“Her full and dominating voice filled the whole atmosphere. She slapped the intervals in the composition with beats that were responsibly combined with the percussionists picking up at the last note. I could swim in those notes,” said Angelina who was amongst the audience.
Aruna Sairam’s voice instantly settled everyone with their breath.
Veena Player, Hari Sivanesan and his BBC Radio 3 World Routes Academy mentor, vocalist, Aruna Sairam came together at the BBC Proms on (July 27) at the Royal Albert Hall to reveal the results of a unique mentorship. The concert saw the culmination of their musical journey together in the second year of BBC World Route Academy’s existence.
Aruna is widely regarded as the leading South Indian female vocalist of her generation and has long sought to create a larger following for Carnatic music, seducing Indian audiences with her unusually deep vocal timbre and defying boundaries in her collaborations with internationally renowned artists from Europe and Africa.
“It has been a pleasure to have mentored Hari who has been working wonderfully with so much of commitment for the last six months that we have known him for,” said Aruna.
The words that Aruna used to introduce herself to a hall full of attentive audience, clearly showed her extensive exposure on the international stage. Anybody could have imagined she would begin with a western number. Her accent and eloquence produced that feeling in me.
But she began confidently and boldly, with a 'bandish' composed by one of the 12th century poets followed by another one in Raga ‘Mohan’. The resplendent start was followed by another piece from the last century. She spanned across the history of Carnatic Music within the first few minutes.
“Yesterday, I was speaking to someone and he asked me if I could in one sentence explain what Carnatic music is. All that I could say was that this form of music celebrates life in all its colours and emotions. It is not very introspective or contemplative all the time.
It is also that sometimes but, the most important thing is that this form of music embraces all of us today the way we are, doing all sorts of different things, doing so much, yet trying to capture little drops of happiness here and there. This is what this form of music tries to give us,” said Aruna Sairam.
The concert unfolded with a three piece wrap-up beginning with an ‘Alaap’, a slow yet subtle exploration of the scale. Aruna moved on to the ‘Taana’ – which is considered to be the mainstay of the Veena, later on taken up by the human voice. The three part performance witnessed a full-fledged culmination, a kind of a climactic combination when everyone on the stage lit themselves up, including the percussionists and accompanists on the ‘Tanpura’.
Aruna and Hari displayed great harmony and co-ordination. Hari played along with the notes that Aruna’s very trained vocal chords produced. A phrase by Aruna was followed by a similar produce by Hari on the Veena.
“There is a temple at Kataragama in Sri Lanka. I haven’t been there but people say, leave apart the temple – the drive is also very beautiful. There are no idols there, whatever inspires you, pray to that strength, standing inside the temple. You can invest you energy in whatever truly encourages you,” said Aruna Sairam before taking the concert further.
Aruna led to the end of the concert, impressing the audience with a composition depicting a fight between Lord Krishna as a young child, playing on the banks of river Yamuna and a five headed snake, Kaliya.
The composition portrayed the playful dance between snake Kaliya and Lord Krishna.
The audience was a good mix of English and Asians. While Asians were to some extent already expected to relish Carnatic Music, the English also seemed to enjoy to an extent that Aruna and Hari received a ten minutes standing ovation and were forced to come back to the stage after a warm goodbye once.
Carnatic Music has long been overshadowed in the West by its North Indian cousin, Hindustani Music but now it is time for Carnatic Music to shine,” said Hari Sivansesan.
