Sindhu Suchetan - Violin
R Ramnath - Mridangam
Omkar Nath - Ghatam
06 April 2012
for Bangalore Lalitha Kala Parishat
at H Narasimhiah Kalakshetra, Jaya Nagar/Banashankari
jaya jAnakikAnta - nATa - khaNDacApu - PD (sketch, S)
karma bandhana cEdana - hindOLam - Adi - PD (sketch)
rAmanAma bhajisiravagE - kAnaDa - rUpaka - Varada Gopala (Bhagavatar?)
nInE nirmalacitta - viruttam - nATakurinji
shrIrAma ninnna pAdava tOrO - nATakurinji - Adi - ?
rAma rAmanennirO - shuddhadhanyAsi - cApu - PD (R, NS @ srShTiyOL purandaraviTThalanna maravadE)
tani
This being April, of course, there seemed to be about a dozen other concerts to choose from, going by The Deccan Herald's In The City column. These are for Rama Navami, but I would like to see these concerts listed under 'Culture' rather than 'Religion', especially since Bharatanatyam performances usually get listed under 'Culture'.
I'd already seen Smt Ashwini Sathish in this concert: http://rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=17235 and was impressed, so chose this one. Also the venue is placed conveniently close to the Banashankari Bus Stand, and the event was scheduled to begin at 6 30 (and did indeed begin around 6 45, allowing me to arrive late and still not miss even the introductions, which were nice too).
Before commencing her concert, Smt Ashwini Sathish said something to the effect of singing compositions of Lord Rama, and then named some composers whose compositions she'll include in her concert. She also gave brief introductions to all the krtis (rAgam, tALam and composer) before singing them, so my bad for not noting down the nATakurinji krti's composer.
It was a nice concert, and it felt like a breeze.
This nATa krti I heard recently in Sri S Shankar's recital for nAdasurabhi. It was rendered well, with a few rounds of swaram at the end.
The percussion accompaniment for the hindOLam piece was very nice. Nothing like Adi-1kaLai tALam.
The kAnaDa AlApanai by Smt Ashwini, interestingly, was rather scalar: the nis were mostly followed by pas, and there was no usage of kAkali ni as an anuswara. However, there was a nnsd in the little mandrasthAyi passage concluding her AlApanai.
Smt Sindhu's was a more routine AlApanai (though it also carried some reflection of Smt Ashwini's), and she included both nnd and nnsd in it.
The swarams for the piece flowed well. There was a koraippu to ri (madhyasthAyi), during which Smt Sindhu played some flat ga's, which gave a hint of pUrNaShaDjam, especially when sounded together with snpm (rgmrsnpm ...) in mandrasthAyi. It was a nice effect.
Post-koraippu there seemed to be a tiny drop in fluency, but the swarams were concluded neatly with a kOrvai.
The viruttam was brief, and there was no violin reply to it. There was a tiny tinge of m between the g and s in mgs's.
The nATakurinji krti was rendered very well.
ShuddhadhanyAsi initially carried some shades of hindOLam, but eventually had some nice phrases and concluded well. Smt Sindhu's shuddhadhanyAsi was even better. Her bowing is also reasonably forceful.
The composition was rhythmically interesting. Since multiple charaNams were sung (as was also done for other compositions), the percussion department was able to give better accompaniment, especially to the second charanam.
The neraval and swarams were good. The violinist didn't seem to have internalised the sAhityam even by the end, though.
The tani was really weird, and almost began with the koraippu. There was a tentative-ish gap between Sri Omkar's responses and the next round by Sri Ramnath. The final kOrvai, though, very aptly led to the line in the krti.
All in all, it was a fine concert. However, I was let down by the very restricted choice of songs. It's just irritating when you don't get some nice SS, MD or even T composition in a concert, especially when you didn't expect it beforehand. There is something very 'cold' about these concerts.