again Bombay Jayashri and Eero Hammeeniemi
अश्वमित्रः
It Rained Music at Helsinki
'In a tent?! ' exclaimed Bombay Jayashri….
'Yes but a tent that looks like the Sydney Opera House' replied Eero
Hammeeniemi the Finnish music composer… when he talked to her in
Chennai about this concert.
It did.. Huvilla the tent at the Helsinki festival on August 28 looked
like the Sydney Opera house with its impressive main tent having a
conical roof by the big pond in a park, a tent large enough for more
than a thousand people, solid wooden benches with elevations for
seats, separate tents for café, green rooms, meeting rooms, restrooms
all put up for the festival and an excellent sound system. Large blue
and pink georgette fabric as backdrop interestingly arranged with tiny
light bulbs in them flickering like so many stars in the sky…soft glow
of lighting on the musicians …..sequins on the kurtas of mridangist
pungkulam Subramaniam, Ghatam Karthick and Violin Embar S.Kannan
catching the light as they played…
We were a few minutes late for the concert. My hosts TV journalist
Tiina Maiija Lehtonen and her journalist trade unionist husband Erki
Kupari wanted us to stop by at a painting show at their favorite
mother and son hair dressers. The salon had been turned into a gallery
for the opening of a painting show of oils of flowers by the mother
and there was champagne and small talk..
Bombay Jayashri was already singing Mokshamu Galada as we were asked
to enter from the back… the hall was almost full. The mostly Finnish
audience with a handful of Indian faces (not more than ten) was fully
engrossed in the music of Bombay Jayashri, .. At the end of the piece
she opened her eyes and spoke ' This music that I am singing is a
conversation.. conversation with the creator.. the tools of the
conversation are the groups of notes creating a path..' then she began
her soft Ragamalika Raagam, Taanam and pallavi making the audience sit
straight and watch her with intensity…swaying to her Guha Shanmugha
that kept getting repeated … Lalgudi Jayaraman's Tillanna in Behag
woke them up from the reverie and they tapped their legs to the
rhythm…. when Embar Kannan played, Tiina Maiija whispered in my ears
that she can recognize some Bach!
Post interval was the main event.. the premiering of Eero
Hammeeniemi's new composition ' Rain and Red Earth' five songs from
the The Tamil classic poems Kuruntoghai with the Avanti Chamber
orchestra of thirty musicians with the Conductor Maestro John
Storgards and Minna Pensola and Heikki Nikula leading on Violin and
bass clarinet.
'This composition is the result of two decades of careful preparation'
says Hameenniemi.
'With this I realize two dreams one, to write songs for my favorite
Carnatic musician Bombay Jayashri and the other to make a large and
substantial work based on the poems from the Kuruntoghai. '
To prepare himself for the task Hämeenniemi has actively listened to
Carnatic music for more than twenty years and studied classical Tamil
with Professor E. Sundaramurti, former vice chancellor of the
Tanjavur Tamil University. Hämeenniemi chose five poems and made a
small love story out of them moving through longing, disappointment
and leading to a final affirmation of love. The poems were sung in
Tamil but Hämeenniemi's Finnish translations were available for the
audience. These translations have already been published in one of
Hämeenniemi's books- His five books have dealt with music theory,
history and philosophy, as well as with the culture of South India.
(continues)