Girijashankar Sundaresan’s inspiring Kamboji

Kamboji is known to offer immense scope for elaborate elucidation, a reason why musicians often include this rakti raga in concerts. Girijashankar Sundaresan opted for it while performing recently at Kedaram’s three-day festival at Ragasudha hall, effortlessly bringing out its emotional shades through voice modulation. Violinist B. Ananthakrishnan accompanied him in this exercise.

Girijashankar chose Tyagaraja’s ‘O Rangasayee’ where the composer beckons the god. In the charanam, the composer describes Srirangam as ‘Bhooloka Vaikuntam’ and this conventional point was picked for niraval. Ananthakrishnan’s playing captured the essence of the composition. Aesthetically woven phrases that highlighted the melodic appeal of the raga marked the swaraprasthara segment.

Sumesh Narayanan (mridangam) and K.V. Gopalakrishnan (kanjira) offered a sprightly performance throughout. During their thani, the duo exhibited their expertise in creating lively laya patterns.

Girijashankar’s Subhapantuvarali elucidation once again brought his musical insights to the fore. Ananthakrishnan’s alapana was intensely sensitive. The kriti chosen was Tyagaraja’s ‘Ennallu urake’ in Misra Chapu tala. The niraval and swaras were at the anupallavi line ‘Konnallu Saketapura’.

A rare Dikshitar kriti

Girijashankar had commenced the recital with Dikshitar’s rarely heard ‘Vinayaka vighna nasaka’ in Vegavahini and Rupakam, with swaras at the pallavi. After a brief sketch of Anandabhairavi, he rendered ‘Himachala tanaya’ by Syama Sastri. Of the three charanams in the composition, Girijashankar took up the second one, ‘Uma hamsagamana’.

Gopalakrishna Bharati’s ‘Sivakamasundari’ in raga Jaganmohini showed the artiste’s penchant for traditional pieces. His rendering of Papanasam Sivan’s ‘Sodhanai summaikku’ in Kapi brought out the spirit of this kriti. Girijashankar concluded with Lalgudi Jayaraman’s Misra Sivaranjani thillana on Muruga.

A significant feature of the concert was that there were two well-synchronised tamburas for sruthi. The concert is available on Parivadini Music’s YouTube channel.

The Chennai-based reviewer specialises in Carnatic music.