- Vocals: Amrutha Venkatesh and students
- Violin: Avaneeswaram S R Vinu
- Mridangam: S J Arjun Ganesh
- Mukharshankh / Morsing: Payyanur Govindaprasad
I passed through the unassuming white gates of the royal complex located southeast of the Anantapadmanabhaswamy Temple and ambled along, admiring the greenery within the ramparts against the majestic backdrop of the Temple. My gaze was drawn to a few people pointing at something behind the walls to my right. A mother was lovingly trying to point something out to her baby perched atop her hip. I followed her finger, and to my delight, I saw an elephant luxuriating in the shade of a shelter erected for it. It looked very adorable because it had a lot of hair on its head and it was gently rocking itself this way and that while playing with, and eating, its food. There was another one, too - and I marvelled at the sight and willed more power to the royal family that it may continue to extend its regal patronage to these Gajakesari pachyderms for ever more. I snapped a picture of the elephant for my records and moved on.
The artiste for the day was Ms. Amrutha Venkatesh but unlike her previous appearances at the Utsavam, she wasn't going to be performing solo. She was going to be accompanied by her students. "Interesting", I thought to myself, "never attended such a concert before".
The concert began on time, with Ms. Venkatesh and her students all filing in neatly and settling down on the dais without any confusion. I was happy to see a familiar face amongst her students - Ms. Surabhi Pustakam, from Day 1! She was seated to Ms. Venkatesh's right, so I assumed that she was her prime and most favoured disciple.
Intro by Shri Rama Varma
Shri Varma began the day's proceedings by introducing the artistes as usual. In Carnatic music there is the idea of a parampara, he said, and people take pride in associating oneself with one lineage or the other, ultimately leading to one of the Trimurtis. Maharaja Swati Tirunal, because he passed away at such a young age (32) and also due to the demands on his time by the rigours of daily administration, was unable to foster any disciples as such and hence, doesn't have a parampara to speak of in the traditional sense.
But, Shri Varma continued, I have one disciple, and today that disciple is presenting a concert with her own disciples. And just like Swati Tirunal, who was fluent in not only Malayalam but also Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu and Brajbhasha, Amrutha also is fluent (read, write, speak) in all these languages (substitute Hindi for Brajbhasha). This was met with a lot of well-deserved appreciation from the audience.
He also gave the audience an idea of what to expect: Swati Tirunal's ouevre is incredibly diverse, spanning not just kritis but also padams, thillanas, javalis, operas, and thematic sets of compositions (a la Dikshitar's Vibhakti series) and Amrutha was going to present a sample of each of these types of compositions along with her students. Upon hearing this, I knew I was going to witness something special.
He then introduced each student by name: Mahi kesari Pai (a child), Surabhi Pustakam, Ramya Balavadi, Gayathri, Sowmya, Supreet, Bhavana and Vijayashri. Apparently all of them had practised together (both in person as well as via Skype) for almost a year for this day!
And with that, the stage was set for the performance to commence. I took in the heady fragrances of petrichor (somebody had watered the ground nearby, it seemed) and mosquito repellent (mosquitoes have become more virulent of late in Trivandrum) and got ready to enjoy the show.
Setlist
- dAni sAmajEndra gAmini - Thodi
- Padavarnam
- ArAdhayAmi - Bilahari - Khanda chApu
- One of the nava vidha bhakti kritis, specifically the one for the "archanam" mode of bhakti
- kanakamayam AyIDum - Hussaini
- sAdhu tadA nija bhAmini - Vakulabharanam
- Verse from Kuchelopakhyanam opera, set to tune by Shri Varma
- SandadarshabhUsura mani rapicha hamya jAlam - Couldn't identify the ragam; revealed to me today as Hamsanadam by the venerable @CRama, who didnt even have to consult his notes to do so
- Verse from Kuchelopakhyanam opera, set to tune by Prof Venkatraman, present in the audience
- bhAvayAmi raghurAmam - rAgamAlika
- Best version of this song I've heard in my life (explained below)
- ------- 1.5 hr mark -------
- sri ramana vibho kalayAmi - Arabhi
- sarOruhAsana jAye - Kamavardhini
- Elaborate alapana, main piece. Vinu's playing is subdued yet spectacular and an equal match for her singing.
- Neraval on the incipit, all students given a chance to contribute solo pieces for three rounds
- Finished off by Amrutha and Vinu (excellent stuff) and then on to the thani.
- Rollicking thani, strong rejoinder by Govindaprasad on the morsing
- Audience participation in the form of clapping on the korvais that ended in clap-clap-clap's.
- krishN chandR rAdhA manmohan - Sindhubhairavi (language: Brijbhasha)
- kAmini mani - Poorvi Kamboji
- Padam
- japat japat harinAma - ragamalika
- Set to tune by Shri Varma, ragams: one verse each in X, X (both couldn't identify), Behag and Sindhubhairavi
- nAmasudhAmayi - Kapi
- Verse from ajAmaLOpAkhyAnam
- sAramaina - Behag
- shankara shri girinAtha prabhO - Hamsanandi
- srIsha padmanAbha pAhi dEva dEva mAm - Khamas
- bhoopAlam tillana
- bhujagaSAyinO nAma mangalam - Yadukula khamboji
Ms. Venkatesh has become a consummate vocal artist. Her diction is perfect, thanks to her knowledge of languages. She has cultivated a great vocal range capable of handling both the highs and the lows with aplomb, and she is not prone to idiosyncratic gesticulations with her hands or body that distract from her singing. She, being of the Varma school, takes the effort to introduce songs by talking about their significance, if any.
Since this was not a solo concert, the focus was more on the students, straight group singing, and the smorgasbord of Swati kritis than exhibiting individual prowess. Therefore, Neraval was performed only for a single song (the main song in Kamavardhini, noted above).
The Bhayavami Raghuramam was BRILLIANT. They eschewed the traditional points of emphasis and pauses and instead chose different lines to repeat and break up, thus imbuing more azhutham into each raga. Since this was a song I knew and recognized pretty well, I was able to take note of the aha moments when they occurred. Since they are all basically the shishya parampara of Swati Tirunal, I believe Mr. Tirunal himself would have been pleased beyond measure to hear his composition being sung thusly!
Introduction of Kanakamayam: Twice a year, the utsava murtis of the Temple are taken out in procession (known as sheevEli), usually on vahanams. This song is written as a conversation between two onlookers of the procession in which the deity is perched on a kamala vahanam. One of whom wonders aloud what the sight in front of them could possible be (in the line of "Is it a bird? Is it a plane?") and the other person says finally, "No, it is the Lord", etc.
Introduction of Kamini Mani: Ms. Venkatesh explained with some mirth that the lyrics were not suitable for discussing in the presence of her mostly below-18 onstage flock
Personal pitfall: I sat through the elaborate raga alapana of the main piece and the equally strong reply by Mr. Vinu, ensconced in my assessment of the ragam as Purvikalyani, only to be smacked in the face with dismay at Ms. Venkatesh's introduction of the song as being in Kamavardhini. I later assuaged my broken ego when I learnt from a quick Google search that this confusion has bested seasoned rasikas far more intelligent than I.
Nothing warms the cockles of me heart more than to hear Carnatic song with Malayalam/Manipravalam lyrics, of which there are very few. Swathi Sangeethotsavam is the one place where I can reasonably expect to hear a lot of them and that too handled properly with the proper pronunciation.
Overall, this kacheri was fantastic and I'll never forget the Bhavayami. Mr. Govindaprasad's morsing thani was excellent, as was Mr. Ganesh's mridangam. I am familiar with Mr. Vinu's violin playing (he's a student of the Mysore brothers and is very good) and he has been the choice violinist of Shri Varma for many years now. I do not know enough to get into the technical analysis of the thanis, but I know enough to state that it was thoroughly enjoyable. Throughout the kacheri, everyone onstage was beaming at each other, and it was such fun to see the youngest student also make herself audible and earn her place amongst adults.