Houston Veena COncert - by Smt. Nirmala Rajasekar

[Veena]

Thrilling Nirmala Rajasekar's Veena concert

Nirmala Rajasekar Enchants the Audience with a Scholarly Concert

Houston classical music lovers had a great opportunity to listen to the highly acclaimed veena
player Smt. Nirmala Rajasekar on Sunday, April 7 at Sri Meenakshi Temple auditorium. With
an inborn talent and a passion for playing music, Nirmala Rajasekar knows how to captivate the
attention within the first few minutes of her concert, while the audience may be expecting her to
still be tuning her instrument! Her introductory piece in this concert was the upbeat varnam
in ragam Kadanakuthuhalam by Patnam Subramania Iyer providing a
grand welcome to the audience. In the next piece, with great ease, she showed how she could
harness veena to virtually reproduce human voice. She brought out the majesty of ragam Nata as
she played “Jaya Jaya Jaya Janakikanta” by Purandara Das. Often throughout her concert, she
switched over to singing to substantiate what she expressed through veena, especially when she
was presenting songs that were unfamiliar. As a tribute to Maharaja Swathi Thirunal on his
bicentennial year, she elaborately played his krithi “Deva Deva” in ragam Mayamalavagowla.
Endowed with creativity, she worked with the renowned violinist Sri. Nagai Sriram to bring out
and elaborate every possible nuance in this composition. The impeccable mridangist Sri.
Ganapathiraman was the perfect match for the two maestros in eliciting the grandeur of
Mayamalavagowla. After several short pieces in a few rare ragas like Kesari-Sindhu Kannada,
Smt. Nirmala Rajasekar presented an elaborate Ragam Thanam Pallavi in which her exceptional
proficiency was revealed. The delineating Alapana in ragam Poorvi Kalyani was
comprehensive, bhakthi and bhava-laden and was the highlight of the evening. Sri. Nagai
Sriram’s bow led the audience travelling through different routes to explore the beauty of Poorvi
Kalyani, complementing what the veena delivered. Thanam and Pallavi that followed were a
heavenly treat.

Whether she was playing melodious phrases or any flashy sancharas, there was an intrinsic
elegance in Nirmala Rajasekar’s presentation. Sri. Nagai Sriram rose above the level of a passive
accompaniment to a complementing partner in making the presentation extraordinary. The
rhythmic side of the concert remained delightful and robust in the hands of Sri. Ganapathiraman.

by Shri CHITTOOR RAMACHANDRAN
Pearland, TX
April, 2013

[Ramraj Vidya]

Filled with eloquence and reverence , this review seems to have captured the essence of Smt. Nirmala Rajasekar's performance. Looking forward to the Jugalbandhi Veena Duet Concert at the SV Temple, Minnesota on Sunday May 19th, @ 1.00 p.m by Smt. Nirmala Rajasekar (Saraswati Veena) & Shri. Ganesh ( Chitraveena).Accomapanied by Mannargudi Easwaran( Mridangam) and Sriram Natarajan (Kanjira)