13.8.17 at Unnati, Bangalore.
Song List:
1. Sive Sive Sive- went in half way thro’the song
2. Virutham followed by Kari kalabha mukham in Saveri
3. Chalamelara- Margahindolam
4. Manaviyalakim – Nalinakanthi . R and S @pallavi
5. Sri Parthasarathy- Suddha Dhanyasi – N and S @ Gopa Stree mohita venu gaanena
6. Thulasamma- Devagandhari
7. Main: Sarasa saama mridhu padanee – Gowrimanohari Ragam. N and S @ Kaamitha daana paraayanaa
8. Thani
9. Virutham followed by
Indira Arasane baaro; Indu vadanane baaro- Bhajan style
Comments:
a. Sudha’s voice is authoritative and perfect. Deserves all awards and prizes won. Excellent musician
b. I had not heard her in many years, especially because I cannot enjoy music if the place is too crowded. Too distracting for me.
c. There were rumours saying Sudha’s voice has deteriorated and concerts not so good and so on. It is absolutely baseless. With age, there are invariably shortcomings that creep in. But that notwithstanding, I found that she is definitely one of the best lady performers even today.
d. She maintains a very high pitch. Whether it is desirable is debatable but that is Sudha. Also, if you want a meditative, spiritual upliftment kind of concert then this is not the place you should go to. She is a sheer power, energy, electrifying musician.
e. Undoubtedly she is highly creative, evidenced by the many lovely sangathis for Ganudaina sree and kanimaanava in nalinakanti.
f. Interestingly I did not see any ipad in front of her nor were there umpteen equipment. It has become a rarity. I think I saw her having a piece of paper to aid her in an unfamiliar saahityam (can you believe it, in this day, when people keep poring into their electronic screen constantly advancing it at every page throwing the beauty of the song to the winds
) g. My observation about her swaraprastharams. I felt that she had oversimplified the patterns which for the most part appeared to be basic sarali varisai/ janta varisai exercises in the respective ragams with an occasional flourish and the pacy last line. Maybe this is a kind of adaptation that some senior artists do over a period time. Also possible that my observation is incorrect.
h. The winner of the day was Bhagyalakshmi on morsing. The variety of sounds that she is capable of bringing from the tiny piece of metal was astonishing. Sudha herself had to control her smile by one extraordinary usage. She got a well deserved longest applause. On an earlier occasion, I had gone to her to congratulate her on her versatility. She smiled and bluntly said that she was not very happy about her performance on that day. She has set her bar very high indeed. We wish her the very best of luck.
i. Embar Kannan and Sri.Sivakumar were flawless good supporters of the main artist.
j. After the success of RaGa's abhangs calling Vittaaala- Vittaaala , it has caught on with other artists as well. Not only this case of Sudha's bhajan. Several others too try this trick.
k. After Indira arasane baaro, I left. Reason: Sudha invited the audience to join her in a naama sankeerthanam. We were also told that we should shed all our inhibition and show our lung power. I could have joined but I have a limitation. I cannot sing these sankeerthanams without dancing in heavenly ecstacy. I wasn't sure if that level of uninhibition was allowed
l. From the attendance point of you, this was the most popular among the three concerts I attended in this unnati season. Hall jam packed. It comes with the standard difficulties for a person like me, to focus on the concert. This time it was Mr.Grunter on one side who was giving out grunting sounds with irregular periodicity. Then he started meddling with his mobile phone-grunting put on pause- then after mobiling, he started out with loud coughing. Maybe lack of oxygen in the crowded hall. The other side was Mr. Video who was capturing the nuances of nalinakanti in his video camera. This had to be shut down after a sharp reprimand by the organiser. (He mumbled to me that it is unfair as, in the case of Nityashree he recorded the whole thing and no one objected). After the video episode, he peacefully went on to be texting on his mobile till about the end of the concert. Was distracting to me as I could not help peeking at the matter of the text
