Violin: Vid. Aditi Krishnaprakash
Mridangam: Vid. Sri. Sumesh Narayanan
Morsing: Sri A S Krishnan
Compositions list :
1. Shlokam on Sharadamba in Nattai
2. Varnam - saranga
3. Huseini outline - Rama ninne - swarams - Tyagarajar
4. Submain Poorvikalyani - ninnu vina - viloma chapu - Syama Sastrigal-ragam, Niraval and swarams
5. Veera Vasantha Tyagaraja - Veera Vasantham - aadi - Muthuswami Dikshitar (vibhakthi kruthi)
6. Velaiyya daya villaiya - saveri - Koteeswara Iyer- aadi - atheetha eduppu
7. Main - Shankarabharanam- Swara raga Sudha - ragam, niraval and swarams
8.Sharade sharadindu -(Yaman) yamuna kalyani - tuned by Vid. Sri R K Sriramkumar
9.Krishna keertanam - Ragamalikai-composition of Vid. Sri R K Sriramkumar
It was a very nice concert and the whole team of artistes did so well together!!
Those who attend were indeed lucky to listen to Sampradaya karnataka sangeetham served creatively through the compositions created by the great masters.
Huseini was conveyed immediately through traditional pidis in the sketch and the kruthi was presented with all the sangatis coming out clearly.
One of the highlights of Smt Bharathi’s presentation is full throated, in modulated singing and the voice power and clarity increases with each subsequent sangati creating a great impact on the listeners for both raga phrases and saahitya clarity. Her vocal power volume and output is really very nice and she uses that very well to show the rich gamakams in our music and also during the fast speed phrases akaaarams etc there is no lightness and control and clarity is very much there. Today increasingly a lot of western music styles are creeping into our music like voice modulation, falsetto at upper registers- none of all that here- just pure classical unadulterated music highlighting gold class gamakams
Throughout the concert, saahityaanubhava was emphasised and pronouncing words in Kruthis in Sanskrit, Telugu and Tamizh were done clearly with consciousness.
The voice power, style, clear throw and reach at the upper octaves and maturity in presentation was very much reminding of Vid Smt Rama Ravi (Bengaluru) to this listener.
Swarams in huseini were mindful of the kaalpramaanam of the kruthi and presented with a sweet koraippu with nyasa around Rishabha before concluding with a short korvai- entire exercise was enjoyable for the vocalist, accompanying artists and the listeners. Violin replies for huseini swarams were neat.
Poorvi kalyani raga essay was very nice especially impactful in the Tara sthaayi phrases and akaarams were done very well. Gamakams and telling phrases were shown beautifully during the vocalists alapanai and akaaarams also shone brightly in the faster segments of the raga essay. Clarity while landing on upper Shadjam gave sukham for all. Violin raga essay was good with some creative phrases to establish raga well but alapanai could have been bit longer.
Kruthi ninnu vina was rendered superbly - again clear emphasis on saahitya stood out and it was very clear that meaning of the kruthi had been well internalised by the artiste and here the niraval was top notch at ‘Kaamithaartha phala daayiki’ charanam saahityam, with more importance given to lyrics and composers plea rather than showing off skill to sing super fast at the cost of completely mincing the saahithya!! Kalpanaswarams were done very nicely with justice to the grandness of the kruthi and the kalapramaanam, the way the saahitya ‘ kAHnci EkAmra patimanOhAriNi shrI kAmAkSi’ was sung during the kruthi repeatedly was haunting and will stay with this listener for a long time.
Madhyama kaala saahitya was very nice for the Veera Vasantham raga kruthi which is one of the Tyagaraja vibhakthi Kruthis and this song was presented in a way that it did not feel rare or new to the listeners - which showed the hard work done by the vocalist to present it effortlessly!! Raga mudhra came at beginning of the pallavi and guruguha mudra was In madhyama kalam Of the charanam - clear and correct pronounciation of Sanskrit saahityam was a bonus in this kruthi.
A Tamizh composition was included created by the great Koteeswara Iyer and it was presented nicely neatly and in a unhurried manner and not treated like a touch and go filler
Main shankarabharanam ragam was full of vidwath filled vishraanthi and a lot of beautiful phrases and akaarams were included in the presentation - because of the vocal power and interesting phrases and total involvement of the vocalist audience were also invested and no one felt sleepy which can happen sometimes during raga delineation for Shudhda madhyama ragams
-violin essay was longer and ragam shone brightly in the faster speed phrases played by the violin. Kruthi was rendered in an excellent manner with clarity of all the time tested Sangatis and Niraval was presented at mooladhaara Nadha …. . The kruthi and niraval rendition was in line with the composers intention and purport of the kruthi which is swara and raga should be blended with devotion while singing and indeed this kruthi and niraval rendition took the listeners to’swaragaapa varga’ blissful state. Niraval exchange between vocal and violin was nice and well Supported by mridangam and MorsingDuring both ninnu vina and swara raga Sudha Mridangam vidwaan gave immense space for Morsing and as a result audience were able to listen and enjoy the reengaaram of the Morsing and applaud several times as well. Really nice attitude demonstrated by both the pakkavaadyams there appreciating each others. The niraval emphasised more on mudamagu mokshamu raaa nicely and this connected with the listeners.
Swara kalpana in two speed at mudamagu mokshamu raa was a sweet surprise and swarams were done nicely especially with koraippu at each swaram pa, ma, ga, ri and Sa for multiple lengths of intervals increased listening pleasure for the audience.
Thani segment very nice and energetic playing by both mridangam and Morsing vidwaans and the mutual admiration amongst the artistes during the tani was beautiful to watch.
Both the submain and main renditions stood testimony for the usual statement that - ‘in the case of master composers like the Trinity saahithyam and Sangeetha are not two entities but one. This was proved true in almost every kruthi rendition in this concert.
Both the end pieces in the concert were new to this listener, tuned by Vid Sri R K Sriramkumar and rendered very well with some fun elements thrown in terms of laya!! Yaman keertanam was aptly tuned as in the saahityam the words both yaman and Yamuna did appear and the tuning had Hindustani yaman phrases. The final Ragamalika soaked in Krishna bhakthi was very nice in mand, dwijavanti and desh and a couple of other ragams.
Overall a fantastic Kutcheri experience with strong adherence to Sangeetha dharma and bhakthi bhaava.