Three violins playing in perfect synchrony are always a delight to the ears.
When the artistes are Sneha, Ramya and Kaushik it is like the icing on the cake.
The audience at the Sri Shanmukhananda Fine Arts & Sangeetha Sabha on the
evening of October 17th were treated to a cascade of music flowing from the
three violins that came together for compositions and played in sequence for
swara passages.Synchrony not only requires hard training and practice, but also complete
understanding and coordination among the players and there should be no effort
to dominate. Ramya led the way but did not impose her will on her two partners.
The concert commenced with the ‘bhairavi’ varnam ‘viriboni’ in Ata thalam.
Hamsadwani was taken up next. Rather than the many Ganesa kritsi in this
ragam it was Dikshitar’s ‘vatapi ganapathim’ which was selected. The succeeding
piece was Tyagaraja’s devotion laden kriti Sobbilu saptaswara in jaganmohini.
Then came “Jaya Jaya Raghurama” in Sahana.
Ramya was given the task of handling the alapana in Vachaspati for the kriti
"Pahi Jagajannani". Her effort was competent. It was clear that Sneha was going
to take centre stage for the day. Succeeding that came two heart warming pieces
Ranidhi and Bhogindrasayinam in Manirang and Kuntanavarali respectively.
The main raga-kriti was Karaharapriya. This is a raga that can never pall on
the ears. It lends itself to endless manodharma and J.Kaushik utilized this
attribute to the full. The kriti was Thyagaraja’s "Chakkani Raja". The move into
the swaras by the trio was so smooth that they seemed virtually part of the
song. There was ‘Azhutham’ in the rendering of the ‘swaras’. Each note fell
clearly on the ears.
There are some artistes who feel that Thyagaraja’s contributions are not
suitable to be taken up after the main piece. The trio is fortunately not one of
them. The rendering of ‘bhajan’ in Misra Bhagasree was soft and poignant. In
contrast was the brisk-paced ‘Alaypayuthe piece in Kanada. Ennathavam followed.
The trio was set to complete the concert after a complicated ‘thillana’ in
Revathi composed by Lalgudi Jayaraman. The unique concert came to an end on a
devotional mangalam in saurasthtram and an auspicious note.
Seasoned laya vidwans Kumbakonam N.Padmanabhan on the mridangam and Delhi
R.Srinivasan on the kanjira were tailor made for their respective roles in this
enjoyable concert.
Author: Ms. Lakshmi
