I decided that certain concerts of Bharat Sangeet Utsav deserve a similar status and chose to attend some concerts that were there for the star -- if not musical -- value.
Who could skip the curtain-raiser featuring Ravikiran and Anil Srinivasan? After trying to figure out what is the best way to obtain seats to this coveted event, I decided the best approach is to simply march up to the doors as if I owned the place and intimidate the dwarapalakas by staring them down. The ploy worked wonderfully and I found myself listening to the concert from my usual perch in the 7th row.
As the concert progressed, it dawned on me what a great visionary (deerghadarshi) Sri Deekshithar was. He probably foresaw what might happen to his stately compositions in Carnatic music and deliberately left behind a corpus knows as the Nottuswara Sahithyas which could be mangled but as luck would have it, it was Gamakakriya (which I like to call Harimaupriya) that got caught between the strings of the chitraveena and the keys of the keyboard and died a horrible death. Doesn't history mean anything? After all, here is the composition "Meenakshi Me Mudham Dehi" which Sri Deekshithar listened to as he drew his last breath which was being subjected to an experiment. Wasn't "Shyamale Meenakshi" or "Sakthi Sahitha Ganapathim" sufficient to display the capabilities and limitations of the keyboard?
I wanted to drown my sorrows and staggered out to find a pub.
The next concert that was a must in the list was the first-time-ever double-billing of T M Krishna and his wife Sangeetha Krishna (nee Sivakumar) variously called a Carnatic-Carnatic jugalbandhi and a Carnatic Duet.
The song list was:
Mathe - Khamas (D)
Ninne Nera Namminanu - Pantuvarali (D)
Bhuvinidasudane - Sriranjani (S)
Kanaka Saila Viharini - Punnagavarali - (K)
Bhogeendra Sayinam - Kuntalavarali (D)
The letters D, S and K stand respectively for Duet, Sangeetha and Krishna so that you know how exactly the Duet progressed.
Then Krishna started the raga alapana in Sri. This was followed by an alapana of Arabhi by Sangeetha. Then came Gauri (announced by Krishna though there was no need to) and a total of 10 brief alapanas ensued, alternating between Krishna and Sangeetha. This was followed by tanam in four ragas again alternating beween the two singers. Halfway through the alapanas, it was quite clear what was happening: it was going to be Deekshithar's monumental Chaturdasa Ragamalika. After rendering the sahithyam, the duo alternatated swarams for the 14 ragas and handed over the concert to the percussion artists for the Tani Avarthanam.
Then Krishna announced the final piece. It was going to be verses from "Abijnana Sakunthalam" to be sung as viruttham. Krishna was going to sing the first verse which describes the scene where Dushyantha has seen Sakunthala and is smitten by her. The next verse is where Sakunthala goes through a similar traumatic experience. The third verse describes Sakunthala's idea of writing a letter to Dushyantha. Krishna announced that after this they would render the final composition.
Krishna opened with Hameer Kalyani. Sangeetha sang a raga I have forgotten and then Hindolam and then Krishna picked up Desh. After this, the final composition was revealed! It was "Premayil Yaavum Maranthome"! Here was T M Krishna singing in GNB's role and Sangeetha (GNB's disciple's disciple -- she has learnt from Charumathi Ramachandran) singing in M S Subbulakshmi's role. The concert ended in thunderous applause and when Carnatica's Ramanathan announced that the next day was the pair's wedding anniversary, there was another round of applause. Truly a show worthy of the full-house crowd!
Yet another concert that was not to be missed was that of the Madras String Quartet. This has been reviewed earlier by others but the interesting thing was that the srithi box was seemingly switched on only during the alapanas of the Carnatic ragas. As the Carnatic pieces were played, I couldn't hear the drone but that did not prevent one from identifying the ragas or understanding that the artists stayed true to the sruthi. The other interesting thing was that there was no obvious method by which they kept talam; they were not seen tapping their toes or feet to maintain the talam yet they were fully in control. Another interesting tidbit is that they had notations for the Carnatic items as well and played their instruments looking at the sheet music so they couldn't have been looking at the audience for maintaining talam. Does this mean that with good training our vocalists and instrumentalists can do away with the pot-bangers?
Of course, one had to be seen at the finale by Aruna Sayeeram which drew a capacity crowd. Many people came just to see the cow and the snake and were not disappointed.
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