Under this heading I propose to write about the emerging good performers of Carnatic Music. The first in the series is on Toronto Brothers (AR) - Ashwin Iyer and Rohin Iyer. Honestly a perfect beginning for this series.
Toronto brothers with T. Hemamalini on the violin, Mudra Baskar on the Mrudangam & VVS Manian on the kanjira performed today from 4.30pm at the Narada Gana Sabha mini hall. I had to leave the concert by 5.10 pm to attend an important client’s call. But as the old Tamil adage goes ‘oru pAnai sotrukku, oru sOru padam - ஒரு பானை சோறுக்கு ஒரு சோறு பதம்’ today concert till I heard was good. Iyers showed a lot of promise.
The every aspect I want to highlight, though very sad to highlight, was their perfect shruthi alignment. There is a lot of debate happening in various forums on the shruthi aspect of leading, established vidwans, hence I write about it here. Probably AR’s exposure the music of the West imbibed in them the importance of shruthi. The every definition of music itself is shruthi alignment, uniformity, being in unison. I know its enough defining music, let’s discuss about the concert.
I strongly advocate the importance of shruthi alignment as the basic ingredient of any form of music across the world. I also decry people saying that the raga phrases are good, the swara patterns are exemplary blah blah when the singer's voice is not aligned with the shurthi instrument used in that concert. These adjectives are valid only if the shruthi is perfectly aligned. Else we can’t for sure confirm what swara the singer is singing. So those who are prejudiced about the importance or mention of shruthi, please revisit the very meaning of music. And please don’t say that its music to my ears and not yours. There can’t be 2 ways about this aspect.
AR started the concert, n the traditional format supposed to have been devised by Ariyakudi, with a varnam composed by their guru Prof. SRJ. Prof. SRJ needs no introduction, a treasure trove of classical music. What needs mention here is his translation of the knowledge to action through AR. He should have been a taskmaster with AR, if not with others. I wish he shows the same restraint towards all his disciples. I have an example where he has slipped or could be that disciple is beyond repair. Coming back to the concert.
AR sang Muthuswami dikshithar’s Natanarayani kriti Mahaganapathe with élan. The 3rd kriti was the TakkA kriti rAgA sasivadhana of Thyagaraja. Though fragment shades of mAyAmaLavagowla was shown, the rendition was brisk. AR sang crisp kalpanaswarams for just 2 avarthanams and finished the kriti.
Hope you all would have noticed – today is Saturday. I struck me only after AR started the kriti. So what do you expect other than the brilliant (am not qualified to pass evaluation comments of MD’s kritis) yadhukula kAmbhoji navagraha kriti divAkara thanUjam.
Oh bad luck for me. My damn mobile set in vibration mode started fluttering. Yes I had to leave the hall in a hurry to take the call. I had to rush to my office to send some info to my client. Folks I’ll certainly attend to AR’s other concert, stay thru and write about it.
I wish Toronto Brothers maintain consistency in their performance and scale more heights. All the best AR, keep the good works going.
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