News - Views - Reviews |
|
MADRAS MUSIC MELA 2001 |
|
MEET NADABRAHMAM PALGHAT K V NARAYANASWAMY |
|
Sangeeta Kalanidhi K V Narayanaswamy, at the age of 78, is one of the living legends of Carnatic music today. Although he hails from the great Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar sishya-parampara, he has developed his own style of singing. It is at once brisk and leisurely, and covers the entire gamut of Carnatic aesthetics. His greatest asset is the underlying sowkhyam in whatever he sings, and is the very reason why connoisseurs and laymen flock to his concert. Narada Gana Sabha will be honouring itself by awarding the title of Nadabrahmam to this great musician during the music season. Carnatica's Pushkala Ramakrishnan has a quick chat with this veteran. |
|
Guru(s) | The great Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar who set the cutcheri paddhati or concert pattern, was my Guru. He would beautifully set the pattern for a concert of any duration, be it 1-2 hours or 3-4 hours, without eschewing any element of music. He was also the perfect example of a main artiste who could easily manage a concert with any kind of accompaniment. He could please audiences of different levels, States and so on by singing their favorites. For example, he would sing Devarnamas in Karnataka, Tyagaraja kritis in Andhra, Swati Tirunal kritis in Kerala and so on. Once when Kanchi Paramacharya stayed in a village near Kondraikudi, he called my guru and asked him to sing 'Sri Subramanyaya namaste' (which incidentally was one of his favorites) and then explained the meaning word by word. My guru was totally moved by that incident. Though I had rigorous training under Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, I had my initial training under my grandfather Narayana Bhagavatar and my father Viswanatha Bhagavatar. I have also learnt from Palghat Mani Iyer, C S Krishna Iyer and Papa Venkatramiah. |
Favorite vocalist(s) from the past | Musiri Subramanya Iyer, Madurai Mani Iyer, T Balasaraswati, G N Balasubramanyam, M D Ramanathan and D K Jayaraman. |
Favorite instrumentalist(s) from the past | Rajamanickam Pillai, T Chowdiah and Tiruvalangadu Sundaresa Iyer. |
Favorite vocalist(s) of the present day | Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, T M Tyagarajan, M S Subbulakshmi and D K Pattammal among seniors; Vijay Siva, Sanjay Subramanyan, Neyveli Santanagopalan and Unnikrishnan among juniors. |
Favorite instrumentalist(s) of the present day | T K Murthy, Palghat Raghu, Umayalpuram Sivaraman and Karaikkudi Mani among Mridangists. T N Krishnan, Lalgudi Jayaraman, M S Gopalakrishnan, M Chandrasekharan and V V Subramanyam among violinists. Among young artistes, I like Bhaktavatsalam, J Vaidyanathan and Manoj Siva for Mridangam and H V Srivatsan, R K Sriramkumar, S Varadarajan and G Chandramouli for Violin. |
Favorite composer(s) |
Trinity, Purandaradasa, Swati Tirunal, Gopalakrishna Bharati, Mysore Vasudevachar, Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar, Vedanayakam Pillai, Neelakanta Sivan, Papanasam Sivan and Periyasami Tooran. |
Favorite venue(s) | Once I performed in front of Kanchi Paramacharya at Vijayawada along with Sethuramaiah on violin and T K Murthy on mridangam. This is the venue that has remained evergreen in my mind. |
Favorite hobbies |
Watching television and playing Carrom. I have participated in several fancy-dress competitions during my college days and won prizes. One of my prize-winning roles was that of a Tavil vidwan! |
|
|
Posted on December 3, 2001 |
|