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KUDOS TO THE DUO Oh, that
Saturday! To be in Cleveland was marvelous. March 22, 2008,
4:00pm to 6:30pm Lalgudi Sri G.J.R. Krishnan and his sister
Lalgudi Smt. Vijayalakshmi offered a rich and melodic fare
to a full house at the Thyagaraja Aradhana festival.
This event was non ticketed. And there was not a single
empty seat. The duo started their concert with Tirumal
maruga, varnam in andolika. This raga was a favorite of the
great Kanchipuram Naina Pillai, who is said to have sung it
elaborately on many occasions. Unfortunately, we do not have
any recordings of his. This was followed by Saint
Thyagaraja's Nenarunchina (Simhavauhini)The kalpana swarams
were enchanting. Then followed the frst chakram of
melakartha ragamalika of mahavaidhyanatha iyer in adi thalam.
(In fact, the book was on the melakartha ragamalika was to
be released the next day.) The Ragamalika commenced with an
invocation to Lord Ganesha in Sri Ragam.
Neerajakshi Kamakshi flowed in hindolam in all its
lilting charm. It is a masterpiece of Dikshitar.
Vijayalkshmi's solo raga was lovely. Little surprise, she
received several rounds of applause during the ragavistara..
Devagandhari is labeled a vilamba-kala raga, but,
Tyagaraja, has composed two madhyama-kala kritis, Karuna
samudra and Vinarada naa manavi. The duo presented the
former one with all the beautiful patterns of that swinging
tune. This was followed by the piece de resistance, .tanayani
brova (bhairavi) again of the Saint. GJR Krishnan's
delienation of that raga won a lot of appreciation from the
jam-packed house. He had sips of starbucks coffee after the
ragavistara, the song. Did starbucks add flavor to bhairavi?
Kalpana swaram and thani aavrathanam followed. There was all
round and wide appreciation for thani, a rarity in India!!
It was followed by .sarasasaamadhaana, the piece popularised
by Madurai mani in raga kapinarayani.
Then came the Ragam, tanam, pallavi in shanmukapriya.
Both of them alternated for the raga. Again, one could see
lots of sips of kaapi by GJR. The Pallavi was rendered in
ragamalika - neelambari, anandabhairavi, aarabhi,aahiri and
valaji. This was followed by Srinivasa thiruvenkata mudayaan
in hamsanandi. The concert concluded with the immortal .tillana
in yamuna kalyani by lalgudi_in misra chapu on Lord Krishna.
Born in the Lalgudi-lineage, they have been meticulously
groomed by their illustrious father Lalgudi Jayaraman.
Brought up in an atmosphere of music, they soon have
naturally imbibed the great family heritage. This
brother-sister duo have absorbed and perfected the unique
style of Lalgudi Jayaraman.
They were accompanied by Thiruvarur Sri Vaidyanathan (mridangam)
and Sri Karthik Venkataraman a senior executive in IT field
on the Kanjira.
P.S: It was indeed nice to see them bowing till the
mridangam and ganjira complete the aavarthanam at the end of
each song. This reflected Lalgudi's discipline.
L Ravichandran
April 23, 2008
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