Carnatic vocalist Ashwath Narayanan displays a streak of individuality

Ashwath’s solid grip over gamaka

By modulating certain trademarks of his school in ways that would suit one’s voice, Ashwath Narayanan came up with a concert that hinted at the prospect of his arriving at an individual style. The youngster’s one-and-a-quarter-hour show at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan sounded like an update of his aesthetics beyond K.V. Narayanaswamy.

Ashwath was barely 12 when KVN, his defining guru (after Jayalakshmi Sundararajan), died in early 2002. Those four years of tutelage extended to classes under KVN’s wife Padma Narayanaswamy, also the singer’s aunt. The opening Vasantha varnam ‘Ninne kori’ underscored Ashwath’s solid grip over gamaka oscillations. The pleasing start had a positive effect on the accompanists too, warming up V.S.P. Gayatri Shivani (violin) along with Sumesh Narayanan (mridangam) and K.V. Gopalakrishnan (kanjira). The vocalist went for a kalpanaswara around ‘Soona charuni’ of the charanam.

Gowri Manohari came in second. The crispness of the alapana implied he would make clear the raga’s character from the first phrase. Medium-paced ‘Gurulekha eduvanti’ showed signs of slowing down at ‘tatvabodhana’ — only to build a niraval along that last line. Notwithstanding KVN’s reflective style that echoed through the long draws on ‘kapadu’, Ashwath carried an extra sparkle, which also made his narrative very celebratory towards its end. The ensuing ‘Annapoorne’, with twirls typical of Shyama, highlighted his knack for reduced decibels during steep escalations (for instance, sakshi in the pallavi), displaying voice control.

A 24-minute Purvikalyani package occupied the centre. The alapana began from the upper ranges of the raga, but soon the sketching and colouring became unhurried. Reposeful frills layered the evening melody, suddenly punctuating them with steep climbs. Teenaged Gayatri kept the serenity quotient intact. Swati Tirunal’s ‘Devadeva jagadeeswara’ flowed smoothly; forget a constriction along the ‘nijabhuja vikrama’ foray in the anupallavi. The niraval at ‘Darita magadha’ led to building a flurry of microtones, which threw light on an animated facet of Purvikalyani. As the subsequent swaras too gained meat, the violinist enjoyed her double role as a keen listener and prompt reproducer. The tani avartanam in the eight-beat Adi spanned 11 minutes and was pleasing, but perhaps took more time than anticipated.

A neat ‘Kanavendamo’ heralded a sprightly post-tani session. The Sriranjini kriti carried its lyricism, but Ashwath kept away from KVN’s brisk, folksy treatment. Papanasam Sivan reappeared with ‘Karpagame’ (Madhyamavati) after a ditty’s break: Subramania Bharathi’s four-raga ‘Vandemataram’ (Yamunakalyani, Brindavanasaranga, Punnagavarali and Sindhubhairavi). Lalgudi Jayaraman’s melodious Bageshri thillana was the swansong.