On a colourful evening violinist Lalgudi Jayaraman received the Lifetime achievement award from the Music Academy, Madras.
It was special for the musician. He received a title other than the Sangita Kalanidhi from the Music academy.
It was special for the Music Academy too as it was honouring a musician with the one-time commemorative award. Yes, the Music Academy turns 80 this year.
N. Murali, president of the Music Academy mentioned that Lalgudi Jayaraman's relationship with the Music Academy was a long and fruitful one since his first concert when he accompanied K.V.Narayanaswamy in the 1948 December season, in the afternoon slot.
Another landmark year - 60 years of relationship with the 'Academy' for Lalgudi!
The dignitaries on the stage represented artistes and a rasika.
The rasika was Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Governor of West Bengal and the grandson of two great patriots of the country - Mahatma Gandhi and Rajaji.
Three Sangita Kalanidhis T. N. Seshagopalan, M. Chandrasekharan and R. K. Srikantan felicitated Lalgudi on the day among others.
Vocalist Seshagopalan raised Lalgudi above the prestigious title 'Sangita Kalanidhi' by declaring him as 'Sakala kalanidhi'.
He remembered the days when he travelled from Madurai to Madras only to listen to concerts and the unforgettable among such concerts, when Lalgudi accompanied the veteran Mudikondan Venkatarama Iyer during a demonstration session on Simhanandana Pallavi at the Music Academy.
He also spoke about the occasion when Lalgudi accompanied him during his early days in the career.
Seshagopalan never forgets to add the off-the-stage experiences with accompanying artistes, the sishyas' attitude towards gurus, then and now and the difference between learning and presenting the art forms in his student years and now, in every forum he is asked to speak.
It is quite rare to hear words of highest appreciation from the artistes in the same field for their contemporaries. But violinist M. Chandrasekaran is always generous in his felicitations to vidwans. After all he runs a trust in his mother's name - Charubala Mohan Trust in Chennai, which felicitates senior musicians every year. He said Lalgudi's Varnams and Tillanas have to be learnt by every young music students.
Vidwan R. K. Srikantan, who is is his eighties now, travelled from Bangalore for this occasion. He lauded Lalgudi for his style of playing the kritis as kritis on the violin, with the same expressions a vocalist would bring into it. He also appreciated Lalgudi's strict discipline which he followed in presenting the Classical music.
Musicologist B. M. Sundaram remembered Lalgudi's exposition of the Thyagaraja's composition 'Nadaloludai' in its complete form, from just the pallavi which was available in a palm leaf writing.
This kriti in the raga Kalyana Vasantham is popular now and is rendered by all the musicians in the way Lalgudi gave a shape to it.
Dancer Chitra Visweswaran turned emotional for her uncle Lalgudi. She said she couldn't believe that a great vidwan like Lalgudi could accept a request for a varnam to be composed for dance, in the raga, tala and the theme specified by the dancer. It was the pada varnam for her in Shanmukhapriya in praise of the Lord Srinivasa Perumal.
She added that every programme of hers would definitely have a varnam or tillana by Lalgudi, whether it was in India or abroad.
Mridangam vidwan Karaikudi Mani, known for punch phrases on the mridangam as well as words, compared the order of his felicitation with the tani avarthanam section which comes after two and half hours in music concerts. He had not forgotten the days when on special days during the season like the Dec. 25 and Dec. 31 and Jan. 1, when the solo concerts of Lalgudi had only the accompaniment of Karaikudi Mani and no one else!
The chief guest of the day Gopalkrishna Gandhi surprised the audience with a quite-at-home talk in Tamil.
This rasika, as he described himself, could express his sense of music appreciation as he explained that he heard the tani avarthanam between mustard seeds and jeera, when his mother garnished the traditional 'sathamudu' in the kitchen.
Quoting an episode when the patriot Saytamurthy asked 'Silver tongue' Srinivasa Sastry to switch over to Sastry's 'mother tongue' as he heard Sastri speaking in Tamil, Gandhi continued in English.
He not only remembered the early days of his listening to Lalgudi at the Rajah's chatram in Thanjavur and how much he was following the artiste's music thereafter, he also touched on issues relating to the presentation of concerts.
Gandhi recalled the occasion when Rajaji sarcastically asked 'Kalki' Sadasivam if he was taking along the audience also to the concert, when he saw a larger than usual group of accompanists for the concert of M. S. Subbulakshmi leaving the Kalki Gardens. If Rajaji had seen today's set of accompanists, perhaps he would have wondered if an industry was taken along, he said.
He compared the modern Geographical Positioning System or the GPS to the practice of knowing great persons by the names of their villages they belonged to like 'Semmangudi', 'Ariyakudi', 'Lalgudi' and so on.
Whenever there was a gap of two seconds, applause from the audience kept resonating. And a standing ovation for a speech by a chief guest as he finished and walked to his seat.
Even the audience outside the hall, where a LCD projection was displayed for the people who turned in large numbers than the capacity of the hall involuntarily stood up for an applause.
Perhaps a first in the history of felicitations! Gandhi stole the show that evening.
Lalgudi's acceptance speech was read out by his violinist son G. J. R. Krishnan. He disclosed that he has been staying away from the award Sangita Kalanidhi for a period of 22 years, by not accepting it.
He said his relationship with the academy was still a memorable one.
Swathi Soft Solutions displayed a photo exhibition of Lalgudi's concerts since his early days. Many rasikas were seen looking at young Lalgudi's photos.
An episode from the dance drama Jaya Jaya Devi composed by Lalgudi Jayaraman was presented as a tribute to the artiste honoured on the day.
