Vocal Concert ~ O.S.Thiagarajan @ Toronto, June '97
Sri O.S.Thiagarajan gave a 4 hr. vocal concert at Toronto on June 7, 97
under the auspices of Bharathi Kala Manram , accompanied by Sri Srikant
Venkataraman on the violin and Sri Srimushnam Raja Rao on the mridangam.The main songs were: "ini oru kaNam" in ragam sri ranjani of Papanasam Sivan; "entani vine" in ragam urmika of Pallavi Sesha Iyer with an elaborate Chittaswaram (presumably by Sri T.M.Thyagarajan, the vocalist's mentor and guru); "O rangasayee" in ragam kambOji of Thyagaraja and ragam-thanam-pallavi in raga kalyAni.
Possessing a pleasant voice and a solid training from his father,
Sri O.V.Subramaniyam ( an Annamalai University music graduate ),
Sri T.M.Thyagarajan and also from Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman , O.S.T
projects all the attributes of a serious practitioner of music.
One can see Sri T.M.T's influence in the choice of songs as well as in
intelligent kalpana swara patterns. While the RTP was perhaps the
"official" main piece ( and , indeed, the raga alapana with nice
panchama-varjya prayoga-s was nice ), the Kamboji piece was my
choice for making the concert weighty and memorable. When O.S.T
started the "O.R" kriti, I could see many rasikas going "Oh Yes"
with their heads and smiling with expectation ! One rasika told me
later that this was the best rendition of the kriti he had heard in a
long time ....after the well-known rendition of M.S.Subbulakshmi .
( who, perhaps, learnt it from Sri Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer , the
guru of Sri T.M.Thyagarajan...). Raja Rao's support during the
slow and majestic paces of the kriti was also a contributing factor
to the enchanting spell woven during the neraval on the lines ,
" boolOka vaikunda " ( which was also an apt description for the
musical heaven to which such a song elevated many of us at that time .)