Clear voice, unhurried style
THOUGH QUITE young, there is maturity in Vasudha Ravi's approach to music which was evident in the first few items like "Varavallabharamana'' in Hamsadhwani and "Tulasamma'' in Devagandhari. A clear voice and an unhurried style of rendition are her assets. She could slide with total ease from the tara sthayi swaras to the lower octave without any apaswaram entering. Her attempt at the alapana of the rare raga Nasamani was indeed commendable, as was the swara segment. The kriti chosen was Muthuswami Dikshitar's "Sri Ramaa Saraswati." The Kannada raga composition "Bhajare Bhaja Manasa'' was lively. The main raga was Madhyamavati. The alapana was good but she could have taken care to avoid repetition of some prayogams. The neraval and swaras in the Tamil song, "Saravanabhavaguhane'' at "Annaiyodu Thanthai Nee'' was impressive. The handling of the tala towards the end was particularly interesting. Erode Nagaraj played a decent tani. He and Srilakshmi Venkatraman on the violin provided understanding support to the vocalist.
Lively
The first few items in Dr. Ganesh's concert indicated that it would be a lively programme. Beginning with a rare piece, "Vedathinulle'' in Abhogi, he went on to Kavi Kunjara Bharathi's Jothiswarupini song, "Ganamudabanam," which was a popular one a few decades ago.
His raga elaboration of Durbar was good, but M. A. Krishnaswamy on the violin came out better. It was refreshing to listen to "Naradaguruswamy'' after a long time. This was followed by "Sambho Mahadeva'' in Pantuvarali.
The percussion accompaniment was provided by Melakkaveri Balaji and Adambakkam Shankar.
Less modulation
It would be to his advantage if young Mohan Santhanam could pay attention to better voice modulation, introducing some softness here and there. His opening piece, "Siddhivinayakam'' in Mohanakalyani had kalpanaswaras in addition to the quite long but interesting chittaswaram by the composer, Muthaiah Bhagavatar.
Mohan's Dhanyasi alapana could have been better, though Ambika Prasad's effort on the violin was quite good. The chosen song was "Balakrishnan Padamalar'' by Papanasam Sivan. The notes of Kadanakutuhalam are suitable for manipulation in instruments.
When the same ideas are attempted vocally, the effect is not particularly attractive. In the song, "Neekeladayaradu'' by Vasudevachar, there is already an attractive chittaswaram. Was kalapanaswara also necessary?
Madippakkam Suresh and Madippakkam Murali provided the percussion support.
Effortless ease
It was a Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi consisting two ragas in Saketaraman's concert. Mohanam and Ranjani were developed well, moving from the former to the latter with effortless ease without losing the fidelity of either raga. The same followed in tanam too. Mysore Srikanth on the violin was no less competent in his turn of the alapana and tanam.
Ganapathiraman accompanied the tanam also on the mridangam. The kanda jati triputa tala pallavi, "Mohanaranganai Pani Maname Diname Gopiranjana" had the last three words in Ranjani. The same idea was followed in anulomam, pratilomam and tisram too.
In the kalapanaswaras other than the two ragas, also came in ragamalikai Sahana, Hamsanandi and Brindavanasaranga. The swara combinations were very imaginative. A lot of hard work by the vocalist must have gone into preparing this RTP. The tani was short and played together by Ganapathiraman and Guruprasad on the ghatam. During the concert, Ganapathiraman had to often pitch in to save the ghatam artiste who seemed rather ill at ease.
At the beginning, a two-minute silence was observed in homage to M.S. and the concert started aptly with one of her memorable items, "Sriman Narayana."
"Swaminatha Paripalaya'' in Nattai came with interesting kalpanaswaras. The essay of Saveri by Saketharaman was evocative at both the madhyama and tara sthayis. Srikanth's effort was appealing too. The neraval in the kriti, "Sankari Sankuru'' was followed by racy swarams.
LAKSHMI VENKATRAMAN
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