He sang for the first time in the Capital but conquered the hearts of the music lovers here with his brilliant performance. Whether it was structuring of the concert, the kalpitha music (music as learnt) or the kalpana music (creative music), he excelled in every sphere. The organisations, the Shanmukhananda Sangeetha Sabha and the Indian International Centre, deserve credit. Endowed with a sonorous voice traversing comfortably in three octaves, Vignesh Ishwar adhered to traditional pattern of concert singing. He began his concert with the Begada raga adi tala varnam, which he sang in a delightful manner. The opening piece not only revealed Vignesh’s depth in music but also indicated that the recital is going to be an enjoyable one. And, it indeed, turned out to be both an enjoyable and invigorating recital.
Vignesh then presented Tyagaraja’s ‘Gnanamosagarada’ in the raga Poorvikalyani. Even in the brief alapana, he brought out the features of the raga to the fore. He also took up neraval and kalpanaswaras at early stage and in the process, his depth in the creative talents came to fore.
Vignesh took up Tyagaraja’s two compositions, namely ‘Chala kallaladu’ in raga Arabhi and ‘Enduku dayaradura’ in raga Todi for detailed renditions. Apart from singing fine alapanas of Arabhi and Todi, the kalpanaswaras for the former song and the neraval and kalpanaswaras for the latter song once gain brought to fore the youngster’s creative talents.
In between these detailed renditions, Vignesh sang Muthuswami Dikshidar’s slow-tempo ‘Soundara rajam ashraye’ in the raga Brindavana Saranga to a riveting kalaparamanam.
Delhi-based V.S.K. Chakrapani on the violin and K.N. Padmanabhan on the mridangam provided appropriate support to the youngster. While Chakrapani’s take of the ragas Arabhi and Todi were delightful, Padmanabhan’s brief tani avartanam in Misra Chappu tala was enjoyable.
Vignesh has learnt Carnatic music from Palakkad T.S. Anantharama Bhagawadar and is presently under the tutelage of T.M. Krishna.
The broadcast of veteran Carnatic vocalist, Trichur V. Ramachandran’s recordings recently by All India Radio in their Ravivasriya Sangeet Sabha, came as a welcome musical treat to the music lovers. Belonging to the famous GNB (late G.N. Balasubramaniam) school, Ramachandran sang three songs composed by his guru GNB, in his 90-minute concert. His opening piece itself was a varnam composed by GNB in the raga Hindolam.
While singing Papanasam Sivan’s ‘Tatvamariya tarama’ in raga Reetigoula, Ramachandran’s use of improvisation techniques, namely the neraval and fast paced kalpanaswaras added liveliness to the recital. The veteran vocalist then moved on to take up an item for detailed rendition, which was GNB’s composition “Nee Samanam evaru” in the raga Subhapantuvarali. Besides, a scintillating raga alapana, neraval of the phrase “vasudeune priya sodari” and kalpanaswaras were the other highlights here.
After singing a slow paced composition of Tyagaraja “Mundu venuka” in the raga Darbar and a fast paced composition of GNB “Ninnu vina” in raga Malavi, Ramachandran took up Muthuswami Dikshidar’s “Kumbeswaraya Namasthe” in raga Kalyani for detailed rendition with detailed raga alapana, neraval and kalpanaswaras. Ramachandran concluded his recital with a Devarnama in a befitting manner.
Ramachandran was accompanied by S. Varadarajan on the violin, Tiruvarur Bakthavatsalam on the mridangam and Adambakkam K. Shankar on the Ghatam.
