Archana Arathi - Vocal
Shivakumar Ananthakrishnan - Violin
N.C. Bharadwaj - Mridangam
Sunil Kumar - Ganjira
01 Shlokam in Natai
02 Pavanathmajagacha - Natai - Khanta Chapu
03 Seethapathi - Khamas - Adi
04 Anjaneya Raghurama - Saveri - Adi
05 Kshitija Ramanam - Devagandhari - Adi
06 Parakela - Kedaragowla - Adi
07 Pakkala - Kharaharapriya - Mishra Chapu
08 Left when they began the Virutham in Kambojhi
Highlights:
The concert was very planned, presented and executed. Makes for a good listening experience. Good voices in tone that blend together well but weak individually. Maybe some voice training will correct that. Bharadwaj added tremendously to the concert and lifted it to great heights with good support from Sunil. Anjaneya Raghurama was rendered well and was my favourite
Positives:
Great planning and song selection. Each next song went very well with the previous. Proper "Kutcheri" singers
Traditional in fare and good stage presence. No unnecessary adhattal and merattal. Measured approach.
Good team work made the concert enjoyable and took away from the minor flaws.
Negatives:
Ideas and creativity was not flowing. I know they are young and hopefully with more stage experience they will be able to refine themselves better.
Their voices are weak individually which is more obvious because of the stark contrast from when they sing together. Pitching also seems to be an issue that they should look into. It gets weaker into the concert and loses the initial timbre.
The violin tone was not great and sounded scratchy. His music was also hot and cold at times for me.
Thoughts:
Their ideas are chaste and traditional but the voice takes away from the execution. All the other necessary ingredients are there in abundance. I hope they quickly rise and iron out the kinks in their armour. On a side note I like my Kedaragowla nice and slow and Parakela though acted as a filler took away from the Ragam for me. Enjoyed it beyond all of these issues. Looking forward to more good music from them in the future.
- SK72