Sangeetharchana,16th Feb 2006,Tripunithura

Sangeetharchana under the Jayaprakasha Sangeetha Parishath of Tripunithura has come into its nineteenth year, despite the trials tribulations it had to withstand, over the years. As usual it started with the recital of Pancharathnam, followed by musical worship bestowed at the feet of Lord Poornathrayeesa, offered by senior musicians like Madurai G.S.Mani, N.P. Ramaswami, S.K. Subrahmaniam, Thanjavur M. R.Subrahmaniam,Leelamani Radhakrishnan and a horde of young talents, accompanied by senior as well as fledgeling sidemen. This year the Praishath, with the help of the Cochin Devaswam Board and Sree Poornathrayeesa Kshethra Kshemasamithi .had made abundant arrangements at the Aanappanthal for the musicians to dedicate their artistic gifts while a serpentine que was found waiting all agog for the sumptuous feast held in connection with the birth-day of the Lord. The archana continued till late into the evening, after which the major vocal recitals followed, with their main focus on the creations of Jayaprakash from Tripunithura. Madurai Gopalswamy Sampoornam Mani, belonging to the sishya-parambara of Ramanthapuram Srinivasa Iyengar, is noted for his straight-forward way of singing, within the bounds of Sampradaya. His music always creates ripples among the audience because of the chaste style, meshed with a rich bass.Mani became familiar to cine-music lovers with his Nenendu Vetuku Duraa in the Malayalam movie of Kudumba Sametham.' Panchamugha Ganapathe' in Natta. and the ragas Kanada(Bhajamyaham), Shanmughapriya(Kalitha Kuvalaya), and Bhairavi(Chinthayami) made an impact on the audience. Nedumangadu Sivanandan with the violin, Thuravur Krishna Kamath and Vaikom Gopala Krishnan playing the mridangam and ghatom respectively, contributed to the success of the programme. M. K. Sankaran Nambuthiri, who burst forth in the horizon of Carnatic music as a prodigy has a penchant for exploring new avenues by way of the choice of a raga and present it convincingly. Even when a familiar raga is unrolled by Sankaran, it assumes a colourful dimension. His eagerness in widening the repertoire is reflected in the selection of the compositions, which always remain yoked to a peculiar style of swaraprasthara. He launched the concert with Reethi Gaula with 'Poornathrayeesam'. Poorvi Kalyani was pictueresque with 'Sree Poornathrayeesam' while a melting Sahana found expression through 'Sree Poornathrayeesane' in Tamil. Keeravani the centre-piece of the concert had a plethora graceful flourishes and was aptly tied to 'Sangeeta Samrajya'. Edappally Jayamohan handled the violin with confidence. Krishna Kamath(mridangam) and Tripunithura Kannan fingering the ghatom looked after the percussion part. More than three decades ago a stripling from Madurai, performing at the Chakkankulangara temple during Sivarathri enticed the audience with his spontaneous flow of music. That was none other than Tiruvenkitavalli Nambi Iyengar Seshagopalan. Whenever TNS is on the stage one can expect an incessant and unhindered fountain of all types of ragas and an avalaunche of swara to enliven it. The recent Uthram festival concert at Ttripunithura too was no exception to this. Padmabhushan T. N. Seshagapalan shouldered the onerous task of presenting the Panchaayatha Krithis by Jayaprakash about Ganesha, Soorya, Devi, Siva and Vishnu and made the listeners rapturous,at every turn of a musical phrase.Panchasya in Natta had a bit of niraval and the effortless description of the raga Sooryakantham and the rendition of 'Vaiswanara', earned an applause. After an appealing Saraswathi (Saarasabhava) on Devi, came, Sankarabharanam draped in absolute majesty. The composition 'Panchanana Mahadeva' had a pulvarising sequence of Swara, woven into complicated patterns. T.H. Subrahmaniam provided a competent accompaniment with the violin.Chennai Ramesh playing the mridangam highlighted the glittering features of the Karaikudi Mani style.Tripunithura Radhakrishnan ably handled the ghatom. As a whole the programme had a smoothsailng. All the same the Parishath should take care in slotting the mojor concert to a convenient timimg lest the celebrities are made to perform in front of a depleted audience.Also it should take initiative in training a group of youngsters so as to make them adept in rendering the Pancharathnam, without any hitch.