With so many concerts and venues to choose from, Margazhi in Chennai is both a delectable feast for the music aficionado as well as a game of chance.  The best of artists may have an off day. The venue could be uncomfortable or have poor sound. Some concerts are brilliant and fulfilling. Others can be lackluster or even cheesy.

My luck held last Friday when I went to hear K. Gayatri followed by Vijay Siva at Kartik Fine Arts. My thanks to the organisers for having these two concerts back to back.  

As I walked in slightly late, K Gayatri was singing a brisk Ninnada Nela the Tyagaraja kriti in Kannada raga Immediately invoking memories of the late maestro Ramnad Krishnan’s recording.  What followed was a majestic Tyagaraja Yogavaibhavam in Ananda Bhairavi. Gayatri chose to sing this in a dignified and unhurried kalapramanam which allowed her to give many pauses, gamakas and anuswaras, which led the listeners to a contemplative, even meditative space. 

 Her Todi alapana and the grand Nannubrochutaku of Subbaraya Sastri were no less fulfilling. With R. K. Shriramkumar on violin, K. Arun Prakash on the mridangam, and Chandrashekara Sharma on the ghatam, the concert was everything one could have hoped for. After a vigorous, yet restrained tani, a ragamalika of excerpts from the Divyaprabhandam tuned by R. K. Shriramkumar was followed by an unusual tillana of vidushi Suguna Purushottaman in Simhanandana tala rounded out the offering.

N. Vijay Siva’s concert followed. Another aural treat for the attentive listener and those who embrace tradition followed. Sangita Kalanidhi Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi played the violin. Sangita Kalanidhi Trichy Sankaran wielded the mridangam and Chandrasekara Sharma was at the ghatam. 

Kanada varnam set the tone for the carefully crafted Vijay Siva concert. Saraswati Nannepudu (Tiruvatriyoor Tyagaraja) followed a compact and chaste Kalyani alapana.  Sharanam Sharanam Raghurama of Arunachalakavi was next. Ramachandran Raghunandana Dasarethe in Nilambari invoked memories of his gurus DKP and DKJ. Highlights of the concert included Darisanam kandaarku in Mohanam, Syama Sastri’s plaintive Todi swarajati, and a magnificent Kararaharapriya alapana and Rama neeyata.  I remember thinking how Vijay Siva made the familiar Karaharapriya seem novel and made it sparkle with his approach.

The accompanists each added their own luster to the concert. Vijayalakshmi with her imaginative and crisp bowing, Trichy Sankaran with his reverberative and insistent rhythms, and Chardrashekara Sharma with his ever deft fingering. Vijay concluded with Tulsi Das’s eternal Janaki naath sahaya kare

Art, someone once said, reveals itself in restraint.  On this day, I was fortunate to hear artists of this exceptional calibre who are each masters at such deliberate restraint. One almost feels that we can hear the voice of each composer.