Aditya Madhavan’s raga essays were steeped in manodharma

Aditya Madhavan’s recent concert for Madhuradhwani and Aanmajothi was aesthetic from the word go. The strains of Sahana for Tiruvottiyur Thyagayyar’s ‘Karunimpa’ varnam at the beginning were a fine hint for what was to follow.

A disciple of Radha Namboodiri (who learnt from Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer), and now training under Sanjay Subramaniam, this young vocalist ably handled every raga sequence. The Karaharapriya alapana for Papanasam Sivan’s Sanskrit composition ‘Janakipathe’ was comprehensive, with all the nuances intact. On the violin, R. Raghul’s repartees were imaginative. With impressive manodharma, Aditya rendered the kalpanaswaras at the pallavi.

Trichur C. Narendran on the mridangam effectively embellished the concert with his composed playing. Duetting with N. Guruprasad (ghatam), he offered a splendid thani that merged well with the kriti.

Connoisseur’s delight

Aditya Madhavan’s extensive Begada alapana for Muthuswami Dikhitar’s ‘Tyagarajaya namaste’ (rupakam) was a connoisseur’s delight. The niraval and swaras were at ‘Karthyayanipathe’. Raghul enhanced the appeal of the kriti with his elucidation. Another gem of a composition in this concert was Tiruvarur Ramaswamy Pillai’s ‘Sree Kamakshi Katakshi’ (Vasantha) on the Goddess of Vedapuri (Vaitheeswarankoil) in Tamil Nadu. It has a lovely chittaswaram and swarasahitya. This composition is attributed to Subbaraya Sastri though there seems to be some confusion regarding the composer of this kriti

Another impressive rendering was ‘Janaki ramana’ a Tyagaraja kriti, for which Aditya delineated an innovative and carefully-structured swaraprastara at the charanam line ‘Rakta nalina dala’. The young singer’s creativity in weaving fresh patterns here brought to the fore the beauty of raga Suddha Seemantini.

Swati Tirunal’s Navarasa Kannada kriti, ‘Vande sada Padmanabham’ was a neat rendition. After a brief essay of Latangi, Aditya sang Patnam Subramanya Iyer’s ‘Marivere’ with a short niraval at the charanam line, ‘Manasa ninu saaramagu’.

Following a shloka in Bagesri, he rendered Purandaradasa’s ‘Nanda tanaya govindana’. The youngster concluded his concert with Swati Tirunal’s padam in Malayalam, ‘Aliveni endhu cheyvu’. The concert is available on Arkay Convention Cenre’s YouTube Channel.

The Chennai-based writer specialises in Carnatic music.