Vocal concert ~ Rajkumar Bharathi @ Toronto, June '97
Sri Rajkumar Bharathi gave a 3.5 hour vocal concert at Toronto on
21 June, 97 accompanied by his usual team-mates Sri Madurai Balasubramaniam (violin) and Sri Prapancham Ravindran(mridangam).The main songs were: "saagaa varam. " in ragam dharmavathi of SubramaNya Bharathi; kalugunaa in raga poorNa lalitha of Thyagaraja (This rare raga is a janya of the 19th mELa, jhankaaradhwani); paalinchu in ragam madhyamavathi of Syama Sastri; and ragam-thanam-pallavi in a double raga - mohanam and vishnupriya
( Vishnupriya is a derivative of the 32nd mELa, ragavardhini and
as far as I know, owes its "life" to T.Sankara Iyer's krithi "Baala subramaNyan paadhamE" , popularized by Sri T.V. Sankaranarayanan )
The concert was like a nice summer-breeze, relaxing us ,exhilarating us and making us want for more. The elaborate alapana of madhyamavathi
(usually relegated to the tail end of a concert) and the double raga/
double nadai pallavi were the highlights of the concert. The
seemingly effortless ease with which Rajkumar traversed the often
tricky portions of the pallavi reminded me of the compliment Subbudu
once paid Rajkumar, namely, "kaRpoora mooLai" ( camphour-like brain? )The healthy dose of "kalpana sangeetham" dished out by the three
artists ( and, in fact, by all the visiting artists ) assured me that
the local music organizers are not infected by a virus which seems to
have invaded some Madras sabha-s. I had just read in "Hindu" that
some Madras sabha-s seem to be promoting "kalpitha sangeetham"
concerts ( no alapana, no neraval, no swaras, only songs....).Ravindran's mridangam solo contained a nice round of 'konnokkOl"
Question For The Psychologists : Why is "konnokkOl" a more "civilizing" force than mridangam-playing? I refer to the fact that patrons who were on the verge of walking out of the thani , sat down when the "konnokkOl" started and did not move until the thani was over!( BTW, how do you make sure that the accompanists ...the naughty
persons they may be... don't sneak some innovative nuances and
korvai-s etc. during their performances ? You have to watch the
vocalists too; they may insert some new sangathi-s or chittaswarams
and then swear that they were taught these by their guru-s ? We
need a "music police" ever vigilant and making sure that no
"kalpana" invades the holy territory of "kalpitha" ! )