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Music Season
MUSIC ACADEMY
Perfectly aligned with sruti
V. SUBRAHMANIAM
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Sudha Raghunathan sumptuously packed her renditions with open-throated karvais.
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Photo: V. Ganesan
Fine fettle: Sudha Raghunathan
On the demise of M.L Vasanthakumari the rasikas were looking upto Sudha Raghunathan to fill in the void. The expectation ushered Sudha to become a front ranker among women artists and this opportunity provided her with the popularity and impetus that a young musician required on the stepladder. Sudha’s concert at the Music Academy exhibited her as a mature senior woman musician. She was accompanied ably by R.K. Sriram Kumar on the violin, Mannargudi Easwaran on the
mridangam and R. Raman on the morsing.
The concert took off with a Mandari raga, Adi tala varnam of Vasudevachar. A Purandaradasa composition in Bilahari, set to Adi talam was the next without any raga alapana preface but with kalpanaswaras for the anupallavi, ‘Sambana’.
Sudha’s voice from the beginning of the concert was in fine fettle obeying her musical commands beautifully, perfectly aligned with the sruti in every note. The range of the voice in the mandra stayi and in the tara stayi has increased with clarity. Sudha fully exploited the facile condition of her voice and sumptuously packed her renditions of ragas with long open-throated karvais hugging the sruti. After the Bilahari kriti, Sudha rendered a slokam in Lalitha, which indicated the song she was to take up in the ragam, ‘Nannu Brova Lalitha’ in misra chapu talam of Syama Sastri.
Niraval and kalpanaswaras were done in the anupallavi line. Mukhari raga alapana prefaced the monumental composition of Tyagaraja, ‘Kshinamai Tiruga’ in Adi talam. The kriti was rendered splendidly adhering to Semmangudi’s patantara. Kalyani ragam was taken up for alapana at the proper pace. The alapana came off with rare and adventurous sangatis of M.L.Vasanthakumari. The raga shone brilliantly with the felicity of the artist’s voice who was blessed that day in her rendition. The second navavarna kriti of Muthuswami Dikshitar, ‘Kamalambam Bajare’ in Adi talam was handled at a leisurely and accurate gait bringing out the magnificence of the piece.
Niraval and kalpanaswaras were on the anupallavi line, ‘Kamala Vani Sevita’. This was gone through elaborately with Sriram Kumar on the violin, embellishing the effort thereby equally matching the vocalist.
Thani avartanam by Easwaran and Raman which followed was crisp, short and brilliant. Realising that time was running out, veteran Easwaran gave a short spell of the thani. ‘Edathu Padam Thuki Aadum,’ the Khamas raga Adi tala kriti of Papanasam Sivan was the relief piece before the alapana of Sriranjani for Ragam, Thanam, Pallavi. As a welcome change, Mannargudi gave percussion support to the thanam rendition. This is a practice in Trivandrum during the Navaratri festival. The thanam of Sudha was fluent, smooth and pleasant. The pallavi was in khanda jati Ata talam with eduppu in the little finger, and the words were ‘Kadaikan Partharul Sriranjani Kamasani Sumani Chandravadhani’ ‘Karthural Pozhindarul Arulmazhaiai’. As it happens in today’s concerts the time for the detailed and proportionate handling of the pallavi being limited, the exercise becomes a completely shortened affair. The ragamalika swaras included Purvikalyani, Nalinakanti and Priyadarshini. After swaras in each raga, the raga replaced the word ‘Sriranjani’ in the pallavi.
The ragamalika of Kanakadasa beginning ‘Yadavaraya’ was next, in ragas Basant, Sindhubhairavi and Durga. With a viruttam in Revathi and tillana in that raga of Lalgudi Jayaraman, the concert drew to a close. Violinist R.K. Sriram Kumar accompanied Sudha brilliantly, supporting her efforts admirably.
The percussionists, seasoned Easwaran and Raman, contributed significantly to enhance the concert quality. Sudha had overshot the time slot by ten minutes, not unusual! Absolute sruti adherence, the right unhurried pace for all the compositions with copious use of manodharma inherited from her guru, Sudha took her concert to great heights of satisfaction, thereby undoubtedly placing her as the front ranker amidst woman musicians of today.
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