K G Vijayakrishnan, Veena CD release and Concert.

K G Vijayaraghavan - Thanjavur Kumar

Music Academy Mini Hall.
7th December 2006. 6 pm

intha chalamU - bEgaDa - Adi
srI nIlOtpala nAyikE - rItigauLa - rUpakam - MD (R)
paralOka sAdanamE - pUrvikalyANi - Adi - T (RS)
shankarAcAryam - sankarAbaraNam - Adi - Subbarama Dikshitar (RTS)
tani Avarththanam
sArEku - bEhAg - Adi jAvaLi
teruvil vArAnO - khamAs - tisra Adi - Muthu Thandavar
ippaDi en manam alaindhiDa - suruTTi - cApu padam
srI rAma jaya mangaLam - suruTTi - Adi

The concert began with a nice rendition of the bEgaDa varNam. The rItigauLa AlApanai was good and the kriti was nice to hear. The pUrvikalyANi kriti, a rare number at concerts these days, was well rendered with a fitting AlApanai and a short round of svarams.

The main course of the evening, an elaborate shankarAbaraNam, which was rendered well. The tAnam was nice and the rAgamAlika part included Anandabhairavi, dharmavati and hindOLam. The kriti was rendered with a round of nice kalpanai svarams. The bEhAg and khamAs jAvaLis were good. The suruTTi padam was nice and soulful also.

Sri Vijayakrishnan played the vINai in a style distinct to what people call as Dhanammal Bani. Obviously, I personally haven't heard Smt Dhanammal herself. However, I could differentiate his style of playing from the way the others play. If one keenly noticed his hand while playing, one could see the way he splits his fingers of his left hand while playing. This is what i presume is popular split fingering. The effect this created was quite different and quite good it was.

Sri Kumar on the mrudangam, was good. He played with good anticipation and played aptly for all the sangatis. The tani was nice.

Earlier in the evening, a Veena CD 'karpagamE' by Dr K G Vijayakrishnan was released by 'Madhiyoli' Saraswathi Swamigal. Sri N Murali, President of MA, received the first copy. Smt Kalpakam Swaminathan and Sri Sanjay Subramanian were honoured at the occasion. Swamigal spoke on the importance of Music and life. Sri Sanjay spoke on the importance of documentation of the Music we all know. He urged Dr Vijayakrishnan to play and record all the compositions listed in the 'Sri Kriti Mani Malai' series as an effect to document all of it. Smt Swaminathan spoke on the importance of Veena Music. The importance of the instrument and urged the youngsters to learn to play the Veena.