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 Flowers
floating in urulis, the light casting entrancing shadows through the woven cane
lampshades, it's hard to improve on the ambience in Musiri Chamber Concerts.
Veena recital by octogenarian Vidya Shankar was scintillating enough to cause
the audience to forget even the ambience.
Vidya Shankar has the credit of
being related to two Nobel laureates, S Chandrashekar and Sir C V Raman. Her
father, C S Iyer, was a disciple of a direct disciple of Syama Shastri (great
grandson of Syama Sastri of the Trinity) and that accounts for her mastery of
this family's pieces in her repertoire.
Starting off with a Varnam, she
went on to mahAgaNapatim in nATa and then came Muttuswami Dikshitar's
vINApustakadhAriNIm in vEgavAhini. It was a tough choice on deciding whether to
close my eyes and lose myself in the melody or be hypnotised by the quick and
precise movements of her fingers.
These two pieces were followed
by Syama Sastri's mIna nayana brOva in darbAr and Tyagaraja's viDajAladurA in
janaranjani. Her AlApana in bhairavi was definitely the highlight of the
concert. It was at a leisurely pace with assiduous attention to the gamakas and
anusvarAs. The music, the movement of her fingers, the very beauty of the vINa
as an instrument, made all of us, for those few minutes, forget much of the
cares and concerns of our times! The AlApanai was followed by a Tyagaraja kriti,
shrI raghuvara suguNAlaya.
In tune with her Syama Sastri
repertoire, she played En nEramum nin nAmam, in pUrvi kalyANi while, S P Ramh,
student of Lalgudi Jayaraman, ably sang the song. A padam in aThANa, a rare
tillAna in yadukula kAmbOji in the khaNDa tripuTa tALam and finally a
scintillating madhyamAvati mangaLam by Syama Sastri brought the concert to a
joyous close.
Tiruvidaimarudur Sankaran (mridangam)
and Avudayarkoil H Subramanyam on the gethu, a rare veena-shaped instrument that
was played like the xylophone, ably supported her. It appeared to be suited for
both sruti and tALa.
For a budding rasika, it was a
fascinating experience to see at close quarters an experienced professional
handling such a graceful instrument with finesse and in hearing the gethu.
Memories of the AlApana, the tillAna and the other compositions are sure to
linger on in the minds of the audience for a long time to come.
Musiri Chamber Concerts are
held at 28/2 Musiri Subramaniam Road, Mylapore. (Ph.24992114) Concerts are held
on Sunday at 4 p.m. and are advertised in 'The Hindu'.
Pradeep Chakravarthy
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