Nadabrahmam Sri T.V.
Gopalakrishan gave a very enjoyable carnatic music concert on the
afternoon of Sunday, 26th. of September, 1999, at The Hindu
Temple of Atlanta. He was accompanied on the violin by Smt. Meera
Rajkumar, and on the mridangam by his student, Dr. Ram Sriram.
Because of space constraint, I have not provided the list of
songs.
My impressions of the concert:
Sri T.V. Gopalakrishnan (TVG) displayed a tremendous ability to
draw in the audience naturally, without converting a full-scale
cutcheri into a lecture demonstration. He also challenged,
encouraged, and generously complimented his accompanying artistes
to obtain their complete involvement. His vocal variety on
display, particularly in the alapanas of
Shanmukhapriya and Shankarabharanam was truly dazzling to me. It
was a nice blending of great talent with total involvement. He
took care to present a wide variety of composers, and the deities
praised in the songs. I also appreciated the sense of proportion
he displayed with the relative time he allotted to kalpana swaras
in a krithi. On the violin, Smt. Meera was not one bit
intimidated by the presence of such a senior and talented vidwan.
I found her sketches of Anandha
Bhairavi, Shanmukhapriya, and Shankarabharanam to be crisp, well
laid out, and very pleasing to the ear.
Dr. Sriram was, as he always is, the perfect foil to all the
variations the main artiste presented. His soft touches seemed to
be even more pleasing than usual, given that he learnt mridangam
from TVG. At the end of the very nicely crafted tani avarthanam,
he received a doctorate in laya from his teacher, right on stage.
All in all, it was an afternoon of very enjoyable vocal music
from a veteran and master of carnatic music, with excellent
instrumental support.