiar with the scheme of transliterating Tamil/Samskrit that seems to have been adopted by many on this net, so pardon any mistakes.
Like many others who post regularly on this group, I am a big fan of KVN's. So these opinions should be taken with a pinch ( ouch! ) of salt.
Venue : Kresge Auditorium, MIT
Date : June 19, 1993
Vocal: K.V. Narayanaswamy
Padma Narayanaswamy, vocal support
Violin: Nagai Muralidharan
Mridangam: Vellore Ramabhadran
Sruti Box: Malathi Sarma
Programme:
Composition RAgam Composer Improv
==============================================================
sarasUda sAveri Venkatrama Iyer
telisi rAma pUrNa candrika Tyagaraja s
mAnasa guruguha Anandha bhairavi Dikshitar a,s
ingE irundAlum(?) kalyANi Arunachala Kavi(?) A,S
pakkALa nilAbAdi kharaharapriya Tyagaraja A,N,S
manam iRangAdha mayamaLavagauLa Swarna Dikshitar A,N,S
vidajala janaranjani Tyagaraja
kaNdavarku kuntalavaraLi Swarna Dikshitar s
rAgam tAnam pallavi sAveri
" oru tharam siva chidhambaram enRu, uraiththAlum pOdhum pOdhum "
2-kaLai Adi, thisra nadai ^^^^ - position of arudi
rAgamAlikA - both neRaval and svaram
-------------------------------------
bilahari
sahAna - skipped during svarams
sindhu bhairavi
bEhAg
tani Avartanam (Mrdangam Solo)
iRakkam bEhAg Gopalakrshna Bharati
tharuNi dwijavanti Swati Tirunal
visweswara sindhu bhairavi Swati Tirunal
varugalAmo mAnji Gopalakrshna Bharati
niriniri (thillAna ) pUrvi TirugokurNam Subbarama Bhagavathar(?)
mangaLam
KVN has, for a long time now, epitomized the best of Carnatic music in terms of sheer classicism, his excellence in shruti and laya and emotionalism. This concert did not fall short in any of these departments. Listening to him, one felt that one was listening to the last of the great masters. Much as I would like it, this kind of feeling is just not produced by the vocalists of the generation after his. One hopes that the upcoming generation would mature and develop their own independent styles, some of which would be satisfying. If I had any reservations about this concert, I felt that something was lacking in the accompanists - I am not competent to judge if there were technical flaws, but it seemed that at some stages, Muralidharan and Ramabhadran did not quite keep up with KVN.
The concert started with a crisp varNam in sAveri - I remember turning gleeful at the highly likely prospect of a pallavi in sAveri. (One more personal bias - I found the choice of rAgas in this concert much to my liking. ) This was followed by telisi rAma in pUrNa candrika - I was struck by the places where KVN would pause at appropriate lines to sing one line slowly bringing out the bhAvA of the song so well. The song was followed by a few rounds of short svarams. KVN followed this with the slightly rare Anandha bhairavi kriti of Dikshitar - his second composition, I believe - mAnasa guruguha. This was preambled by a short, sweet alapana and he ended it with a few rounds of swarams. Next KVN took up kalyANi for a semi-elaborate treatment - the words of the kriti which followed were slightly unclear ( atleast to me ) - it sounded like ingE irundAlum. Does anyone know this kriti? The swarams at arai-idam ( 1/2 beat after the samam ) were quite cute.
Then came the opening notes of kharaharapriya which made me sit up. One of my neighbours and I were wondering if he was going to sing pakkALa nilAbAdi or srInivAsa tava caraNam - two of his favourite songs. I was hoping he would surprise us with something new. As it happened he took up pakkALa after an elaborate kharaharapriya and we couldn't wait for him to get to the caraNam and start niRaval at his favourite "manasUna dhaLacI mai maraci yunara" ( I am not too sure of the words ) - and he certainly didn't disappoint us. I was struck by the razor sharp patterns which ended bang on the "idam" - which was 3 "sollus" ( sorry, I don't know how to translate this. ) after the samam. He did a sort of "kuRaippu" with his patterns of 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 - hard to describe, but something that KVN excels at and is justly well known for. I felt that he was not well supported by Muralidharan at this point - who seemed to fudge a little at places so as to end at the correct point. The operative word's are "seemed" and "felt". I am not competent to criticize his playing and am not attempting to.
After this followed an elaborate treatment of mAyAmALavagauLa - and what a wonderful treatment it was - a real treat indeed. I have never heard this raga being rendered so elaborately and have often wondered why. ( anyone who can suggest a reason ? ) The AlApana was at a very leisurely pace with almost no fast sancharas. KVN took up manam iRangAdha of Swarna Dikshitar and sang it movingly. He then sang some excellent niRaval and swarams at the line - "pAdi paNindhu bhaktar, indha pArinile uyarndhAr" . Once again KVN wisely (IMHO ) eschewed fast passages - which I felt was in accordance to the bhAva of the song. mAyAmALavagaula was followed by two quick songs - vidajAla in janaranjani and kaNdavarkku in kuntaLavaraLi.
The main piece of the day was the rAgam tAnam pallavi in sAveri. The alApana was done in three stages - in the first stage was primiarily in the pUrvAnga of the normal sthAyi, going up to the dhaivatham occasionally, the second part was predominantly in the uttarAnga and the third part was predominantly in the pUrvAnga of the higher sthAyi. The pallavi was set to Adi tALam (2 kaLai, tisra nadai). The pallavi seemed some what lacking in "pep" with too many words. However KVN and Muralidharan made up for it by using various patterns while doing the niRaval. What was disappointing to me was a) no anulOma/pratilOma b) rAgamAlika niRavals. Having heard rAgamAlika swarams often enough, I have got used to them and infact enjoy them ( esp. by the likes of Madurai Mani Iyer ), doing niRavals in ragamAlika seems to be a clear break in the mood of the rAga built up so laboriously. Somehow the thing seems incomplete. With swarams, the thing is that it comes after the whole piece - alApana, tAnam, pallavi, niRaval, swarams - is completed. Anyways, those are some of the few regrets I had about the concert. The next major regret/disappointment was the thani that followed the pallavi - it was very short - some nadais, one kOrvai, and before you knew what was happening, the pharans, mOhra and a somewhat tame "tadinginathom". I didn't notice anything in tisram or khandam or misram. The only pleasing thing in the thani ( where Ramabhadran has always scored points, IMO ) was the nAdam while playing sarvalaghu stuff. Again, I am not at all competent to judge his playing - but then how much competence does one need to have opinions ?
The post-pallavi session was typical KVN - the thing which really moved me was his rendition of varugalAmo in mAnji. I particularly remember the lines " bhuviyil InanAi piRandhene, oru puNNiyam seyyAmalirundhen...". For this song, the accompaniment provided by Muralidharan and Ramabhadran was superb. If I was given to hyperbole, I would address the song to KVN himself - asking him if I could come and listen to more of his music. ( arugil ninRu koNdAdavum....)
On the whole, the concert was immensely satisfying. KVN was ably supported by his wife Padma Narayanaswamy. While there were some points where I felt that Muralidharan and Ramabhadran were not "upto the mark", during the rest of the concert they were extremely good.
Ramana
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