ChitraveeNaa concert ~ Ravikiran @ Toronto, March '97
Sri RaviKiran gave a charming 3 hours ChithraveeNaa concert which brimmed with classicism and confidence, accompanied by Sri Ananthankrishnan(violin), Prof.Trichy Sankaran (mridangam) and Sri Cleveland Balasubramaniam(kanjira).
As I was listening to the concert, I could not help but recall the first Toronto Thyagaraja festival vocal concert by Dr.S.Ramanathan in 1973. A few similarities and "veeNaa" connections popped into my mind. In 1973, Dr.S.R. (himself a fine veeNaa player) was accompanied by his daughter Geetha on the veeNaa. Dr.S.R. learnt veeNaa from one (DevakOttai) Narayana Iyengar while Ravikiran's grandfather was of course, another (gOttuvadyam K.S.) Narayana Iyengar! Trichy Sankaran was the concert-partner in 73 as well as in '97. The main piece in the '73 concert was "kaarthikeya" of Sivan in thOdi while Ravikiran also chose thOdi (an RTP) as the main piece in '97. (The pallavi line "Thyagaraja swaaminam bhaja maanasa" was composed on the spot by Sri Ravikiran. I used the word "concert-partner" in the last paragraph to describe Prof. Trichy Sankaran - for a good reason. Before Sri Ravikiran's concert, Prof. Sterling Beckwith, Music Dept. York University raised an interesting question if accompanists like Prof.Trichy Sankaran should really be called as such, considering their great conribution to the concert as a whole. (On a related note, music critic, "Manirangu" raised the issue in Sruti (Sept '94) if ChithraveeNaa needed a violin accompaniment at all!!) My personal view is that accompaniment is not a disparaging woed and only refers to the sporit shown iby the accompanists in the followinf creative directions of the main artist for the major portion of the concert. Actually, Ravikiran's concert proved beyond a shadow of doubt how an understanding partnership between artists can raise the concert-quality to a new level.
In particular, the scintillating exchanges between the artists - brilliant, brisk and breathtaking - during the swara kalpana of the Amrithavarshini song was the major highlight of the concert.