The National Capital may not have had its full quota of monsoon rains this year but it has continued to get its share of Carnatic music recitals. Popular Chennai-based Carnatic music vocalists B. Ranjani and B. Gayatri recently performed in New Delhi and enthralled the city’s music lovers. The concert was held under the aegis of Shanmukhananda Sangeetha Sabha at Sri Sathya Sai International Centre.
That listening to a concert that begins with a varnam giving a special joy was experienced when Ranjani and Gayatri began their concert with an Adi tala varnam in raga Sri, which they presented neatly in two tempos. Invocation of Ganesha was through Purandara Dasar’s ‘Sharanu siddhi vinayaka’ in raga Sowrashtram. The brief and fast paced swaraprastharas that the siblings introduced at this juncture was not only indicative of the depth of their creative talent but also added to the tempo of their proceedings. Tyagaraja’s ‘Ragaratna’ in raga Reetigowla was preceded by a fine alapana by Ranjani, the elder sibling, and ended with swara formats that flowed with rich creativity.
The duo thereafter sang Koteeswara Iyer’s Tamil composition ‘Eddaiyyagati’ in raga Chalanata, a very emotive rendition. The song that came up for detailed presentation was G.N. Balasubramaniam’s ‘Nee samanamevaru’ in raga Shubapantuvarali. This time, the scintillating raga alapana was by the younger sibling Gayatri and the presentation concluded with detailed and creative niraval of the phrase ‘Vasudevuni priya sodari’ and kalpanaswaras by the siblings.
Taniavartanam by the percussionist at that early juncture suggested that the sisters could accommodate a ragam-taanam-pallavi (RTP) in their renderings. After singing Muthuswami Dikshadar’s fast-paced ‘Sri guruguha’ in raga Devakriya, the siblings moved, as expected, to RTP, an item which, one feels, the Delhi music lovers have been deprived of. Thanks to the insistence of the organisers for inclusion of this item, and also an increasingly receptive audience in Delhi lately, visiting artistesare increasingly taking up pallavi singing.
Ranjani and Gayatri’s pallavi ‘Ini oru ganam unnai maraven illakula tilaka’, composed in raga Sahana, was executed brilliantly in a complicated Khanda jati tripuda tala in tisra gati for the prathamangam portion (first division) and Chaturasra gati for the dvitiyangam portion (second division). The power of their talent including their mastery over the rhythm came to fore once again when the sisters delineated the pallavi and followed it with ragamallika swara formats. What particularly enthused the artistes in this session was the rapt attention by a majority of the audience, their keeping the tala even for the complicated rhythm pattern and their enjoying every bit of the session. Ranjani and Gayatri included ragamallika virutams and an abang in their concluding session which kept the audience glued to their seats till the end of the concert.
Young M. Rajeev on the violin (disciple of A. Kanyakumari) rose to the occasion and provided good support. The seasoned K. Arun Prakash provided excellent support on the mridangam and played enjoyable taniavartanams, first in Adi tala, and then subsequently during the RTP session.
Sriranjani Santhanagopalan
It is a normal thing for a music sabha to organise concerts. But elsewhere, at Sri Shankara Vidhya Kendra, Sri Vishnu Sahasranama Satsangam, R.K. Puram, walked that extra mile in organising a music concert recently by another popular Chennai-based vocalist Sriranjani Santhanagopalan in addition to Lalitha Sahasranama Parayanam, Deepa Pooja and Lalitha Homam. Sriranjani’s recital turned out to be a treat to the devotees and music lovers of the Capital.
Sriranjani too started her concert with a varnam, the navaraga varnam in Adi tala, which she neatly presented in two tempos. Tyagaraja’s ‘Guruleka’ in raga Gowrimanohari was her next presentation. She quickly embarked on the niraval and kalpanaswaras in the piece, bringing to fore her musical talent. Sriranjani rendered Arunagirinadar’s verses from Kandar Anubuti in the form of viruttams in ragas Sahana and Shanmukhapriya before taking up Papanasam Sivam’s composition ‘Saravanabhava’ in Shanmukhapriya. The viruttam in Shanmukhapriya was quite appropriate but one did not quite understand the need for singing the viruttam in Sahana at that juncture.
Sriranjani took up yet another composition of Papanasam Sivan ‘Balakrishnan’ in raga Dhanyasi and Tyagaraja’s ‘O Rangasayee’ in raga Kambhoji for detailed renditions thereby highlighting the features of these ragas. Her talent touched its peak when she took up a niraval and kalpanaswaras for the latter song. In the concluding session, Sriranjani included an abang, thiruppugazh and a song on goddess Sharadambal.
Sriranjani was accompanied by the Delhi-based VSK Chakrapani on the violin, K.N. Padmanabhan on the mridangam and Mannai Kannan on the ghatam. These accompanying artistes contributed significantly to the concert.
