S. Malavika @ HCL Concert Series, Chennai

Venue: Kasturi Srinivasan Hall, Music Academy, TTK Road, Chennai

Date: 26 May 2007

Organizer: HCL & Music Academy (HCL Concert Series)

Vocal: Vid S. Malavika

Violin: Vid Akkarai Swarnalatha

Mrudangam: Vid Trivandrum Hariharan

List of songs:

1) vanajAkshi (varnam) – kalyANi – kanDa aTa – pallavi gOpAla iyer (O)

2) tatvamariya taramA – rItigowLa – Adi – pApanAsam sivan (S)

3) sharavaNa bhava enum tirumandiram – shanmugapriyA – Adi – pApanAsam sivan

4) sarisamAna deivamulEdani – viTapi – Adi – spencer vENugOpAl (S)

5) tyAgarAjAya namastE – bEgaDA – rUpakam – muthuswAmi dIkshitar (A)

6) durmArga carAdamulanu – ranjani – rUpakam – thyAgarAja

7) swAmikku sari evvarE – kEdAragauLa – misra cApu – pApanAsam sivan (AS)

8 ) nArAyaNA ninna – sudha danyAsi – kanDa cApu – purandaradAsa

9) rAgam tAnam pallavi – kalyANi – Adi (2 kaLai) (T)

pallavi wordings: “kAmAkSi mAtangi brOvavE, kamalanayanE kanci”

10) dhIm tana dhIm (tillAnA) – behAg – Adi (tisra gati) – lAlguDi g. jayarAman

11) sIr siRakkumEni (tiruppugazh) – rAgamAlikA – kanDa tripuTa – aruNagirinAthar

12) nI nAma rUpa mulaku (mangaLam) – saurAshTram – Adi – thyAgarAja

(Key: O=raga outline, A=raga alapana, N=neraval, S=kalpana swaram, T=taniavartanam)

Vid S. Malavika, a student of veteran vaiNika Smt. Padmavathy Ananthagopalan, presented a very very impressive concert. Her singing showed a lot of maturity. It was as though one was hearing a very experienced artist. She sang each sangati multiple times adopting an unhurried approach. Bhrigas seemed to come to her effortlessly. Her alapanas had many of those piDis that characterize the ragas she chose for elaboration. kEdAragauLa and kalyANi alapanas need special mention.

She was very ably accompanied by Vid Akkarai Swarnalatha on the violin and Vid Trivandrum Hariharan on the mrudangam. Vid Swarnalatha was especially impressive in the pallavi rendition. She seemed to grasp the calculations very quickly, both while playing the pallavi in trikAlam as well as while playing kalpana swarams in tisra gati. Vid Hariharan played well for all the songs. His accompaniment for the aTa tALa varnam needs special mention. Taniavartanam had the catusra and tisra naDais.

The pallavi was structured as follows (B = 1 beat, 1 Avartanam of Adi (2 kaLai) = 16 beats, starts 1B after samam ):

kA (1.5B) mAkSi (1.5B) mA (1B) tangi (1.5B) brO (1B) va (0.5B) vE (+ gap = 3.5B) ka (0.5B) ma (0.5B) la (1B) na (0.5B) ya (0.5B) nE (1B) kanci (1.5B)

Whoever tuned the (rAgamAlikA) tiruppugazh she sang has done a nice job. Each set of 2-3 lines brought out the essence of the rAga it was based in. If I remember correctly, the ragas were shankarAbharaNam (?), husEni, sArangA, aTANA, vasantA, sAmA, amrutavarshiNi and suruTTi.

Vid Malavika is certainly an artist to watch out for.