Vimarshini Jairam @ Sion on 24th April 2011

Vimarshini Jairam - Vocal
Tejasvi Sunderrajan - Violin
Karthik Srinivasan - Mridangam

Theme - Songs on Lord Muruga

Vimarshini is a disciple of Smt. Radha Namboodiri and other senior vidvans of Mumbai. The concert was organized as part of the monthly chamber program series that has been started by a group of youngsters in Mumbai to promote the young talented musicians in Mumbai. The audience for this concert included senior vidushis like Sulochana Rajendran, Radha Nmaboodiri and also Smt. Vishalam, a violin vidushi (and disciple of Shri T S Krishnaswami who was the violin teacher of Ranjani - Gayatri). Vimarshini also learns the violin from the latter.

Vimarshini's concert mirrored her vidvat and her training under good teachers in a solid pAThAntaram. The best part of such chamber concerts is that the art form is given primary importance over anything else and if the audience is prepared to take the best, the artists give their best! The fact that the audience consists of knowledgeable musicians and practitioners is a big boost to the performers who do not have to bother about petty things that a regular concert artist has to consider. It is in such an ambience that I believe that real Carnatic music thrives.

The list of songs was as follows:

1. innamum sOdanai - sama - varnam - Adi - TRS
2. edayyA gati- chalanATTai - Adi - Koteeshwara Iyer
3. mayil vAhanA - mOhanam - Adi - RS @ pallavi
4. sharavaNa bhava -shanmukhapriyA - Adi - PS
5. sharavaNa bhava - madhyamAvati - Adi - PS - RNS @ pallavi line
6.kaikUDa vENumE- latAngi - khanDa cApu - Koteeshwara Iyer -S
7. srI sharavana bhava - sumanapriyA - rUpakam - Mutthiah Bhagavathar
8. murugA murugA - sAvEri - misra cApu - Periyasami Thooran - RNST - @ charanam line
9. Three tiruppugazhs in shudha dhanyasi, bahudari, surutti.

Most of the songs were new to me. The rAga Alapanas for madhyamAvati and sAveri were done in detail albeit with some restraint and had some nice "aha type" phrases. Vimarshini's soft voice and bhava laden rendering made listening to songs like sharavana bhava in madhyamavati and muruga in saveri fresh and delightful. Another very good thing about Vimarshini's recital was her clear diction -> this helped us enjoy the kritis even more. Overall, the manodharmam sections for both the madhyamavati and the saveri kriti had a lack of sarvalaghu patterns (but did not make the exercises sound dry); nevertheless the restrained exercises suited the ambience well.

Karthik gave able support on the mridangam, although he kept giving some surprises. Tejasvi's replies on the violin were good. His AlApanas were specifcally very well done and displayed his gnAnam!

Overall, the concert was memorable and the arrangements by the hosts excellent. Hope this series continues for a long time in Mumbai.

--Gokul--