Kalpakam teacher turned 87 today, Aug 15, 2009. During the veena lesson I had an opportunity to record her playing the Dikshitar kRti gauri girirAja kumAri (see video below). The imagery of the epithet gAna vana mayUrI struck me as being ideally suited to mAmI herself. Here's wishing her a happy birthday and many more years of blissful wanderings in the gAna vana.If you have a slow connection
Pigeon lands on lotus leaves, and struts around thinking he's a pheasant-tailed jacana. Dipping in for a gulp of water, he's startled by an enormous koi carp that surfaces to investigate. Delusions of grandeur flee in a whir of flapping wings.
Review by G. Swaminathan of Smt. Kalpakam Swaminathan's concert on June 6, 2009, at Krishna Gana Sabha, Chennai Singing along with the veena, Kalpagam Swaminathan presented Dikshitar’s Abhayamba Vibhakti kritis in all their grandeur. http://www.hindu.com/fr/2009/06/12/stories/2009061251190300.htm
My guru Smt. Kalpakam Swaminathan led this effort to render some lesser known compositions of Muttuswami Dikshitar at a program arranged by Nada Inbam in Chennai.The compositions that grew on me in the course of preparing for this concert were the meditative shrI nIlOtpala nAyikE (rAga nArI-rItigauLa), sprightly gOvindarAjam upasmahE nityam (mukhArI), and brooding gaurI girirAjakumArI (gaurI).One
