Smt. Jayalakshmi Sekhar -- Veena
Chidambaram Bala Sankar -- Mridangam
Cleveland R. Balasubramaniam -- Kanjira
V. V. Chellappa -- Narration
Smt. Jayalakshmi Sekhar chose the Panchalinga Kshetra Kritis of Sri Muthuswami Deekshithar (also known as the Panchabhutha Krithis) as the theme of her concert.
The Panchalinga Krithis are written on the five basic elements that constitute the Universe; namely, Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether. These elements, considered to be the attribute of Lord Siva, each have a temple dedicated to them. The krithis and the kshethras associated with them are as follows:
Krithi Ragam Talam Kshethram
Chinthaya Ma Kanda Bhairavi Rupakam Kanchipuram
Jambupathe Yamuna Kalyani Rupakam Tiruvanaikkaval
Arunachalanatham Saranga Rupakam Tiruvannamalai
Sri Kalahasthisa Huseni Khanda Chapu Sri Kalahasthi
Ananda Natana Prakasam Kedaram Misra Chapu Chidambaram
In a unique approach to these krithis, the main artist said she visited all the 5 kshethras with the narrator before embarking on this project. The concert closely resembled a CD that Smt. Sekhar released except that on the CD the narration is in English whereas during the concert presentation, the narration was in conversational Tamil.
The concert was an effort to document the various aspects of Sri Deekshithar’s krithis on one topic. These include not just the music but also the lyrical and poetic aspects which Sri Deekshithar has addressed. In addition, specific references are made to the legends associated with these temples.
The depth and serenity that characterized the renderings during the concert is indeed rare. In my opinion, it has not been seen since the days of Madurai Mani Iyer and D K Pattammal who learnt directly from T L Venkatarama Iyer. The additional feature that enhanced this particular concert is the commentary/narration of V. V. Chellappa who has taken great care to portray the krithis and the kshethras accurately.
I wish we had more thematic concerts with this level of depth and quality.
I have not commented on the individual artists because the whole concept worked so beautifully due to their team effort. I wish this spurs more such efforts in the future.
V. K. Viswanathan
PS. While it is true that I am personally close to several members of the concert team, this is an objective attempt on my part to describe an effort that truly excites me.