|
Ragalaya
Foundation held its celebrations in memory of the great guru Alathoor Venkatesa Iyer, the well-known harmonist and
guru of the famed Alathoor Brothers. The function was chaired by Sangita Kalanidhi,
Dr N Ramani, who released 2 CDs titled 'Alathoor Favourites' sung by Sarojini Sundareswaran, one of Venkatesa Iyer’s students.
Eminent musicians present were
A K C Natrajan, T N Seshagopalan, Sangita Kalanidhi T K Govinda Rao, T V
Gopalakrishnan, P S Narayanaswamy, Chengalput Ranganathan, Madras A. Kannan, M
Chandrashekaran and music critic K S Mahadevan. All of them reminisced about
Alathoor Venkatesa Iyer.
A common statement by all of them was on the supreme
'laya pidippu' that the Alathoor Brothers had and their method of singing 'nadai pallavis' in
three kalams. The brothers were trained by Alathoor Venkatesa Iyer so one could imagine the capacity of the guru.
Many students of his are eminent musicians today such as Chengalpet Ranganathan and
A K C Natarajan.
Dr Ramani, in his speech, said
Venkatesa Iyer used to give him a lot of exercises to improve his 'laya pidippu'.
A K C Natarajan said his guru had recommended his name for playing in the 2.30
p.m. slot in the Music Academy but due to the sudden demise of Rajarathnam
Pillai, he played his concert on December 25, 1955, from 9.00 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Chengalpet Ranganathan spoke of his
guru’s stomach problems that made him stop singing. He then trained the Alathoor
Brothers to sing and even accompanied them on the harmonium. T K Govinda Rao (TKG)
said he had seen Venkatesa Iyer in the experts committee meetings of the Music Academy but he knew only Subbaiyyar (Alathoor Sivasubramania Iyer, who was Venkatesa Iyer’s son) well because they worked together in the Tyagaraja Utsavam at Tiruvayyaru. Subbaiyyar was in charge of the stage and TKG had assisted him. TKG mentioned that the brothers were the inspiration for him to publish the compositions of the Trinity. Following this function, there was a vocal recital by Sarojini Sundareshwaran and party.
More News
|
