Sudha Raghunathan at Tamil Isai Sangam, 30/12/2018

[SrinathK]

Vocal : Sudha Raghunathan
Violin : B Raghavendra Rao
Mridangam : Vijay Natesan
Morsing : R Raman

Live review : Updated as concert progresses

Song list:
1) varnam - chArukEsi - Adi - Lalgudi G Jayaraman
2) mulAdhAra murti - hamsadhwani - Adi - Papanasam Sivan - S
3) pallAnDu pallAnDu - nATa - Adi - Periyazhwar
4) vElava mA vinai theera - keeravANi - khanDa chApu - Koteeswara Iyer - R, N, S, TA @ pada yuga sarOruha
5) viruttham (ALamAmaratthil ) - neelAmbari, sahAna, hamsAnandi
6) vaDavaraiyai mattAki - hamsAnandi, khamAs, hindOlam, shanmughapriya, paras, kApi - Adi (1/2 eDuppu) - Ilango Adigal
7) sri chakra rAja - senchuruTTi, punnAgavarALi, nAdanAmakriya, sindhubhairavi - Adi (3/4 eDuppu) - Agastyar (???)
8) yA marinda mozhi (viruttham) - kAmbhOji, shanmughapriya, mOhanam
9) kalaigaL peruga engaL (??) - kAmbhOji, shamughapriya, - Adi - Subramania Bharathi
10) short viruttham followed by enna tavam sheidanE - kApi - Adi (3/4 eDuppu) - Papanasam Sivan
11) kATTrinilE varum geetam - closest raga is sindhubhairavi - chatushra Ekam (1/2 eDuppu) - Papanasam Sivan (??) for Meera.
12) kurai onDrum illai (with viruttham in sivaranjani in between) - sivaranjani, kApi, sindhubhairavi - Adi (1/2 eDuppu) - C Rajagopalachari
13) thillAna - behAg - Adi (tisra naDai) - Lalgudi Jayaraman
14) vAzhiya sentamizh - madhyamAvati - Adi - Subramania Bharati


Crowd : Hall about half full. The traffic and distance would have filtered out a lot of people, who would have preferred Mylapore.

I wonder how the group attending Vedavalli mami's concert at Raga Sudha is doing. If I have any regrets about this whole music season, it is that I am not a Naruto who can use a clone jutsu to make himself into a dozen at least and send each one off to a different place. For Abhishek must be singing his socks off at the Academy right now. But I've heard him too often this year. Sandeep Narayan must be rocking at NGS. Amazingly, I have only heard Sudha once in my whole life in live performance. I have also never been to Raja Annamalai Mandram, so here I am.

After enduring 45 min of the worst Beach Road traffic jam ever, I made it 16 min late to the venue. I failed to account for JJ's samadhi having become such a pilgrimage level tourist attraction. Unbelievable crowd and omnipresent traffic. This is by far the farthest I've gone up North to hear a concert.

As I finally made my way in, Smt. Sudha was already well into singing a huge round of swaras in hamsadhwani for mulAdhara murti, which after using virtually all plot devices possible, cultimated in one long korvai. B Raghavendra Rao gave a shorter reply with a nice kOrvai. I missed the first item and will have to ask. It was LGJ's chArukEsi varnam innum en manam.

After days of searching through the settings, the good news is that I finally disabled that damned autocorrect (though I seriously wish it was active only for the purely English bits, but phones are not that smart yet). The bad news is that Tamil composers are still not my cup of coffee, so I come fully expecting every other number to be a new one. I am not disappointed when Sudha takes up what seems like a pAsuram in nATa. Time to pray to google, the true guru who might soon replace all our Gods, for data on this song. Google replies that it is indeed the venerable periyAzhvar pasuram, set to tune.

Meanwhile, as Sudha begins an alApAna of keeravANi, let me meander to take in this auditorium, which I am seeing for the first time in my life. The feel is decidely old world heritage, right down to the ceiling fans. Even the chairs are old and firm but beautifully supportive. The new seats are for the front rows. Painted portraits of yesteryear giants are present on both sides. The sound system is really good and gives a resonant ring to both voice and all the instruments.

Sudha Raghunathan has done a wonderful job of keeping her voice preserved for so long that she can sing almost everything she could in her prime (The gold standard is MS Amma for me). Her range is very much intact - in fact she has more range in the lower octave now than ever before. The brighas pour out in abundance whenever she wants it. She sings at her usual high pitch even now. Only at certain points her voice shows a hint of weakness and her swarasthana goes a bit flat in the middle octave (which only a discerning ear can pick up), if to remind us that she is more senior than we realize. Far better from a couple of years ago, where a permanent hoarseness was concerning

The AlapAna of keeravAni was brisk with exploration in thenmiddle and upper octaves followed a round of brighas before ending on a slow and sedate note. B Raghavendra Rao's violin tone is intense but very sweet (I believe he is from the TNK school). The kriti, after Lord Google grants my prayers, I find out is a Koteeswara Iyer composition. After a round of neraval in the upper octave, Sudha started a round of swaras with a lot of calculations with good replies from Raghavendra Rao. Sudha stuck to old school style calculations as she took up a kuraippu portion ending on the upper S. Finally finishing with a big progressive kOrvai to a round of applause.

And hello, a tani avartamam! It's 7 55. Only 55 min since the start. Is an RTP coming? Round 1 starts with a burst of fireworks from Vijay Natesan who throws back some of Sudha's punctuated calculations back as well. This is all power and fire from him. R Raman, who's a long runner, gave a more patient reply. Round 2 was another explosive tisra naDai, Vijay has great speed and clarity alright. R Raman's reply was more breezy and a demonstration of the morsing's various strokes - he's making speed seem effortless. The crowd is enjoying it and apppauding at every round. Then the kuraippu. I can discern chatushra and tisra naDais. Then an explosive burst with some heavy pounding for the farans and then the mOhra followed by a korvai with a goppuccha yati to brong the tani to a close.

No RTP then. So if not that, it must be a tukkuDa filled fare. She went for a viruttham which she elaborated slowly and melodiously in neelAmbari, sahAna then hamsAnandi. The ipad is finally coming in handy. Raghavendra Rao's essays are soaked in melody. The hamsanandi features a lot of brighas. Some signs of a sore throat and hoarseness are coming though and it's causing some of the slower passages to fall a bit flat. A bit of throat clearing helps though.

The surprise is vaDavaraiyai, MS amma's special number. Sudha gave an excellent rendition of the song, including perfectly capturing MS amma's brighas. The rasikas around me were moved when she came to the closing lines (what tongue is that which doesn't utter nArAyaNA).

Next up is sri chakra rAja. Staple fodder, but delightfully rendered - electrifying brighas in nAdanAmakriya and sindhubhairavi. Now I do consider that I missed the best of Sudha this season. by not being able to attend her Academy, Krishna Gana Sabha and Parthasarathy Swami Sabha concerts.

And now another viruttham in kAmbhOji. What's up? This one is on the tamil language itself. My poor grasp of tamil (never studied beyond LKG level) means @rshankar must forgive my atrocious mispronounciations. Then shanmughapriya and mOhanam. Lots of upper octave singing. The song is also on the state and the language in the above 3 rAgas. It must be Bharatiyar's. A rasika next to me confirms that it is.

Another short viruttham in kApi brings up enna tavam sheidanE to a round of applause. An enthusiastic mama behind is trying to sing along admist coughs. The crowd laps it up and gives a big round of applause.

kATTrinilE varum geetam. It's now clear that Tamilnadu's populist policies apply to concerts in this hall as well. Ok, every one of these numbers I am hearing live after years, so my right brain doesn't mind, but my left brain is wishing it was at Abhishek's or Vedavalli's. This concert is now completely a menu of MS Amma's dessert delicacies.

Now kurai onDrum illai, but as soon as she starts she goes into a viruttham or some other number in sivaranajani before returning to the kriti. Now MS Amma made it immortal with her rendition, but on a diet of so many fast food items back to back, now I wonder when I will hear Abhishek at the Academy again, or Sandeep Narayan. The crowd though are blissed out. Good for them. I was warned though, that an all tamizh concert might come down to this if it's not Sanjay.

Finally the thillana in behAg of LGJ. Like bookends, LGJ's compositions both opened and closed this concert. LGJ as a composer was a genius. What a clever way of using tisra naDai masking it's presence completely and those swaraksharas in the charanam.

vAzhiya sentamizh brought the curtains down on a very good concert by the vidushi and team, but pleased as I was, personally I should pray to God to grant me the power of that shadow clone jutsu at the earliest. If someone was at Abhishek's or Sandeep Narayan's or Vedavalli mami's, please write your review.

[Madras-Talkies]

Woah! Her tamizh is Sangam concert was good. Though the audience knew very little about koraippu, mora and avardhanam. Her swaram were constructed well!

Mr.SrinathK, you missed her Narasimha agacha, chayaranjani raga and Natakapriya rtp. It truly mindblowing. One of the best concert of the season. It continues to linger!!!