Perfect notes of celebration

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  Sanjay Subrahmanyan. Photo: V.V.Krishnan                                           

  Sanjay Subrahmanyan stuck firmly and impressively to a traditional construct for his Sangita Kalanidhi concert, writes Bala Shankar

  Awards come with responsibility. Responsibility towards the profession, to the fraternity and, from an artist’s point of view, to young aspirants. Sanjay Subrahmanyan has a large following that includes students. His style and substance on stage are observed and perhaps emulated. Therefore, his performance was along the lines expected from a Sangita Kalanidhi awardee.
  Shunning his reformist instincts, Sanjay opted for a traditional construct in all aspects, including compositions. It was like a well-crafted Ashes century played from the crease rather than an ODI knock from outside it. That is the lesson youngsters will take home from the concert.
  Kalyani, Ananda Bhairavi, Malayamarutham, Kanada, Sankarabharanam – that was the line-up. The composers were Thyagaraja, Dikshitar, Swati Tirunal, Arunachala Kavi. The emotive style backed the traditional mood. ‘Vanajakshi’ (Kalyani) in ata tala is a repository of the A to Z of the raga and Sanjay filled hearts and minds with his dedicated rendition.
  ‘Kamalamba samrakshatumam’ in Ananda Bhairavi was sung with the emphasis on the raga, and the lyrics helped him to iron out the vocal wrinkles. Malayamarutham was a good fit for Sanjay, as he unleashed his brand of brigas.
  The kriti ‘Anumane samikku intha’ follows the ‘Manasa etulo’ almost identically. With lyrical understanding, Sanjay brought out the beauty of the raga.
  Sanjay's Kanada was a rare attempt but the outcome was phenomenal. The alapana was chiselled from charted and bona fide sangathis. He sustained well in sensitive spots, which scored better than the dramatics.
  Many ragas have already been explored exhaustively in kritis and a clever musician will seek to assemble the choicest ones to string his or her own alapana, which is what Sanjay did. That is often the secret to being impressive.
  ‘Sukhi evvaro’ in a slower tempo was a master stroke, to confirm his traditional intent. The soul of the raga dazzled even more in the slow speed swara at ‘Sukhi evvaro.’
  ‘Vande sada Padmanabham’ of Swati Tirunal in Navarasa Kannada was another surprise filler.
  The magnum opus of Sankarabharanam unfolded in the raga alapana. There were many serene moments with soft syllables around the panchamam, a la Madurai Somu.
  Sanjay’s ideas sometimes raced ahead of what his voice could execute.
  Violinist Varadarajan’s raga alapana was a delight with precision, brevity and melody layering the rendition. The thanam was overshadowed by the raga alapanas, but was quickly rounded off.
  The pallavi in eight kalai chatusra jati rupaka tala, with an eduppu starting deep into the cycle and the sparse words in Sanskrit ‘Sri Saraswathi namostute, paradevathe varade’, offered great scope for an imaginative niraval, which Sanjay and Varadarajan exploited well.
  The rest of the pallavi turned technical, with the trikala versions and intelligent swara formations. The popular ragamalika option was eschewed, keeping to the more traditional track.
  At this point, ‘The Sanjay Subrahmanyan’ took over, with viruthams in Bimplasi, Begada, Sindhu Bhairavi and more following the emotionally charged lyrics such as ‘Paril uyarntha nilam’ and ‘En thai vazhi enum mandira namame inbathai oottuthamma’ in Patdeep.
  The support from Neyveli Venkatesh (mridangam) and K V Gopalakrishnan (ganjira) was competent with Venkatesh showing good adherence to the tempo and laya variations employed by the main artist, except for brief frenzies.
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