Brhad-Kala Concerts by Smt Subathra Raguraman and Smt Anuradha Somyajulu & Kaushik Subramaniam

[Ajit Ramachandran]

Last weekend, Orpington (Greater London) had the pleasure of a double header concert featuring a roughly 1 hour vocal concert by Mother & Son - Smt Anuradha Somyajulu and Kaushik Subrahmanyam, followed by a veena concert just shy of 2 hours by Smt Subathra Raguraman, along with their respective accompanying artistes as per below. We are indeed fortunate to have the opportunity to listen and appreciate our excellent local UK-based artistes!

First Concert:
Vocal: Smt Anuradha Somyajulu & Kaushik Subramaniam
Violin: Aparna Raguraman
Mridangam: Rishi Ramesh

1. Daru varnam in Khamas ragam ( Muthaih bhagavatar) Mathey malayadwaja in Adi thalam
2.⁠ ⁠⁠Kamakshi In Varali ragam - Syama Sastry- Misrachapu.
3.⁠ ⁠⁠Sri saraswathi - Arabhi - Muthuswami Deekshitar- Rupaka thalam with a minute of Ragam .
4.⁠ ⁠⁠Bale balendu in Reetigowla ragam - Adi - Tyagaraja.
5.⁠ ⁠⁠Devi Meenakshi - Kalyani ragam - Thacchur Singarachari- Rupaka thalam
6.⁠ ⁠⁠Ending with Karpagame in Madhyamavathi ragam by Papanasan Sivan - Adi thalam ( Tamil Krithi) .

Second Concert:
Veena: Smt Subathra Raguraman
Mridangam: Sri Somasundara Desigar
Kanjira: Krishnan Baskaran

1. varnam- behag - TR Subramanian
2. Gajavadana beduve-Hamsadhwani-adi-Purandaradasa
3. Evasuda-Sahana-Adi-Tyagaraja
4. Sudhamayi-Amritavarshini-Harikesanallur muthaiya bhagavadar
5. Vananai-Keeravani-mishra chapu-Tevaram
6. Sakala shanti-Bahudari-Adi-Annamacharya
7. Madavamamava-Neelambari-Adi -Narayanateerthar tharangam
8. Bhagyada Lakshmi -Madyamavathi-Adi-Purandaradasa


The concerts were organised back-to-back by Brhad-Kala, which as I mentioned in my review about 6 months ago is a sabha based in Orpington area and we were fortunate to have a third set of concerts (the first one I attended was in late 2023).

Both Divyanand Caird and Satya Gaaru are doing a fabulous job reviving interest and educating local audiences about carnatic music. Both organisers and musicians alike continue to intersperse performances with useful insights and knowledge to educate the audience about the nuances of carnatic music.

In spite of multiple social calendar clashes due to Deepavali, etc they had a good number in the audience and the new auditorium where this event was hosted was full, which was a relief. It is important that we continue to support these sabhas. Like the previous 2 events, the sabha continues to focus on featuring local artistes.

FIRST CONCERT
The first concert by Smt Anuradha Somyajulu accompanied by her son Kaushik, now in university. Having known the family and Kaushik since he was about 4 or 5 years old (when he was an ardent fan of Sikkil Gurucharan) it is wonderful to see his talent blossom into a full fledged musician. Mother and son were accompanied by the incredibly talented and rising star, UK's own Aparna Raguraman, daughter of renowned violin vidwan Sri Balu Raguraman (and presiding violin guru at Bhavan UK), and renowned vainika Smt Subathra Raguraman (also a sought after veena guru in London). Accompanying the vocalists and violinist was young talented mrudangam artiste Rishi Ramesh.

The first concert theme as announced by Smt Anuradha was Devi kritis, and it was an impressive array of pieces that were presented by mother and son. Starting with the evergreen pada varnam by Muthiah Bhagavathar in kamaas, the artistes then moved swiftly to the rarely heard and haunting varali masterpiece by Sri Syama Sastry - bangAru kAmakshi. A brisk sri saraswati followed in Arabhi. Thyagaraja was not far behind with the wonderful reetigowlai piece Bale Balendu which featured a good elaboration. A rare kalyani piece by Thacchur Singarachari - Devi Meenakshi followed. Finally the papanasam sivan classic Karpagame in Madhyamavati followed. With each piece all artistes including Aparna and Rishi were truly in synch supporting and adding dimensions to reach ragam and talam that was presented. Smt Anuradha who has also trained her son in his early years herself was trained by the renowned Hyderabad Sisters. The paddhati and intense hard work of all artistes shone through. So did their experience in the choice of pieces and the transitions of ragam as well as thalam. Overall it was a wonderful start to the evening.

SECOND CONCERT
Following a short break we were presented with the second (longer) concert of the evening by the aforementioned vainika Smt Subathra Raguraman herself. Joining her for this concert was senior established vidwan Sri Somasundara Desigar along with Krishnan Bhaskaran on Kanjira.

Smt Subathra began her concert with the popular Behaag varnam by TR Subramaniam. Even with the longer concert, it was clear she had read the pulse of the audience well which is a mix of mostly those curious and relatively new to carnatic music as well as those who are long-time listeners. Her song selections and the renditions pleased one and all. Moving from Behaag varnam she presented hamsadhwani with Gajavadana Beduve with several crisp and pleasing rounds of kalpana swaras. Then followed Ee vasuda - the kriti in praise of the presiding deity (Siva) of Kovur with the highly effective chittaswarams. Having learned this kriti myself her style and additional sangatis in the pallavi were especially pleasing. A brisk sudha mayee in Amritavarshini delighted all before the main piece of the evening. An elaborate keervani ragam was followed by tanam followed by the thevaram vAnanai in misra chapu, a great choice for a main piece for this type of concert and audience. After an elaborate neraval, swaram, there was a fantastic tani avarthanam by sri Somasundara Desigar and Krishnan. Somu Sir as we like to call him is an incredible talent and we are fortunate to have multiple amazing mridangam vidwans in London.

Following the tani, Smt Subathra presented a song by Sri Annamacharya in Bahudari that energised (as Bahudari always does!) before moving on to a lilting Neelambari piece - a tarangam. Mangalam followed in the form of the last madhyamavati kriti Bhagyada Lakshmi.

The organisers took great pains once again to organise this fantastic event and were genuinely interested in getting feedback. A sumptuous dinner was served after the concert.

We are looking forward to these 6-monthly events now from Brhhad Kala and look forward to supporting them in their efforts.

[rajeshnat]

i may have not recollected every parent child combo . We have quite a lot of mother -daughter , father-son combos in vocal , there is also may be father -daughter too like say KVN- Anuradha krishnamurthy. Is this the first time that i am hearing mother and son performing a vocal duet concert , kudos to Smt Anuradha Somyajulu & Kaushik Subramaniam

[Nick H]

Greetings to Smt Subathra and Sri Balu. Their daughter was a little girl last time I saw her, now she is a grown-up violinist herself

rajeshnat, a very distinguished mother+son combo: on 15 April 2022, Smt Suguna Varadachery sang with her son, V. Bharath Kumar. The concert might be available on Parivadani

[Ajit Ramachandran]

Thank you, rajeshnat and Nick H.