Kalpakam Swaminathan, Kamalamba Navavarnams recital.

Smt Kalpakam Swaminathan gave a veena recital of kamalambA navAvarNams on 8th May 2008 at 4 pm, preceding the release of a book on Devi Mahatmiyam, authored by Sri. N. Hariharan and release by The Kanchi Seer at Sankaralayam in chetpet.

She was accompanied by Smt Prema Hariharan on veenai and Thanjavur Sri Kumar on the mrudangam. The kritis were rendered without any manOdarmam, saving a couple of short sketchs.

The acoustically challenged hall, with a non co-operative amplification system and an unruly audience made it tough to enjoy the music. One had to concentrate hard, to be able to appreciate all the music thoroughly. When one could achieve that kind of concentration, it was a pleasure to hear. However, those who wanted to listen carefully were very frequently disturbed with all kinds of distractions from all sides of the hall. It was more like a wedding concert than that of navAvarNams.

It was disheartening to see mami play at this place, with all these disturbances. The majority of the audience were only waiting for the Seer and were probably feeling that they were being deprived of it, by this old lady performing something on her veenai.