Shankaranaryanan’s two-hour concert never lost momentum

Carnatic vocalist Shankaranarayanan knows the audience pulse

The pieces of a chessboard have unique roles, much like a two-hour concert. In the menu of songs, each has a role to play to further the concert — acceleration, deceleration, manodharma plank, laya skills, emotive impact…Shankaranarayanan, singing for  Parthasarathy Swami Sabha, embraced this concept with well-manicured pieces at every stage. The concert never lost momentum even with a couple of patiently rendered songs. 

‘Bhavayami raghuramam’ (Swati Tirunal, ragamalika, Rupakam) is rarely an opener, but Sankaranarayanan gave it a brisk treatment, including a brief niraval in the Madhyamavati lines (‘Vilasita pattabishekam’) at the end. It, perhaps, has the same effect of a Navaragamalika varnam. 

A brief Bahudari alapana was followed by ‘Sada nanda thandavam’ (Achyuta Dasar) that zipped past quickly. ‘Chetasri Balakrishnam’ (Dikshitar, Rupakam) was sung in a good kalapramanam allowing for enjoyment of the masterpiece, shunning the mule-speed trundle that one hears often. 

In a concert, there is no opponent to defeat. But, the devil is often within the performer and can arise from overconfidence, trying too much or blissfully ignoring the audience’s pulse. Sankaranarayanan deserves credit for keeping such forces at bay. For example, he kept the Manji song, ‘Brova vamma’ just long enough for a good relish and essayed a 12-minute raga alapana of Kalyani without over-pampering it. 

Earlier, ‘Sunada vinodini’ made a surprise appearance. The raga alapana was compact, avoiding adjacent suggestions. Raghul on the violin excelled in the descendsof the alapana. ‘Devadi deva’ (Tyagaraja, Adi), the famous kriti in this raga, had sangathis aplomb. Sankaranarayanan showed great restraint in terms of keeping to the delicate sway of the Manji kriti, ‘Brova vamma’ (Syama Sastri, misra chapu), a classic that is getting rarer by the day. 

The Kalyani raga alapana circled around the top half of the middle octave with creative exploration at the tara sthayi where Sankaranarayanan’s voice found its natural fluency.  

The marquee kriti, ‘Etavunara’ (Tyagaraja, Adi) has a unique gait with karvai spaces that is in the Dikshitar mould. Sankaranarayanan’s handling of the kriti was mature and shifted the manodharma to the niraval at ‘Sri garudagu’. Both Sankaranarayanan and Raghul had their best moments in the niraval as the unfolding of their creativity, layer by layer, was enjoyable. Swaras wrapped up that song. Poongulam Subramaniam and Trivandrum Rajagopal (Kanjira) teamed up for their smart tani, completing a multi-nadai multi-speed effort with precision.