CHENNAI: Have you ever travelled along the world’s huge mountain ranges — from Andes to Himalayas or Alps to Aravalli hills? Ever been taken through the tides of Atlantic, Artic, Southern, Indian and Pacific oceans? Can one sit inside a closed room and enjoy the beauty of Kashmir valley and Arakku valley?
Yes. One could derive such pleasure by just sitting at Krishna Gana Sabha (KGS) on June 28 at the concert led by Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi.
Soft and exciting ragas — Soorya Dvijavanthi and Amirthavarshini — flowed like water from the violin, veena and flute. Then the recital adopted ragam Sucharaitra and it was as if they were gently caressing fire. After that came a cool gentle breeze brought in by Keeravani raga — like soothing wind but no gale, no storm, no hurricane or typhoon. The breeze seemed transparent, restless and pervading through the auditorium, moving hither and thither, with its pleasing textures.
The audience then entered a space of calmness by the mesmerising Mohanam and soothing Suddhasaveri supported by Madyamavathi.
The recital then followed with the blissfully satisfying Nattakurinji. It was like the raga landing on earth with Gambiranattai and Nilambari dancing in ecstasy to the tune of Ragesri. And at that point, it seemed like earth was a small stage in the cosmic arena.
The entire programme was elegantly presented by Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi along with Ananth Narayan on veena, Vijayavenugopal on flute, Ravishankar Iyer on keyboard, Sai Raghavan on mridangam, morsing by Pramoth Kiran, P S Ramachandran on western string violin, Sashikumar on viola and Srinivas on cello.
