With a recalcitrant voice going out of breath and struggling to keep sruthi, Seshagopalan relied totally on his experience and technical brilliance to prove that he was, well, Seshagopalan.
The initial part of the concert was weak. He opened the concert with Swati Tirunal’s Sankarabharanam varnam ‘Chalamela’. Sruthi lapses occurred with disconcerting frequency, as the singer progressed into the second piece, Thyagaraja’s Poornachandrika composition, ‘Telisirama.’
Then came a Kanada alapana, whose beauty was robbed by Seshagopalan’s loud intake of breath and coughing and pauses to drink water. But, like a wounded tiger, Seshagopalan struck back. The battle between his hoarse voice and technical brilliance continued throughout, but the latter slowly gained an upper hand.
The surprise selection was Oothukadu’s ‘Alaipaayude’, which was refreshingly different from the version frequently heard. The maestro’s prowess came to the fore as he rendered the words ‘oru vidhamai’ in many variations, matching music to the import of these words.
Uncooperative voice, however, did not seem to bother Seshagopalan much and he made no effort to select compositions that suited it. He took up Tyagaraja’s Devagandhari piece ‘Ksheerasagara’ and seemed quite comfortable on the high notes. As the concert progressed, the voice appeared to get tamer, though it was still far from his mesmerising original. Swati Tirunal’s Begada composition, ‘Karunakara’, came next, presented speedily and, even as sruti lapses continued, the swaras attached to the pallavi line came like cracks of a whip.
Then came the best part of the concert — raga Simhendramadhyamam. It was vintage Seshagopalan. The stunning alapana was spiced with sprightly brigas that came from the depths of his throat. The brilliant raga essay set the stage for the highly emotive, dripping-with-bhakti composition ‘Narahariyai Vandaan’. There was no niraval or swaras, which seemed to have been reserved for the following piece, Poochi Iyengar’s Madhyamavati work, ‘Parthasarathy Nee Nannu.’ It was an enjoyable piece with niraval and swaras at the usual point, ‘sarva dharma.’ Violinist M. Chandrasekharan said that the singing reminded him of Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar.
The concert peaked at Simhendramadhyamam and Madhyamavati, after which began the decline. Seshagopalan took up Thodi, produced a good-but-not-brilliant alapana, and chose Swati Tirunal’s masterpiece, ‘Sarasija Naabha’. Sruti slips were back again, and after niraval and swaras at ‘dhara chakra’, the singer let the percussionists, (birthday boy) Tiruchur Narendran (mridangam) and V. Suresh (ghatam) take the stage. Violinist Chandrasekharan proved that age could neither affect the dexterity of his fingers nor his infectious enthusiasm — he did well to lift the concert.
