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Music
is an art which calls for some form of technical know-how for intelligent
appreciation. In practice, most audience in any concert aver that even if they
lack knowledge of music techniques they have the taste for good music, be it
vocal or instrumental, for music has universal appeal, soothing and therapeutic.
They point out that babies can be lulled into sleep by lilting melodies.
The discerning rasikas and
others who had gathered to listen to guitar maestro Prasanna's concert at the
T.T.D.Sravanamandiram hall, T.Nagar on Friday must have liked the rich and
varied fare provided for close to three hours. One was enveloped in sheer joy
throughout this duration.
Prasanna, it must be mentioned,
has, virtually singlehandedly, brought the electric guitar to international
acclaim as a concert instrument for Carnatic music: ditto for mandolin
U.Srinivas.
 Right
from the first Nata Narayani vibrant note on the Guitar (a rare raga) of the
not-so-often-performed Dikshitar Kriti (Maha Ganapathe Palayasu maam- aadi) upto
the Kalyanavasantham bhajan with which he struck the last string, Prasanna
enjoyed his music and entranced his listeners.
Eminent critics have gone on
record that western string instruments like mandolin and guitar are not at all
suited for the predominantly gamaka oriented carnatic music. Well, Srinivas and
Prasanna have proved this assertion false. Srinivas is unbelievably fast and
furious. Prasanna relies on medium pace to produce his soft type of mesmerizing
music, plucking the strings expertly.
His music has soothing
refinement. The Bilahari ' Kanu Kontini' ( Tyagaraja) and the special fourteen
raga based Ragamalika of the Dikshithar kriti 'Sri Viswanatham Bhajeham (again a
rare composition) clearly evidenced how beautifully he could stretch the
boundaries of the guitar and make it transcend sublimally traditions without
violating the basic norms. Even die-hards have to concede this point. It is not
easy to please Subbudu, the ever wakeful watchman of carnatic music traditions
,but even he has conceded liberally Prasanna's prodigious talents and body of
work in his chosen area. Subbudu is a mighty critic both with his pen and the
ear - period.
Prasanna is a great connoisseur
experimenter. His guitar strings strummed continuously pleasing notes and often
made the listener feel that he was also listening to a veena -sitar mandolin
concert. The wide range of notes and tonal variety produced that kind of music.
.
'Sri Parthasarthe' (suddha
dhanyasi -rupakam-Dikshitar) conformed to aesthetics of music in a pristine
fashion. The 45 minute widely traversed Bhairavi kriti 'Bala Gopala' (Dikshitar),
the main piece of the evenir-g concert, was imaginatively illuminating with its
haunting notes that lingered for long. Percussionists Poongulam S.Subramanian (mridangam)
and Trivandrum Rajagopal (kanjira) shared vigourously and enthusiastically their
expertise with the audience and with each other in the thani encounter.
The Kalyani 'Amma Raavamma' (Kandachapu-Tyagaraja)
was a ten fingered blessed charm of evocative classicism. Prasanna, no doubt,
takes his music to all-- the hard boiled traditionalist, the ardent rasikas,
and, of course, the easy to please layman. That is this young man's charisma, he
who has won the life time achievement award, 2003 from the Kanchi Acharya,
recently. He just cannot strike a false note ever.
R Srinivasan
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