The flute in melodious
command
IT WAS a full bench concert — S. Shashank's flute
was surrounded by redoubtable warriors on the violin (Mysore
Manjunath), mridangam (P.Satish Kumar), ghatam (Vaikom
Gopalakrishnan), and morsing (Mangalore Gururaj).
The most surprising thing about their coming
together was that from start to finish, the flute was in command.
The most pleasing thing was that there were no quakes, typhoons or
blasts.
Shashank never let go of his hold on melody, even
when his youthful gusto led him into superfast romps. The
accompanists co-operated fully. Manjunath, who never took his eyes
of the flautist, offered understanding support, which included being
unobtrusive when necessary. The percussionists did not overwhelm the
bamboo, even in their joyful, full-fledged tani.
The recital was full of ragamalikas starting with
the varnam, its first half set to the five ghana ragas.
Nagasvaravali's piercing notes swung into a fast paced "Sripate"
which had heads nodding, toes tapping and hands beating to the
incredible rhythms generated by the flute, with enthusiastic
follow-the-leader sportiveness from the group. Since the
percussionists avoided high volume and the violin enhanced the
melody in all the clever bowings and fingerings, resonance filled
the hall.
But bhava entered with "Sumasayaka", Swati
Tirunal's lovely composition often seen on the Bharatanatyam stage.
The piece danced in Shashank's handling too, his caressing touches
made it shimmer and glow, especially in the ragamalika finale.
Next, Pantuvarali savoured the slow start,
revealing its colours dynamic and delicate, and eventually its very
essence. The violin too rained melody, its pure tone maintaining
fine karvai anchors.
The flute brought off incredible sound effects, at
times leaping and skipping like mountain rills over pebbles. Booming
mikes made for delays in commencing "Raghu vara", but in the course
of its progression the hall echoed with `Ah-s' from rapt listeners.
Climactic crescendos orchestrating many instruments
in high speeds, usually become a predictable din. But this time the
tracks were neither smudged nor indistinct, the contribution of each
instrument could be identified. A welcome feature was that the swara
cresendos ended on a melodic note than on a staccato tadinginatom
storms.
Shashank invited listeners' choice for the
ragam-tanam-pallavi. His vocal demonstration of the pallavi line was
not clear, but there was nothing hazy about people's choice,
Nattaikurinji, or the pallavi itself, set to mishra beats, evoking a
quiet mood in its vilamba kala, despite the roster of sidemen.
The ragamalika finale flaunted some virtuosic
larks, some of them paying tribute to Hariprasad Chaurasia. The tail
piece, "Krishna nee begane baro" (Yamuna Kalyani) did not touch
heights.
GOWRI RAMNARAYAN
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