Vidushi Kruthi Bhat and Party - Naada Inbam - Sat, Oct 22

[nadhasudha]

Vidushi Kruthi Bhat and team gave a cracker of a concert at Raga Sudha Hall on Sat, Oct 22.

An excellent Mohanam and captivating Kalyani served as the sub main and main pieces. The concert got off to a bright start with the grand Viribhoni in Bhairavi and concluded with OVK's Mani Noopura Dhari in Neelambari. Her dulcet voice coupled with(seemingly) effortless ease in fast akaara passages, taans(rendered for the Abhang), swaras rendered with nadai variations, alapanas with both meditative and fast phrases and last but not the least krithi rendition made for an excellent and pleasing concert experience.

Accompanists supported her very well. Violinist Vishvesh Chandrasekhar from Kanyakumari school played very well. I have not heard him before but he appears very promising.

Mridangist Bharadwaj and Kanjira Artist Sunil Kumar provided excellent support.

Take a listen to this concert. You tube link below.

https://youtu.be/u-HKg0nA4gQ

[Nick H]

Indeed it was a lovely concert

[arasi]

Where you there, Nick? Or did you watch the streaming? I haven't heard the concert fully yet by the talented young singer, but there isn't any mention about the occasion and of Ponbhairavi at the start . Has that part been edited out of the concert? I hope we can see that segment too.
Nadasudha, please chime in....

[Nick H]

I was there Arasi. i don't think there was any mention, which seems a shame.

A lot of in-memory-of concerts only mention the who-and-why in the program.

I took photos, and have passed them on to the artists and to Nadhasudha. Perhaps she might post one or two.

[nadhasudha]

Where you there, Nick? Or did you watch the streaming? I haven't heard the concert fully yet by the talented young singer, but there isn't any mention about the occasion and of Ponbhairavi at the start . Has that part been edited out of the concert? I hope we can see that segment too.
Nadasudha, please chime in....

Namaste Arasi ji,

The concert title had his name and the fact it was the second annual memorial concert.

I do observe that most of the memorial concerts have the Who- And - What in the program title but do not have any speeches. I decided to go with this approach particularly since I was not able to be there physically and attended it virtually.

But Kruthi Bhat chose not one but three krithis with his name and on my request included one item in Bhairavi as it was his favorite raga.

[nadhasudha]

I was there Arasi. i don't think there was any mention, which seems a shame.

A lot of in-memory-of concerts only mention the who-and-why in the program.

I took photos, and have passed them on to the artists and to Nadhasudha. Perhaps she might post one or two.

Yes, Nick I went with the common template for memorial concerts which just mention the Who-and-What in the program.

Thanks for the pics. I have not yet figured out how to post pictures here. If you know how to, let me know so I can post a couple of pics that you took.

[Nick H]

It might be a bit tricky. After every concert it takes almost as long to go through the pics and edit them. I should put, at least on instagram, but then... there comes another concert to see and photograph!

[rajeshnat]

Nadhasudha
I was there for the concert . I will definitely review , i have one more backlog before this . I will write that and also write about kruthi bhat concert. YOu can upload the image in https://imgbb.com/upload . you will get a url like this below . post closing /img tag you can put your customized text as below text that i have put

url=https://ibb.co/L5bqShg][im. g]https://i.ibb.co/ySGM0Bk/Jayashree-Arav ... h-2022.jpg[/im. g]
JayashreeAravinnd-PraveenSparsh-TrichyMurali@SunaadaLahari-on-Aug28th2022
[/url]

[rajeshnat]

Kruthi Bhat@PonBhairavi Memorial concert on Oct 22nd,2022
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vocal : Kruthi Bhat
Violin : Vishesh, student of who else other than A Kanyakumari
Mrudangam : NC Bharadwaj
Kanjira - SunilKumar

Concert Type : Nirvana - no concert to follow
Day/Duration : Saturday /2 hours and 10 mins
Hall : RAgasudha Hall
Occasion : Puducheri Late Rajagopala Iyer - our rasikas.org Ponbhairavi

01. ViribOni - Bhairavi - pachimariyam adiyappa
02. Bhaja manasa vigneshwara (R N S) - bahudari - Tulasivanam
2 mins alapana , not sure if there was violin return
4 mins neraval in Varadam jana sharan am
7 mins swaras

03. Kamakshi bangAru Kamakshi - varAli - SS
04. rajagOpalam bhajEham (R,S)- Mohanam - MD
8 mins alapana and 7 mins violin return
4 mins swara

05. Aparadha Mulanu (S)- rasAli - T
2 mins swaras
06A. nidhichAla sukhamA (R N S T) - Kalyani - T
12 mins alapana and 7 mins violin return
7 mins neraval in ganga snanam sukhamA
06B. Tani

07. sadA maja narayana (R)- abhang - ???
08. Maninoopura dhaari Rajagopala - neelambari - OVK
09. Tana deem… mAnai thEdi vandu - Misra Sivaranjani - LGJ
10. Pavamana

Every young musician ,be it vidushi or vidwan when young atleast I try to associate certain excellence of their immediate senior performers. Among the vidushis say for me Raji Gopalakrishnan, Pantula Rama, Sangeetha Swaminathan and a young brigade of say Amrutha Venkatesh and Brinda Manickavasagam are impressive performers who search very seriously without losing an iota of classicism. Certainly Kruthi Bhat fills in that direction of my personal league of excellent top vidushis list.

Kruthi gives overall balance with sowkhyam and mellifluousness is her forte .The start of Bhairavi in a varnam where I enjoy both the ragam and varnam that gives intense classicism. Varnams that are detailed as viriboni of Pachimariyam , CharukEsi varnam of LGJ or say the latest Brindavani varnam of Suryaprakash gives a joy of almost hearing a submain like structure where varnam gives the details in total of rasa anubhavam . Lot of raga swaroopam is so inbuilt in this bhairavi. The young kruthi had Sruthi and varnam was a great start . Then kruthi rolled From there on with a bit of mixed bag of excellence in krithis.

I have either forgotten or not heard this bahudari krithi of Tulasivanam. Bahudari is a beautiful ragam to be promoted up. when alapan is on I think of sada Nanda tandavam or brOva barama , she surprised with a nice rare opener. Neraval was meticulous I could spot bit of Sangeetha Swaminathan where brigas rolled without loss of fidelity. Varali a tough raga and a tough ss krithi came out well, bit more varali abrasive grind could have been added but still well done.

Mohanam as a submarine was well handled . Rajagopalan Sir was remembered again after Viriboni where there was also a Rajagopala phrase. Swaras could have been better in mohanam , it is Mohanam right , you can go bit more , that too she is from Lalgudi school. Lalgudi school Is known for rasaali ragam, lovely cute ragam that is intensely distinct in Anubhava rasa for me in recent years though a decade or so back I struggle to find that distinctness.

Kalyani was the main. At least I as a recipient of kalyani is bit more demanding- easy raga to take as main, but very difficult to impress . In my opinion Kalyani main show cased more on her work in progress. First weakness is she never maintains any eye contact with mrudangam artist . Kruthi though anchored primarily with Lalgudi school with her Texas amma root where her mama Vittal Ramamurthy must have been surely been her primary guru. I read somewhere the one and only Taala Raaga Swarooopan the great TRS was also her guru. Kruthi took bit boldly a TRS approach , it appeared lot of nada variations but it appeared not too organic.

The next abhang was not my cup of tea. Certain abhangs like say Bhatiyar are ok , but most of the abhangs are Radha kalyana mahotsavams extension, excessive beats of mridangam that appears homogeneous , it is simply not my cup of tea. I go to carnatic concert thinking all the way that it is not bhajana sampradaya utsavam .The third Rajagopala phrase in neelambari with the OVK krithi was a lovely rendition.Maninoopura dhari brought a raji Gopalakrishnan effect to me . I have not heard a vocal thillana rendition of Sivaranjani by maestro LGJ . It is a lovely tune and composition , Kruthi despite not singing krithi , gave a lovely thillana and her paramaguru LGJ blessed her.

The violinist Vishvesh is new to me, he replaced B Ananthakrishnan. He played bit cautiously , little more tonal quality would have helped , but he gave a lot of good spacing to Kruthi during krithi . Both the percussionist did play well, Bharadwaj is now a UKS school but his earlier school of Karaikudi mani was amply demonstrated. Sunil Kumar was charging and he did well. I forgot how their tani was.

Hopefully just like Pantula Rama is supported by MSN Murthy, one of the days , I wish to hear and see Kruthi being supported by Vittal Rangan. Hope that happens atleast once in Dec season in 2022. Kudos to her parents , I think Kruthis amma also has bit learnt from sethalapathi Balu , hopefully I also hear kruthi singing a detailed viruththam, if she is short of time she can drop that abhang and bring in viruththam.

Thank you nadasudha . Your Appa was remembered with phrase of his mudra name in Bhairavi, Mohanam and Neelambari, all 3 were great picks . Next time in 3rd rememberence go for 3 hours , i am pretty sure your appa likes RTP.

Overall a very good to excellent concert for 2 hours and 15 mins.

[nadhasudha]

Kruthi Bhat@PonBhairavi Memorial concert on Oct 22nd,2022
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vocal : Kruthi Bhat
Violin : Vishesh, student of who else other than A Kanyakumari
Mrudangam : NC Bharadwaj
Kanjira - SunilKumar

Concert Type : Nirvana - no concert to follow
Day/Duration : Saturday /2 hours and 10 mins
Hall : RAgasudha Hall
Occasion : Puducheri Late Rajagopala Iyer - our rasikas.org Ponbhairavi

01. ViribOni - Bhairavi - pachimariyam adiyappa
02. Bhaja manasa vigneshwara (R N S) - bahudari - Tulasivanam
2 mins alapana , not sure if there was violin return
4 mins neraval in Varadam jana sharan am
7 mins swaras

03. Kamakshi bangAru Kamakshi - varAli - SS
04. rajagOpalam bhajEham (R,S)- Mohanam - MD
8 mins alapana and 7 mins violin return
4 mins swara

05. Aparadha Mulanu (S)- rasAli - T
2 mins swaras
06A. nidhichAla sukhamA (R N S T) - Kalyani - T
12 mins alapana and 7 mins violin return
7 mins neraval in ganga snanam sukhamA
06B. Tani

07. sadA maja narayana (R)- abhang - ???
08. Maninoopura dhaari Rajagopala - neelambari - OVK
09. Tana deem… mAnai thEdi vandu - Misra Sivaranjani - LGJ
10. Pavamana

Thank you nadasudha . Your Appa was remembered with phrase of his mudra name in Bhairavi, Mohanam and Neelambari, all 3 were great picks . Next time in 3rd rememberence go for 3 hours , i am pretty sure your appa likes RTP.

Overall a very good to excellent concert for 2 hours and 15 mins.

Rajeshnat,

Thanks for taking the time to attend and post a detailed review in your usual style. Your reviews help the artists improve their concert performance as it contains so much of information from a knowledgeable Rasika's perspective. Hope they read and implement your suggestions.

Abhangs are the in thing now. Everybody does it as a post thani item. Like you, it is not my cup of tea.

Thanks for the info on how to post pictures. Will get to it.

Will surely plan for a 3 hours concert with RTP next time around, God willing.