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| New Release |
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| Bhavaymi Reghuramam |
| Gems of swathi thirunal |
| Compositions of Swati thirunal. Tracks include : Gopanandana, Paripalayamam, Anandavalli, Ambhojanabha, Gangeya vasanadhara, Bhavayami reghuramam & Bhujagashayino. |
Produced and Copyright owned by :
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| MANORAMA
MUSIC |
| CD's are available at all leading music stores
in Kerala. |
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| It was on a balmy evening of a new year’s eve
somewhere in the 90’s that Neyyattinkara
Vasudevan presented a young student of his to the cognoscenti
of the Music Academy at Chennai. The concert, which was much remembered
in the annals of this musical Mecca, had Vasudevan once again showcase
the brilliance of his unique bhava-laden style which was moving just
as it was enthralling! But the concert was also memorable on another
score – the quiet confidence that Vasudevan reposed in this
young student, allowing him to partner the veteran in his creative
journey. Sreevalsan Menon, then in his twenties, received the baton
from his Guru and proved himself as a devout inheritor to his master's
style. Rasikas still remember the majesty of the Mukhari that Vasudevan
laid foundation to, on which his young Sishya built delicate embellishments
to create a monument in raga delineation. |
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Vasudevan,
or Neyyattinkara, as he is always affectionately referred to,
follows a “centrist” style of Carnatic music in which
he draws as much from the stolidity of classicism of the “Semmangudi
bani” as he does from the inspired and imaginative ‘searches’
of the Ramnad style. While he is a stickler of padanthara, he has
been equally influenced by the ruminative and soulful music of the
two venerated classical musicians hailing from Kerala, the late M.D.
Ramanathan and K.V. Narayanaswamy. And arguably, It was the prodigious
influence of these two innovators of tradition which helped Vasudevan
give a complete new musical imagery to the magnificence of many a
Swathi Thirunal composition. |
| It was a chance meeting at All India Radio that Sreevalsan
– then a serious student of agriculture at Trivandrum –
had with Vasudevan that initiated an enriching bond between the master
and the student. Like all great gurus, Vasudevan did not merely refashion
the aesthetics of music for his students but altered paradigmatically
their worldview of art itself. He has been guru in the deepest Indian
sense, letting his disciples know the need to ‘interpret’
as distinct from ‘parroting’ and teaching them the requisite
skill to braid grammar and text along the lifeline of rasa! |
| Sreevalsan spent long hours, in near gurukulavasam,
at his master’s residence imbibing nuances, listening, perceiving
and exploring the music of the old masters as well as trying to understand
the spirit and musical ethos of the compositions that his master was
slowly ushering him into. It is from Vasudevan that Sreevalsan learnt
the importance of restrain as a worthy counterpoint to imagination,
and that the weight of emotion needs to be tempered by the economy
of concert requirements. He also discerned that phraseology in a raga
is as important to artistry as Bhava is, to connect with the mystical
core of the form. |
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| Vasudevan opened his mind not merely to the greatness
of the carnatic tradition but also exposed Valsan to the meditative
explorations of the Hindustani style as well as the purity of native
sopana music. Sometimes, he would surprise his students with his observations
on daily life and nature and the need to keep the mind impressionable
to all the beauty that surrounds us. These, he would say, in their
own silent way also enrich the fecundity of art. The artist has in
essence to ‘live a life worthy of art’ and not merely
be a chronicler of received information. |
| Courtesy, Karun Menon |
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