Smt. Vijayalakshmy Subramaniam at Rani Seethai Hall (12/19)

[Sundarnrao]

Creative music has no boundaries and when any artist gets into a trance of creation, the outcome yields an out-of-the-world experience to audience. It was one such celestial pleasure for every rasika that attended smt.VS’s concert yesterday at Rani seethai hall.

Golden voice of smt.VS was at its best yesterday –-- texture, flexibility, range, power, inflections and timber were at its finest balance along with the vocal-command that she has earned with her best merit all these years. With the deepest creative excellence being blend into the golden voice, smt. VS commenced her concert with Ada-taala kaandaa varnam majestically, there-by, defining the canvas of extravagance. She then moved to kedaram based Bhajana seyya to notch evocative expressions. Her improvisation frameworks through sargams were astounding. Smt.VS essayed inventive passages of sargams without compromising the melodic scaffold that the song portrayed. Her playoffs on ‘Ma’ on the mid and high registers with effortless paltas authenticated her dominion this fine-art. Third presentation Nekkurugi (abhogi) was a quintessential experience. Smt. VS’s raga elaboration with the best of best creative juices were conspicuously additive. Smt. VS also evocated phenomenal permutations of sargams during this song and established section-based manodharmas with linear, non-linear and zig-zag combination of patterns. Her sketches around ‘d m d g r s’ as baseline was exemplary.

Smt. VS’s mastery, experience, maturity and proficiency was strongly revealed with her fourth presentation set to jyothi swaroopini (ganaamudham). Slightest imbalance on this raga can move the needle to ‘shankmukhapriya’ or ‘rasikapriya’ -- Mastero Smt.VS stroked key-phrases to establish this raga diligently and effusively. Her alaap sketch was apt, soothing and divine. Smt.VS contoured the absolute boundaries of the raga within the notational structure represented through the song. Smt. VS’s expressive emotions and her variable nuances during the alaap demonstration further attested her virtuosity to deliver complexity at ease.

Smt. VS graced her fifth presentation on kaapi Narayani based sarasa at ease. She engrossed the rasikas with a brilliant craft of sargams that affirmed novelty by metaphorical display single note embellishments, gamaks based on doublets and triplets, cyclical gamaks, saptaks etc etc. Her lyrical priority is always a hallmark and insured to add extra poise for this song.

Smt. VS’s ingenious flaunt was perceptible in her most elaborative presentation on bhairavi (balagopalm). Smt. VS etched note-by-note exploration on this raga and embellished maximum colors of ornamentation on each of the notes. Detailing was equally adept with the notational structure of the song. Smt. VS oozed many forms of tans, innovative modeling on sargams, badhats, behlawas, bol-baat, lay-kaaris etc etc. This ~1hr presentation ensured maximum disclosure of Bhairavi with utmost fidelity and dedication. Her surel awaaz were par excellence and was perfectly aligned with tanpura. It was one of the finest bhairavi indulgence in the recent times.

Next recital was Saramaina (Behag). Hailed as the most romantic raga, Behag requisite fondness for its elucidation and with the prodigious rendition of smt.VS, it was a sheer witness of extreme emotions and preeminent recitation. Her innovative small-taans was not only pleasing, but were extremely complex also. Smt.VS then scaled into Sakhri ri laaj set in bhupali todi. Her drut phases with taans, her expressions in the song, her alaapi phrasings were all its best. Hridaynath mangeshkar (composer of this song) would have been humbled if he witnessed this wonderful presentation. Smt. VS then concluded the concert in style with jaya mangalam.

[rajeshnat]

Sundarnrao
Considering your past reviews I definitely liked this much better . There was no need for any thesarus this time for english words . Thank you and keep them coming , give us a surprise that you could review other artists too.

[HR]

The list of songs rendered at the concert -

• Varnam - Kaanada - Neranammithi - Ada Talam
  Bhajana Seya - Kedaram - Rupakam - Anai Ayya - Swarams at Pallavi
  Nekkurugi - Abhogi - Adi - Papanasam Sivan - R , S
  Ganamrudha Paanam - Jyotiswaroopini - Misra Chapu - Koteeswara Iyer - R
  Sarasa sama dana - Kapi Narayani - Adi - Thyagaraja - Swarams at Charanam line - Hithavu maatalento
  Balagopalam - Bhairavi - Adi 2 Kalai - Muthuswamy Dikshitar - R , N , S , T
  Saramaina - Behag - Rupakam – Swathi Thirunaal
  Saki Ri - Bhoopali Todi - Bhajan - Eka talam
  Jaya Mangalam - Nadanamakriya

Abhogi was excellently rendered with great sangatis spanning across two octaves with Ma as key note. The rapid fire swarams in Nekkurugi were at the charanam line "Sikkil Singara Velaa Guhane" with interesting eduppu at 'Singara' and 'Vela' .

The Meera Bhajan in Bhoopali Todi was set to tune by Smt. Vijayalakshmy Subramaniam.

Smt. VS as accompanied by Smt. Usha Rajagopalan , Sri . J. Vaidyanathan and Sri. A.S.Krishnan - it was a brilliant concert and the audience were witness to great team work all through