Rajalakshmi Balasubramaniam, Nada Lola, Mumbai, 12 December

[narayan]

Concert by Rajalakshmi Balasubramaniam (RB), with V.Balakrishnan (violin) and S.Sankaranarayanan (mridangam), with two students of RB lending vocal support. The violinist mentioned that the tambura used for the concert was 160 years old!

This was part of a birth centenary tribute to Tiruchi Swaminatha Iyer (TSI) who lived and taught music in Mumbai for many years. The concert was preceded by an interesting set of reminiscences on this impactful personality, who was associated with the likes of Muttiah Bhagavatar and Papanasam Sivan and also seems to have been one of the first modern exponents of the dwi-avadhana pallavi. There was a brief audio-visual presentation on TSI and the second half of this had a recording of a gloriously free flowing Mundu venuga rendered in concert by this titan.

The concert theme focused on noteworthy compositions taught by TSI to his students, of whom RB was one. RB in turn has trained several students in that style of open voiced, strong gamakam singing with an energetic kalapramanam. The intro to the singer referred to the fact that she used to be known as Todi Raji in her younger days (to distinguish her from other Rajis in the music field!).

The list included Saranga varnam, Sumukham Gananayakam (Chakravaham, a composition of TSI) with a brief alapana, and neraval and swaram at the caranam. Then was Jalantara (Valaji) and then a neat Vachaspati ragam followed by Kanda joodumi, with neraval swaram at the caranam line.

Then came a spate of lesser heard (by me) Tyagaraja kritis, Vinave o manasa (Vivardhani), Meevalla guna dosha (Kapi), the main song Emani matladitivo (Todi) with a fine raga alapana preceding it and finally Nee cittamu (Vijayavasantam). Todi ragam was especially good, living up to RB's reputation! The rarely heard Emani Matladitivo is a demanding one to sing and it was sung with full impact and left at that, followed by the brief tani. Vinave o manasa and Nee cittamu were also very nicely rendered and gave a feel for the niche ragas that they represent. Apart from other pleasures, it was nice to see a couple of students of RB singing along, which means that those song versions will continue to be heard.

The concluding items were Saravanabhava guhane (Kannada), a nice three raga viruttam (Simhendramadhamam, Bagesri and Chandrakauns), followed by a Tiruppugazh in the last ragam. Incidentally, the singer belongs to an expert Tiruppugazh music group in Mumbai. Hamsanandi tillana wound up the concert.

An evening of very fulfilling music and some memories from a bygone era, but with enough positive energy to take things forward.

[PUNARVASU]

narayn, thanks for a beautiful write up of Mrs.RB's concert.

[S.Balaji]

Where was this concert held ? Do you have the organisers' contact pls ?

[narayan]

Where was this concert held ? Do you have the organisers' contact pls ?

Concert and function was at Bal Vikas hall, Chembur. Incidentally, it was very well attended. More than 100 perople, probably and a knowledgeable crowd, at that. Organized by Nada Lola, one of whose founders is G.Balasubramaniam in Chembur. Nada Lola organizes various programmes, but occasionally, and I got to know of this one at Govind/Prashant's concert at Bhakta Rasika Ranjani Sabha the previous week.