NITYASREE AT MUSIC ACADEMY - DAZZLING VOICE
Her opening note of the concert, Kaisika Nishada in Surati could have been sung differently, say, as a r m p. She rendered Vina Kuppayyar's beautiful varnam, 'Entopremato'. The next item, 'Janakiramana', the Sanskrit composition of Tyagaraja in Suddhaseemantini sounded like it was just Todi without the nishada. It shouldn't have been so since the raga has its own individuality. Following this, she rendered Dikshitar's composition 'Saraswatimanohari' in a raga of the same name, which had a penetrating Kakali Nishada, characteristic of Dikshitar's school.
Her taking up of Hindustani Kapi at length with occasional strokes of Karnataka Kapi too, revealed her taste, which was not very appreciable. A passing rendition of 'Intasowkhya' in the middle of the concert is different though. 'Vidalaguma' in Devagandhari gave some relief, although there were several traces of Arabhi in her rendition. One noticed a slackening of the tempo throughout the concert. Tyagaraja's 'Varanarada' in Vijayasri which was rendered at this point was brisk, lively and timely too.
Kambodhi was dealt with at length. However, Vina Kuppayyar's brilliant masterpiece 'Koniyadina na pai' could have been accelerated a bit. Nityasree suffixed the item with a few rounds of neraval and kalpanaswaras and also let J Vaidyanathan and A S Krishnan play the Tani avartanam.
Although she took up the Ragam Tanam Pallavi with just 35 minutes to spare, she made a good impression. The Pallavi (Malmaruga shanmukha muruga guha, mayilmidu viraindodiva) was in Adi tala in dwimukhi (beats in Khanda gati and the finger counts and other nissabda kriyas in Chaturasra gati). She followed it up with sparkling swara passages in quite a number of ragas. The Pallavi as such, was of high standard. Her post-Pallavi items, 'Andavan anbe' (Sivaranjani), 'Kaana' (Abheri) were not in good taste. The final item, a javali in Paras, 'Chelinenetlu', a favorite of her grandmother, D K Pattammal, was however rendered very competently.
In the blinding dazzle of Nityasree's voice, one may not notice that her music hardly appeals either to the mind or to the heart. But for serious listeners, this aspect of her music stood out.
M A Krishnaswamy's raga alapanas and kalpanaswaras revealed that he's a seasoned artiste. J Vaidyanathan deserves special mention as one of the top mridangists of the younger generation. With A S Krishnan on the morsing, he not only guided Nityasree through her concert, but also gave a good Tani avartanam.
