Smt. Vijayalakshmy Subramanian @ NGS (12/21/11)

[Sundarnrao]

Smt.VS singing today was an artistic phenomenon with delicate precision and posed a rare musical curio for the perfection of art. Smt. VS launched the concert with Abhogi varnam with a luminously sonorous voice & instituted a immaculate gesticulation of scaled yardstick than higher than her own concert at RSH(12/19).

Supported by the finest ensemble on the accompaniments (Tanjore Ramdas on mridangam, Guruprasad on Ghatam and Ganeshprasad on violin), Smt.VS elaborated kedaram based chidambara natarajam with style and ease. Her crispy alaapi phrases were at its creative best and the sargam movements at the end were dealt with novel ornamentations.

Her third presentation raghuvara (puriyadhanashree) was remarkably manifested with penance & dedication. Smt.VS banqueted exquisite detailing on the raga exposition, bol-baants and sargam passages (Her multi-cycled playoffs were fringed on ‘Dha’ and ‘Pa’). Her emotional characteristics on this presentation & manodharma-cycles were earnestly extraterrestrial.

Smt.VS’s fourth recital on yadhukula kambhoji (lalithe maampaayi) was a class par excellence revealing the purity of raga, proportionate adornment, expressive sahityas and extreme presentation-maturity that she has gained over multi-decades of practice/performance. Fifth piece -- Thaye Tripura sundari (shuddha-saveri) was racy, charming and emotionally appealing. Smt.VS developed improvisations on the sargams with unique patterns and also sprinkled interesting perspectives of ‘durga’ like complex prototypes to build extra impact for the presentation.

Bhairavi based chintayamam duly attested the passionate pursuit of perfection that Smt.VS has gained in this fine-art. This main presentation was beyond words and sported every facet of creativity to the core. Smt. VS’s detailing on the alaaps was a combination of profound thinking and infinite exertions that she has made with many years of practice. Smt.VS demonstrated many gamuts of alankars as part of improvisational frameworks and notably, displayed exceptional varieties of sargam combinations with the mukda ‘bharavi prasandham’.

Sarvam Brahmamayam (Madhuvanthi; tuned by late shri. S.Rajam) was an immediate dessert to the main-presentation and was presented beyond excellence. Finest balance of maturity, emotions, expressions and inflections were the hallmark on this spellbinding recital. Her final presentation was a raga-mala bandish ‘koovi azhaithaal’ written by kavingar vaali. Smt. VS insured to give the best juice of all the ragas as she was sailing deep into the raga-mala. Notably, desh authenticated her north-indian influence and emerged with diversity across northern-frontiers.

Tanjore Sri Ramdas made open plaudits on today’s performance and wished/blessed Smt.VS for her dedication, commitment, presentation-formats, mellifluous voice, classicism and rendition-standards. Ever humble and fully grounded Smt.VS transmitted back all his admirations to almighty and to her guru, there-by, receiving only the blessings to promote music with higher standards.

[arasi]

I enjoyed listening to her this morning. Came in at Raghuvara and stayed till the end. I am always keen on listening to Tanjavur Ramdas on the mrudangam. Guruprasad played well as well. Wish the volume had been less for the percussion. Ganesh Prasad as usual sounded very good.

Had you come with all the metaphors and whimsical words surrounding you, I would have recognized you

[anandalakshmi]

I loved this concert! It was such a good way to start the day - excellent sruti suddham , excellent adherence to classicism, and outstanding manodharma on pantuvarali and bhairavi , all presented effortlessly in a manner which was 'sowkiyam'. One thing that I always notice in Smt. Vijayalakshmy Subramaniam's concerts is the interesting Kalpana Swarams she presents - there is always something to look forward to here - kanakku or patterns or eduppu , and also calls for good reflex and timing from the accompanists . The Tamil Virutham she presented before Koovi Azhaithaal was touching and it was one of the best Nadanamakriya renditions I have listened to . Tanjore Ramadas Sir , who was touched by the music appreciated Smt. Vijayalakshmy Subramaniam , and the whole hall backed Ramadas Sir's appreciation with a thunderous applause. Looking forward to listen to more such high quality concerts this season.

[anandalakshmi]

Missed to mention one point - I have not heard the song Sarvam Brahma Mayam being rendered by any other artiste - The way the song has been beautifully tuned , and the way it was sung that day was outstanding - the song seems simple while listening to it , but at the same time think it involves very skillful singing as it has a lot of "straight notes" without gamakams, and Smt. VS did complete justice to the rendition and beauty of the words.