Mridangam : Vid. M Swaminathan
Ghatam : Vid. A K Shankar
Venue : Gayana Samaja, Bangalore. 16-03-2008.
1. Valachi – Navaragamalika varnam – Adi – Patnam Subramanya Iyer
2. Pranamaamyaham – Gowla – Adi – Mysore Vasudevacharya [R]
3. Endaro mahaanubhaavulu – Sri – Adi – Thyagaraja
4. Chaalakalalla – Arabhi – Adi – Thyagaraja [R]
5. Sheshaachalanaayakam – Varali – Roopaka – Dikshitar [R, N, S]
6. Soundararaajam – Brindavana saranga – Roopaka – Dikshitar [R]
7. Raama ninne – Huseni – Adi – Thyagaraja [O]
8. O rangashaayi – Kambhoji – Adi – Thyagaraja [R, T, S, T]
9. Bhajan – Shuddha sarang – Adi – Meera [R]
10. Taam taam – Kamach – Adi – Patnam Subramanya Iyer
11. Tamburi meetidava – Sindhubhairavi – Adi – Purandaradasar [R]
The Parur family has produced some of the finest violinists in the field of carnatic music, and it was a pleasure hearing three people from this parampara on the same stage. All three of them had a distinct style of playing. Anantharaman, at the ripe age of 84, played crisp, captivating alapanas seemingly effortlessly, without stumbling anywhere. His sketches of Gowla, Arabhi and Sindhubhairavi were all to-the-point, bringing out the essence of the raga well. He also sang bits of the kritis, to bring out the lyrics. His singing was pleasant too…
Krishnaswamy was soft and sedate throughout, while Sundareswaran was more exuberant and rather flashy. The former’s alapana of Varali was good, but somehow, I was not very satisfied with the first part of the concert. The kritis failed to convey the bhavam, and felt strangely dry. The better part of the kutcheri started from Soundararajam. A beautiful alapana of the raga was produced by Anantharaman and Sundaresan. The renderings of this kriti, and the next one in Huseni were superb.
Sundareswaran handled most of the Kambhoji [the current favourite among musicians!!
] alapana, and brought out the majesty of the raga well. This was followed by an inspired tanam, shared by all the three. Except for a few superfast portions at the end [it felt an unnecessary gimmick to me], I liked it very much. The kriti was rendered well, followed by excellent swarakalpana. I was hearing both percussionists for the first time. I liked Swaminathan. His beats were soft and melodious. But I felt the ghatam was a bit too rough for my liking.