KVN @ New York: June 6th, 1993. [swAti tirunAL kachEri]
P J Narayanan
New York city on June 6, 1993. KVN's -- as well as Semmangudi's --
repertoire and rendition of the king-composer's krtis are unmatched.
One can hardly find a better musician to sing a memorial concert to
the king composer, hence. KVN's kacheris at the annual navarAtri
series of concerts in Trivandrum -- no it changed its name to
Thiruvananthapuram -- are highly regarded and heavily looked forward
to. The convention at ArAdhana concerts have been to sing exclusively
that composer's krtis. (More later on how one can thoughtfully break
that convention!). With swAti tirunAL, it is possible to do this while
adhering to the kacheri-paddhati: For, he has composed varNams,
kritis, elaborate krtis, padams, jAvaLis, shLOkams, various shades of
tukkadas in various languages, tillAnas (I was surprised KVN omitted a
tillAna in the concert) and even mangaLam! Prof. P. N. Krishnamoorthy
of Bombay -- who I am told is a noteworthy musician and musicologist
-- spoke a few introductory words on swAti tirunAL, his times etc. He
wanted to extend the trimUrtty concept in Karnataka music to be
extended to the pancha pAnDavAs, including purandara dAsa and swAti
tirunAL! I was glad PNK didn't confine his few words only to
motherhood and apple-pie stuff; he confronted the controversy/brouhaha
kicked up on swAti tirunAL in the last decade quite boldly and
directly.
The program for the day was:
1. sarasijanAbhA mAyAmALava gowLa Adi
murArE varNam
2. paripAlayamAm shrI rItigowLa rUpakam (S)
padmanAbhamurArE
3. dEvadEva pUrvi kalyANi Adi (A, N, S)
jagadIshwara
4. sumasAyaka vidhurA karNATaka kApi rUpakam (A)
5. krpayA pAlaya chArukEshi mishra chApu (A, N, S, T)
shaurE
niraval on charaNam: "nArada mukha muni nikara gEya charita"
6. paramapuruSha vasanta Adi (S)
jagadIshwara jaya
7. pAhi parvata Arabhi Adi (A, T, N, S)
nandini
niraval on: "nata vanchi nrpAlaka vamsha shubhOdaya"
8. panimatimukhi Ahiri padam mishra chApu
bAlE
9. sAgarashayana vibhO bAgEshrI Adi
[Composition of M. D. Ramanathan (varadadAsa)]
10. shLOkam nAthanAmakriya,
sindhu bhairavi
vishwEshwara sindhubhairavi rUpakam
darshan kara
11. bhujagashAyinO yadukula kAmbOji rUpakam
nAmamangaLam mangaLam
KVN appropriately started with a lesser known varNam of ST and followed it
with the nice rItigowLa krti. pUrvi kalyANi was wonderful, particularly the
niraval. (I did expect him to sing it that day anyway). K. kApi song was
rendered very well; the AlApanam that preceded it was excellent. However,
the real treat of the day was the delectable chArukEshi. The raga was
elaborated exceedingly well. And what a great composition it is! KVN seemed
very inspired that day and put his soul into the niraval and the swarams in
all three sthAyis and different speeds. Such memorable renditions make one
wonder why this wonderful rAgam with the majesty of sankarAbharaNam and the
appeal of naThabhairavi/ShaNmukhapriya is not heard more often than it is
today. Nagai Muralidharan was with KVN in every step; particularly in his
swarakalpana. Vellore Ramabhadran's tani was controlled and appropriate to
the mood.
The concert picked up energy with the vasanta piece; KVN was clearly
having fun rendering quick swarams for it with many variations. The
Arabhi AlApanam maintained this upbeat mood also. In the tradition of
the navarAtri concerts that swAti tirunAL devised and for which he
composed 9 songs, the navami-krti was rendered after an elaborate
rAgam and tAnam. The tAnam was very energetic, with violin matching
the vigour very well. One is gripped by amazement about the lyrical
beauty of ST's compositions after listening to the sAhityam of pAhi
parvata nandini. KVN should be given full credit on bringing this
aspect out very clearly and not treat the song as a bridge to be
crossed quickly when going from rAgam to swarams. It will suffice to
say that the niraval and swarams had the complete KVN stamp.
I was happy that he chose to sing a less-heard padam; it was
beautiful. If the padam made me happy, the selection of the song that
followed truly delighted me. sAgarasayanvibhO by MDR is a krti of
unusual beauty. It describes viShNu/anantapadmanAbha wonderfully and
was very appropriate for the memorial concert of a padmanAbha-dAsa.
The way KVN introduced an extra word "ati" into the second half of the
first line of the charaNam (he made it "ati pAmara vidura") brought
tears to my eyes by the thought/beauty/musicality. These are the small
points that demonstrate his mastery of the whole idiom of karNaTaka
sangItam. The shLOkam and the sindhubhairavi song were rendered very
well. I personally like shLOkams/viruttams very much as they have the
capacity to bring out the lyrical and the emotional beauty of the
sAhityam and the appeal of the rAgam in a freer format. KVN's
understanding of the shLOkam and his perfect diction did full justice
to the item.
That was the last of the nine concerts that I *could* attend (New York
is _only_ 450+ miles from Pittsburgh...) in the current tour of KVN
and party. I felt very sad indeed that it was so and left with a heavy
heart that continues to be so till today....
PJN
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Observations:-
The NY concert was organized by the Nair Benevolent Association. The
attendance was very good. I don't think KVN has ever performed to a
better-"suit"ed audience before. Even though the music was excellent, it
was only a part of what was going on there, it seemed. It was good to see
non-sangIta sabhAs organizing concerts; it can take the officials and
members of the organizations a long way in understanding music.
Appendix A:
rAgam: bAgEshrI, Adi tALam, randu kaLa chowkkam, MDR krti:
pallavi:
sAgara shayana vibhO, prabhO
sAmagAnalOla, sAdhujanAvala kShIra-
anupallavi:
nAgarAjashayanA, bAgabrOvayyA
bhAgE shrI bhUmi sahita velayu (kShIra-)
charaNam:
pAparahitanAma pAmara vidUrA
pApashamanakara pAvana nAma
shrIpadmanAbha shritajana pOShaka
shrIkara shubhakara varadadAsanuta pAda
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Robotics Institute, CMU p...@cs.cmu.edu
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
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