of her one-and-a-half-hour concert to a delightful experience.
Sudha's opening piece was a neat presentation of an Adi tala varnam "Vanajakshiroo" in the raga Kalyani, in three tempos including one in tisra gati. Papanasam Sivan's "Ullam irangi vandharul purivaye" in the raga Hamsadhwani, was marked by crisp and creative swaraprastara.
Yet another Tamil composition, "Pesum deivam Murugan', in the raga Nagavalli (a janya of the 22nd melakarta Kharaharapriya, it differs from the raga Sriranjani by the absence of the Gandhara note) was marked by a detailed and fine delineation of the raga, apart from bringing the emotive contents of the sahitya to the fore.
As the main number of her recital, Sudha presented Tyagaraja's "Karuna judavamma" in the raga Todi, in which she delineated the raga in stages and brought its nuances to the fore. Creative handling of the niraval of the phrase "Dharanu sariyu doraniki panchanada" and the swaraprastara towards the end added spice to the rendition.
Earlier, while delineating the raga in the higher octave, Sudha also unfolded the raga Mohanam, through the techniqe of shruti bedham. VSK Chakrapani on the violin and M.V. Chandrasekhar on the mridangam provided good support.
While Chakrapani's delineation of Todi and the kalpana swaras for the Hamsadhwani piece were good, Chandrasekhar's tani avartanam, though brief, was enjoyable.
A mesmerising evening
In another concert, also past this weekend, Jayanthi Kumaresh from Chennai mesmerised the rasikas in her two-hour veena concert organised by the Delhi Tamil Sangam (DTS). Using a contact mike, Jayanthi excelled in both the spheres, whether it was portraying the sahitya contents of the compositions she played through this instrument, or exhibiting her manodharma talents through raga alapana and swaraprastaras, etc.
Jayanthi began her concert with a neat presentation of the Nattakuranji varnam in Adi tala, though in just one tempo. Dikshitar's "Vathapi" was marked by swaraprastaras flowing with creative formations. Gopala Krishna Barati's "Sabapatiku", in the raga Aboghi underwent fine treatment. Similarly, while presenting Nilakanta Sivam's, "Ananda nadamaduvar Tillai" in the raga Poorvi Kalyani, she meticulously brought not only the raga bhava but also the emotional contents to the fore. This was preceded by a fine alap of the raga and swaraprasthara. Jayanthi's main presentation of the evening was a rendering of ragam-taanam-pallavi in Kiravani. While the alap and the taanam had considerable fluency of expression, the pallavi (sung for a while to enable rasikas to know what it was), "Harihara sudhane Ayyappane saranam, Sabariyil vilangidum karunai pozhiyum" was presented with the required technicalities. This was followed by enthralling ragamalika swaraprastaras in Revathy, Sivaranjani, Vasantha, Gambhira Nattai and Vaasanti, in quick succession.
M.V. Chandrashekar's understanding support in the mridangam throughout enhanced the Jayanthi's recital.
While concerts organised by the IIC start punctually, on the dot of the scheduled time, Delhi Tamil Sangam's concerts don't.
There is generally a guaranteed delay of at least half-an-hour. But this time, DTS must be complimented not only for organising this veena concert, but also for reducing the delay to only 15 minutes.
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Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
