Birthdays & Anniversaries
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| 7.3.1945 |
This is an enjoyable recording by T.V. Sankaranarayanan and includes some very good raga alapana-s and, of course, lively kalpana swara-s. The alapana in Darbar is firm and brings out fully the grandeur of the raga. That in Kalyani is also excellent with at least one very pleasing karvai. The ragamalika viruttam has two raga-s— Behag and Sindhubhairavi. The Behag alapana is very charming and, in parts, moving.
Sankaranarayanan sings the various kriti-s in a lively fashion and they come out well. The charanam in Yochana shows some breathlessness and perhaps the tempo could have been reduced. The niraval on the charanam of Vasudevayani (a somewhat overworked song) is interesting and shows the artist's grip on laya (apart from sruti which is one of Sankaranarayanan's great strengths). Nagumomu is on the usual lines. Incidentally, the inlay card does not show this number. Is it supposed to be a bonus? Sarasamukhi is a song which Madurai Mani Iyer too sang often. Sankaranarayanan's presentation is good. But the way he keeps splitting the word, "Chamundeeswari" in the pallavi is deplorable.
This is not a particularly good performance by Sankaranarayanan. Errors of grammar have crept in here and there: a shade of the nishada intrudes into Abhogi now and again, the phrase gama pa occurs repeatedly in the Bilahari alapana and ri ga ma is used in Brindavana Saranga. There is an excessive use of vowels in the alapana-s: the repetitive use of na-na-na in alapana-s also reduces listening pleasure. Sankaranarayanan's kalpana swara-s are, of course, outstanding.
The lyric of the song in Athana is unsuitable for setting to music: it is best left as poetry. For the Bhairavi song, the tala chosen is a misfit: Misra Chapu does not fit the lyric.