Articles on Nityashri Mahadevan
Concert Reviews
Missing, the vidwat factor
a vocal recital by Nithyashri Mahadevan at the "Nayaki" sabha
A Reposeful recital at the Tamil Isai Sangam's 55th festival
The Hindu dated Friday, May 14, 1999
Reproduced here for educational purposes only
Missing, the vidwat factor
IN THE unhindered anxiety to reach and maintain the top slot, standards in Carnatic music have become very fragile. It looks as if the importance of Carnatic music found since the beginning of this century, is fading. This is mainly due to the peculiar circumstances in recent years. The old veterans have left the field; their sishyas are thrown into the shadows. The new generation has taken hold of the scene, conservative ideologies quietly surrendering their place to a commercial environment. The old rhetoric of tradition seems to be no more worthwhile.
The gulf between old standards and the present pursuits is widening. Many youngsters seem to identify a good voice as the be-all and end-all of lofty musical culture. Either it is softening of the voice to the extent of crooning or if it is a natural gifted voice, it is exercised extravagantly to excess, as if to tell the rasikas, ``see the reach of my voice in the top octave and what showers of brigas.'' But they hardly realise that vidwat eludes both categories of vocal emaciation or exuberance. The question arises whether vidwat has to command the voice or the latter decides what depth of vidwat fragility can carry.
Nithyasree Mahadevan's style is powerful and energetic, controlled and imaginative. But the flaw lay in the excess of vocalism she allowed herself in her concert for the Sri Thyagaraja Seva Samithi. She communicated the raga lakshnas faultlessly, but there was little of reverie in the exposition. Perpetual ascents and descents in the raga alapana robbed the recital of much of the contemplative aspects of Carnatic music. She expended frenetic energy to cruise in the regions beyond the top shadja, heavy lines, exuberant tone leading her to expository excess. Thereby she made her music attractive. Atana and Karaharapriya were the two ragas taken up for alapana.
Atana was rambling so much so the sharpness of Atana's characteristic appeal got blurred. It was left to the violinist M. A. Krishnaswamy to capture the raga's eloquence. To the vocal assertiveness of Nithyasree Mahadevan, Krishnaswamy's strings sounded soothing and spontaneous. The other raga essay was Karaharapriya which was picturised with flashes of decorative sancharas. More karvais and madhyamakala passage would have endowed weight to the alapana. The violinist again scored with depth and delicacy.
The list of songs included ``Jagadanandakaraka'' (Nattai), ``Bhajanaseyu marga'' (Narayani), ``Dunmargachara'' (Ranjani), ``Ennadu Joothunu'' (Kalavathy), ``Epapamu Jesithira'' (Atana) and ``Chakkani Raja marga'' which happened to be the main item.
Nithyasree Mahadevan is quite strong in rendering kritis and they came out with tempo and force. Sivakumar (mridangam) and A.S. Krishnan (morsing) kept the percussive wing quite adequately, if not illuminatingly.
Two cassettes of Divya Desa kritis in Sanskirt of a not very prominent composer, Prof. S. Aravamudachariar, were released by Srimad Andavan Swami. Sanskrit-knowing rasikas appreciated the sahitya rendered by the grand-daughters and son A. Srinivasaraghavan in a concert after the function. Others enjoyed the kirtana structuring. The accompanists were Mullaivasal Chandramouli (violin) and Karaikurichi Mohanram (mridangam).
- SVK.
The Hindu dated Friday, January 02, 1998
Reproduced here for educational purposes only
A vocal recital by Nithyashri Mahadevan at the "Nayaki" sabha
Having developed an inspiring style of vocal music for herself, D. K. Pattammal has endeared herself to lovers of music as an extraordinarily engaging singer of this century in the South. She is a calm communicator of Carnatic music in a style, strong with a flavour of tradition and soulful with sustained stress on textual and aesthetic clarity.
Demonstrating her vocal artistry as a superfine combination of lakshana and lakshya with an inwardly appealing admixture of bhava and laya, she gained her distinction in the field as an enthralling performer.
The richness of her repertoire of classical compositions of the great composers and the patriotic pieces of poets like Subramania Bharathiar enabled her to win wide admiration.
At a function held on April 25, `Nayaki' of Kotturpuram felicitated this veteran musician on her 80th birthday. Participating in the function, Mrs. Devaki Muthaiah, president of the Sabha praised D. K. Pattammal for her continued contribution of a commendable order to the field of classical music in the South.
The sabha featured a vocal recital by Nithyasree Mahadevan (granddaughter of DKP) on the occasion. Through her recital, Nithyasree Mahadevan gave an impressive account of her artistic talent as a young vocalist trained meticulously by her mentor. She conveyed the contents of her recital convincingly in a style of powerful vocal music reflective of her fair grasp of the entrancing ingredients noticeable in the artistry of her illustrious grandmother.
Opening her recital tentatively with the varnam, ``Chalamela'' in Natakurinji, Nithyasree rendered the piece, ``Thelialeru'' of Thyagaraja in Dhenuka in a refreshing pace.
Following a fascinating representation of `Mivalla' of the same composer in Kapi, the vocalist drew a fairly enjoyable sketch of Dhanyasi. Her execution of the piece, ``Meenalochana'' (misra chapu) in this raga was in a diction expressive of the intensity of her practice to expose its evocative contents in an authentic musical version.
Completing her portrayal of the piece, ``Nenarunchi'' of Thyagaraja in Malavi pleasantly in an accelerated gait, the singer delivered a sufficiently satisfying essay of Kalyani. She suffixed it with a relaxed rendition of the piece, ``Venkataramana'' extended to a rhythmically energetic session of swaras.
The recital's concluding part included a session of patriotic pieces of which Bharata Samudayam Vazhgave' and `Vetri Ettu Dikkum Etta Kottu Murase' were, in forms, reminiscent of their excellence as scintillating masterpieces of the vocalist's versatile grandmother.
V. L. Kumar (violin), Neyveli Skandasubramaniam (mridangam) and G. Ravichandran (ghatam) extended able support to the vocalist.
The Hindu dated Friday, January 02, 1998
Reproduced here for educational purposes only
A Reposeful recital at the Tamil Isai Sangam's 55th festival
Contrary to the view that she is at her best in the fast pace, Nithyasree was not only reposeful but packed her two-hour vocal concert with Tamil songs, which contained philosophic thoughts and revealed her total devotion to this classical art. The voice being soaked in honey, traversed effortlessly at her command in spite of the pitch being very high. The Abhogi piece was fresh and not the hackneyed one. Other brief raga outlines and songs were in Saraswathi, Hamsanadam and Yadukulakambodi with compositions not handled often. The feast came in Hindolam with her gradually built raga from slow to fast tempos and delightfully sung phrases with appealing swaras. The words of all the compositions were marked by clarity. The ultimate fragrance was in her elaborate Sankarabharanam with the known ``Thookkia Thiruvadi''. M. A. Krishnaswami on his violin was equally flashy while I. Sivakumar and Ravichandran played the mridangam and ghatam. Unlike many, Nithyasree had no notes or paper to refer to the new sahityams, showing her strenuous homework. Her intense discipline was noticed while going ahead with her brigas, which was akin to walking on a razor's edge particularly on the top octave.
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