This year's Swathi Sangeethotsavam began on Jan 4 with two instrumental concerts of 1.5 hours each: Nadaswaram and Veena. To my great dismay, when I arrived (as I thought) on time at 6:30 PM I discovered that the concert had in fact begun at 6 PM and that I had made a mistake in my estimation and missed the best part of the first concert, viz. the introduction of the artistes of the first concert by Varma himself.
A short aside: Shri Rama Varma is a very classy person in that he personally introduces each and every artiste on the stage before their performance actually commences. His introductions are delightful on many counts. He is usually personally familiar with all of the artistes, many of them former invitees of past Utsavams, and hence always has a personal anecdote or two about them to share, sprinkled with his trademark quick wit and wordplay-based humour. He keeps them short and sweet, and his soft voice and friendly countenance round up the package nicely. Now back to the review.
Nadaswaram kacheri
- Nadaswaram: Akhil Anilkumar Vazhappally & Mavelikkara Sri Pradeep
- Thavil: Salem Venugopal & Thidanad Anu Venugopal
- Unnamed guy on the jalra (?) to play the main thalam.
- (Missed the first half hour of proceedings)
- Deva Deva Kalayami - Mayamalavagowla
- Neraval at Jata rupa
- Couldn't identify the song or ragam, sorry.
- FWIW, It was some sombre sounding ragam and I have recorded a short portion for identification in the future.
- Kripaya Palaya Shaure - Charukesi
- Kaanthanodu Chennu Melle - Neelambari
- Bhaja Bhaja Manasa - Sindhubhairavi
- Bhujagasayino nama mangalam - Yadukula Kamboji
This was my first nadaswara kacheri proper. It was a brilliant experience, what with the familiar environs, excellent sound system (with just a little bit of reverb, nicely done) and the imperious aural passages of the two nadaswarams and strident accompaniment of the two thavils. The thavils took turns throughout, with the handovers seamless and deftly handled. Yes, there was a thani, with both thavil vidwans showing off their skills for a while by playing both hands on the treble end of the thavil, and then the bass end, much to my amazement. I have never gotten an opportunity before this to analyze thavil playing as I've only ever encountered them in weddings or temples where my attention usually is elsewhere, and so I was glad to find that I perceived differences between thavil playing and mridangam playing. The nadaswaram playing was excellent, and double the effect.
I am very young and inexperienced, but based on my current level of knowledge, I think it wouldn't be too far from the truth to say that there aren't many people today who would give equal billing to nadaswara vidwans as, say, exponents of other instruments such as the violin or the veena. I think it says a lot about the curatorial acumen of Shri Rama Varma when he opens his festival with nadaswaram, which, by the way, is a great idea when you think about it. The nadaswaram is inherently a grand, loud and majestic sort of instrument and would be great as an opening act, to say nothing of its fraternal twin, the thavil. I know Parivadini has been documenting the nadaswaram rituals of various temples - may their tribe increase - but more people should provide the nadaswaram and thavil the respect those instruments deserve.
I would like to point out an interesting fact I learnt a few years ago regarding Deva Deva kalayami. Notice that I've written kalayami, not kalayamite. This is because of the two, only the former is correct as a Sanskrit word. The full lyric is deva deva kalayami te charanambuja sevanam - commonly rendered, incorrectly as "... kalayamite / charanambuja...". It should be sung as "... kalayami / te charanambuja..." with a short pause after kalayami. I didn't know this until Shri Rama Varma explained it in one of his videos online (Youtube: musiquebox, note this is an anonymous admirer of his and not his personal account). Shri Varma is a stickler for pronunciation and learning the meanings of the lyrics, which is very admirable.
Veena kacheri
- Veena: Surabhi Pustakam
- Mridangam: Nanjil Arul
- Ghatam: Adichanallur Anilkumar
Unlike in the case of the former artistes, I was able to catch the intro of Ms. Pustakam (which, by the way, is such a unique name! She's a Kannadiga from Mysore, apparently). Shri Varma began by saying that she is a student of his own student, Ms. Amrutha Venkatesh. He continued, saying that she is not a newcomer to the Utsavam, having performed earlier a couple of years ago. Back then, she had not played the veena, but given a vocal performance instead. Also, back then she was Miss Pustakam; now she is Mrs. Pustakam, and in the future will return as Dr. Pustakam as she's currently pursuing a PhD at Mysore University (good natured mirth in the audience). He then makes some joke about how the goddess Saraswati is usually depicted as holding in her hands a pustakam and playing the veena and connects that somehow to Ms. Pustakam. Trademark dad joke, hehe.
Setlist
- Deva Deva Kalayami - Mayamalavagowla (not again!)
- Neraval at Jata rupa
- Padmanabha Pahi - Hindolam
- Neraval at Padmanabha Pahi
- Bhogeendra sayanam - Kuntalavarali
- Pankaja lochana - Kalyani - Ragam Tanam Pallavi
- Announced this as the main piece
- Extra ragams in Tanam: Kapi, X (some meditative ragam), Sindhubhairavi
- Thani, ghatam reply, etc.
- Madhava lokanam - Jonpuri
- Verse from Swati Tirunal's opera, Kuchelopakhyanam
- Saramaina - Behag
- Dhanasri Tillana (Geeta Dhuniku)
Being a student of the Rama Varma school (via Amrutha Venkatesh) she announced all songs beforehand, which was very useful for utter noobs like me. As for the veena playing, it was okay. A few stray notes kept appearing though, and somehow I didn't really feel all that sated by the playing. The ghatam was very disappointing in the thani as (to my unsophisticated ears) what the ghatam guy played was very straight and unimaginative. It is entirely possible that he was doing some next-level kanakku stuff and all that went straight over my head. The mridangam guy was good and satisfactory. Overall, okayish. Nothing extraordinary, I felt.