Sowmya displays her musical acumen through her intelligent choices

S.Sowmya’s Natabhairavi and Vachaspati phrases were well-nuanced

The nuances of nishadam in Surutti make it a rather tricky note to navigate. It can frustrate a veena player who tries to produce the sound by pulling the string at the dhaivatam or panchamam fret. During descending phrases, it changes its shape to form a slightly lower note than in ascending phrases. Hence it is important to understand the intention and use it carefully, according to the phrase being sung. Senior vocalist S.Sowmya’s Surutti alapana interwove choice phrases of almost every kriti in the raga, as she explored the rishabam to nishadam portion in the madhya sthayi before focussing her creativity around the upper nishadam. As she approached the end of the alapana, she tried to let go of the nishadam but the note pulled her back in because there were still some combinations left to discover before she could commence ‘Geetharthamu’.

Experienced musicians invariably tend to retain the audience’s attention for a long time and there are many reasons for this. Sowmya’s strength lies in the way she chooses ragas for elaboration by structuring her alapanas using appropriate syllables, akaarams and characteristic pauses. Natabhairavi is a raga that is poignant and haunting. Embar Kannan, who was the violinist that evening, presented a whole range of ideas from the panchamam to the upper rishabham. Of course, the nishadam and rishabham give a lot of character to this raga and were used well by both Sowmya and Kannan. In between the meandering long phrases, Kannan often delved deep into short bursts of super-fast notes that were grouped appropriately to add variety to the alapana.

Vocalists often subtly indicate what composition they are going to take up through their alapanas. If one closely observed Sowmya’s Natabhairavi alapana, certain phrases from ‘Sri valli devasanapate’ could be heard where she dissected some lines and carefully added embellishments to direct her flow. However, the vidushi is known to spring surprises as she possesses an expansive repertoire acquired from stalwarts such as S. Ramanathan and she chose to present one of his unique pieces – ‘Nee padamulanu nammitini’, a composition by Harikesanallur Muthaiah Bhagavatar on the deity Kanthimathi of Tirunelveli. Neyveli Narayanan and K.V. Gopalakrishnan accompanied Sowmya on the mridangam and kanjira, respectively. The percussionists regularly accompany the vocalist and add a lot of rhythmic value to her recitals with their intuition and involvement.

Even singing the arohanam of Natabhairavi is effective to portray its mood and this kriti employs this effect when the word ‘Sri kantimati’ connects to ‘nee padamulanu’ in the pallavi. Its charanam comprises poetic words, including the raga mudra, fitted aesthetically into the tune and is a listener’s delight. Sowmya sang a brief niraval at ‘Gopala sodari’ before presenting a set of kalpanaswaras ending at the dhaivatam, as ‘Gopala’ begins at the upper nishadam. Kannan handled the niraval with a flowing quality that mirrored the vocalist’s approach. Sowmya and Kannan took turns to distinctly show simple kalpanaswara ideas ending at the dhaivatam, employing different ideas that proved to be useful for music students.

In her Neetimati offering, instead of Koteeswara Iyer’s ‘Mohanakara muthukumara’, which is the most often-heard kriti, Sowmya chose to present Ambujam Krishna’s ‘Aravinda lochanane’, which was refreshing. \

Sowmya and Kannan have formed a good partnership for many years and their understanding of each other onstage is evident from how often they gave each other space to add their contributions. Take, for instance, the long filling phrase that vocalists usually sing in their anupallavis that end at the upper shadjam. Kannan took the opportunity to play phrases such as these, adding variety to the presentation.

It was a kutcheri where several Sampoorna ragas were chosen by Sowmya. The next raga on the list was Bhavapriya. A sprightly rendition of Tyagaraja’s ‘Srikanta neeyada’ was followed by swaras ending at the madhyamam. For a brief period in the kalpanaswara section, Sowmya dwelled on just three notes — M P and D, playing around with some exciting patterns. Kannan’s final swaras also carried the same intensity. Narayanan and Gopalakrishnan enthusiastically played their parts here, making the section an effective arrangement.