Geetha Rajasekhar belongs to the Big League

Both Geetha Rajasekhar and violinist M A Krishnaswamy made the concert memorable – in their own ways. The vocalist with her scintillating Shanmukhapriya and the violinist with his intemperate remarks on the percussionists. Krishnaswamy, who found mridangam and ghatam too loud, curtly told the sound technician to tone down their volume. Waving towards mridangist Thanjavur Subramanian and ghatam artiste H Sivaramakrishnan, Krishnaswamy told the technician not to raise the volume, “even if they ask you to do.” He did not stop with that. “We,” he said pointing to Geetha Rajasekhar and himself, “are they main artistes here. He later explained me the remark was directed against the ghatam artiste and not the mridangist. It appears, from what Krishnaswamy's brother M A Sundaresan told me just outside the hall that day, that Sivaramakrishnan has a habit of asking the sound technician to raise the volume of his mike. In any case, it was in poor taste. A seasoned artiste ought to know better to make intemperate remarks from the the stage.

It is indeed an indication of how seasoned the artistes are that despite this turbulence the concert was of classy. Geetha’s singing is an amalgam of a clear, ringing voice and unrelenting fidelity to tradition, and it is a mystery as to why she is not a crowd puller. I am reminded of the superb Harikambodhi she sang at Indian Fine Arts in the 'season' of 2008. The lady has a grip over the art. She ought to get more recognition.

There were three main components of the concert – Shanmukhapriya (Ekambareswara Nayakim of Muthuswamy Dikshitar, the main piece), Begada (Va Muruga va of Spencer Venugopal, popularized by D K Jayaraman) and Bhuvinidasudanu (Sriranjani, Thyagaraja). While all the three were good, the crown belongs to the Shanmukhapriya. The alapana was brisk and brika-oriented, reminiscent of GNB. The line ‘Kanchi Nagara Nivasinim’ was taken up for niraval and swaras. Geetha’s style of swara singing, observed in many of her performances, is like watching a Ferrari down the track. Snappy singing has its own charm, but one would like to see how she sings slow, karvai-based swara sequences.

The Begada and Sriranjani pieces were good too, but they both were in some ways incomplete. The Begada piece had no swaras. A Begada without swaras is a truncated Begada. The Sriranjani piece was tailed by lovely sets of swaras, but they did not touch the upper ma. This was surprising because her voice showed no strain and it is not as though she had any difficulty in dwelling on the upper notes.

Veteran mridangist Thanjavur Subramanian showed great sense of anticipation while playing for swaras. He played very well throughout the concert. H Sivaramakrishnan made his presence felt during the tani.