On Thursday, June 17, 1993 at 2:20:54 PM UTC-7, Mani Varadarajan wrote:
Concert Review: June 12, 1993, Los Angeles ------------------------------------------
Vocal: K.V. Narayanaswamy
Padma Narayanaswamy, vocal support
Violin: Nagai Muralidharan
Mridangam: Vellore Ramabhadran
Sruti Box: Harini Krishnan
Programme: [Please bear with my transliteration errors.]
Composition RAgam Composer Improv ==============================================================
viribhONI BhairavI -
sAkEtanagaranAtha harikAmbOdhi N,S
dEva dEva jagadISvara PUrvi KalyANI Swati Tirunal R,N,S
sogasugA mrdanga tALamu SrI RanjanI Tyagaraja R
svarNakAla bhairavam KalyANI Svarna Venkatesa
Dikshitar R,N,S
manavyAlakinca NaLinakAntI Tyagaraja S
Om namah SivAya HindOLam S.V. Dikshitar R
tattva meruga taramA GaruDadhvani Tyagaraja S
rAgam tAnam pallavi BhairavI
"gOvindanaDi mukundanaDi enakkavar sontamaDi" (RUpaka TALam)
rAgamAlikA svaram
-----------------
varALi
aThANa
bilahari
bEhAg
sindhu bhairavI
tani Avartanam (Mrdangam Solo)
anrivulagam Sindhu BhairavI AndAL (Tiruppavai)
Viruttam
"jAnAti rAma tava nAmarucim..."
RAgamAlikA
----------
dhanyAsI
SahAna
bhAgESrI
sAgara Sayana vibhO bhAgESrI M.D. Ramanathan
mAtADa bAradEnO kamAs Purandara Dasa
eppovaruvArO jOnpuri
krSna nI bEganE bArO yamunakalyANI
kumAra gurupara censuruTTi Tiruppugazh
bhujagaSAyinO yadukula (MangaLam)
kAmbOdhI
This concert can best be described as auditory candy. To hear
this man of over three scores of age sing with so much emotion
and creativity was quite a moving experience, and the standing
ovation given by the audience at the end of the concert was well
deserved. While I had a few disappointments here and there in
terms of song selection, KVN certainly did not resort to standard
fare when it came to improvisation, and the disciplined
creativity which he exhibited was thrilling.
Luckily, I arrived at the concert seconds before the music began,
so I was able to skip the perfunctory introductions without
missing any of the music. KVN began with the warm and colorful
Bharavi Ata Tala varnam, Viribhoni. I had expectations that he
would sing Bhairavi (Bala Gopala) as the main piece, since he
hadn't done so yet on this concert tour, so I was mildly
surprised to hear Viribhoni at the outset. I was later informed
that my surprise was unfounded, since he regularly sings the
varnam and main piece in the same ragam.
He then moved on to Saketa nakaranatha in Harikambodhi. While I
think this a very nice, energetic composition, I recalled that he
sang the same piece in the same position the last time I heard
him in America, at Whittier College in the L.A. area a few years
ago, and I was rather afraid that he was going to sing the same
fare in this concert. Thankfully, this turned out to not be the
case, but I still wished that he would have presented some "new"
Tyagaraja or M. Dikshitar compositions, i.e., ones that we hadn't
heard him sing in years.
For example, after a spirited neraval and svaram, focusing on the
line "rAjita amara pAla" in the charanam of Vachaspati, he sang a
very tight and crisp Purvi Kalyani alapanai. Some of us in the
audience got excited at the prospect of hearing Parama Pavana
Rama, or perhaps even Tyagaraja's Jnanamosagarada. Instead, KVN
rendered Swati Tirunal's "Deva Deva", which, while being a
beautiful composition, he has sung far too many times of late.
I also noticed at this point that his voice seemed quite
strained, perhaps from the number of concerts that he had sung so
far on this tour. Needless to say, however, I was thoroughly
impressed by his fidelity to sruti, and the purity of each of the
notes he sang. KVN has perhaps the tightest feedback loop of any
artist. He corrects the minutest of lapses immediately, either
by closing his mouth or actively adjusting what he is singing. I
have heard many a tape of Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar where the
stalwart just doesn't seem to realize that he is singing off key.
The same can be said of Semmangudi; KVN, however, does not suffer
from this fault.
If KVN ever needed to reaffirm his title as "Neraval
Chakravarti", he did so in this concert. I will use this
opportunity to say that I am no fan of Svarna Venkatesa
Dikshitar's compositions, and I wonder why KVN has made the
promotion of his compositions a personal crusade. The Kalyani
piece that he sang (Svarna Kala Bhairavam) can best be described
as mediocre, considering what Tyagaraja, M. Dikshitar, Syama
Sastri, and even Swati Tirunal have composed. My main criticism
is that the words are simply jammed into each Avartanam, even
worse than an Annamacharya kriti. For example, the line that KVN
picked for neraval has the phrase "cidvilasa ..." crammed into
two beats, leading to a flurry of syllables that is simply
incongruous with the rest of the anupallavi. The neat thing was
that KVN masterfully elaborated his neraval here, something that
is very difficult to do with a line with so many syllables.
The Hindolam piece Om Namah Sivaya seemed a bit out of place, as
it tended to slow down the pace of the concert immensely.
Perhaps KVN would have been better advised to have sung it after
the RTP.
As he moved to Bhairavi, KVN mesmerized the audience with an
AlApanai that brought out nuances that I can scarcely remember
hearing before. Interestingly, he sang an extended passage
purely in "mm-kara", humming a string of sequences with a very
soothing effect. I do not exaggerate when I say that listening
to his elaboration left me goose bumps several times over. He
then presented the tAnam with Vellore Ramabhadran accompanying
him in a wonderfully subdued manner. He then presented the
rupaka talam pallavi detailed above; I wish he would have picked
a more complex talam, but for various reasons which I don't wish
to discuss, I understand why he did not.
The concert ended with a few small pieces, and wonderfully
rendered shloka. After being showered with a barrage of
requests, he said that he would sing only one more piece and sang "Eppovaruvaro", to the delight of the entire audience.
Nagai Muralidharan provided pleasing, sruti-shuddhic support
throughout, but his playing rarely made the audience say "Aha!"
And while the quality of the sound of Ramabhadran's playing was
superb, as was his subtle, non-interfering style, one missed the
rapport and active involvement that a Palghat Raghu or Trichur
Narendran seems to have when playing with KVN.
Hi Chittha, found this by chance when looking up old concerts of kvn thatha. Wow!
Had some free time today!
Did you record this concert, or would you happen to have the recording?
I would love listening to this.
Thanks.
Kesha
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