CHENNAI: When I first heard N C Soundaravalli almost a decade ago, I had no idea about her eminence — even seniority. That was in the early 2000s. As the curtains parted inside the Balamandir German Hall at a Margazhi concert, it took only a few seconds for one to make out the mastery of the vocalist who was in her 60s then. At that kutcheri she gave for the Indian Fine Arts Society, Soundaravalli took up a Mukhari composition as the main one, but it was a Shanmukhapriya rendition that sounded to have stood out. It wasn’t just the alapanam, the intonations of the kriti Marivera Dikkevaraiyya, decked up with an imaginative neraval and bright swaraprasathara had a certain ring to it. Years later, on this December 13, I chanced upon the same musician — a frontline disciple of the late Maharajapuram Santhanam — a second time.
Excitingly enough, Soundaravalli took up the same Shanmukhapriya composition of Patnam Subramania Iyer, at Nungambakkam Cultural Academy.
Age had caught up with her, and the voice had lost much of its magic. The throat had gotten unwieldy, but imagination was still lively. It was a fill-in-theblanks exercise for the listener, yet one could still figure out the high-level aesthetics that would always be integral to Soundaravalli.