Sudha Ragunathan @ Cleveland 4 April 2010

[Akshara]

Padmashri Sudha Ragunathan performed at the Aradhana remembering her Grand Guru, the great Shri GN Balasubramaniam. The 33rd 'Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana' was inaugurated by His Holiness Ganapati Sachchidananda Swami on April 3, 2010, at the Waetjen Auditorium, Cleveland State University (CSU). This year's festival celebrates the Centenary Year of the late maestro G.N. Balasubramaniam
Post a half hour DVD presentation and another half hour of Shankarabharanam raga visthara explanation by Sheri Injikudy on Nadhaswaram and Shri Trichur Ramachandran, Sudha Ragunathan walked in to regale in a beautiful pink and green Kanchivaram saree. It was almost a full bench cutcheri with mridangam, khanjira and ghatam and two teenagers playing the thambura. Her offerings that morning consisted of :
1)A varnam in Ranjani, a GNB composition in Adi thalam.
2)Varavallabha ramana, again a GNB composition in Hamsadwani. The swaras were sung in quick succession at a different 'eduppu', at Sri Lambhodhara, the tag end phrase of the charanam.
3)Emani pogadudhura, a krithi of Thyagaraja in the raga Veerevasantham, made familiar to the concert singing platform by the great GNB.
4)A beautiful virutham in Tamil on Lord Muruga, as a prelude to the popular Kaa vaa vaa of Papanasam Sivan in Varali. There were interesting swara sequences in Tisra nadai and in dhuritha kaala.
The stage was now completely set for a raga aalaapana.
5)A Narayani raga in brief followed by GNB’s krithi Naamoralanu vinaraadha with swaras at the lyric naarayani.
6)The Unnadyae in Bahudhaari bounced with verve and energy. Shankarabharanam flowed like liquid gold and there were sangathis like 'pattai theettiya vairam' in the higher octaves. When Sudha’s voice soared to the mael sthaayi gaandhaaram and she held the note in perfect sruthi unison. The sruthibhedham on the note 'ma' and journeying back in Shankarabharanam, was very well received. When she swirled sangathis after sangathis at break-neck speed and followed it with brigas so typical of GNB and MLV, the audience went ecstatic.
The completeness in the rendering was truly outstanding. The concert had to be cut short without a ragam-thanam-pallavi, because there was the prize distribution function at 1.30pm. When she
sang Sonnadhai seiydhida, it was like drinking a bottle of Sprite after 5 strong cups of coffee!!
Ugaboga and Hari smarane simply brought MLV there. With my inclination always to dasara krithis, I think it was truly a grand finale.
It was an outstanding rendering in toto and Shri Sundaram had some wonderful words of praise to Sudha Ragunathan for a concert befitting the award.

[mohan]

Thanks for the review Akshara .. I am interested in the Raga Visthara presentations. I noticed that a number were scheduled - what was the format and what did they cover?

[jaysriks]

Hi Akshara ..thanks for the wonderful review of Smt. Sudha Ragunathan's concert @ Cleveland. As usual nice song selection from Smt. SR ...

[rbharath]

nice post. what was the song in shankarAbaraNam

[Cheerful]

RBharath- Madam Sudha sang "Yeduta Nilachite" flawlessly in Shankarabharanam.

[arasi]

Haven't heard that one in a long time. SR no doubt was inspired by the occasion which would have meant so much to her.

[harimau]

Haven't heard that one in a long time. SR no doubt was inspired by the occasion which would have meant so much to her.

What? No Blind Monkeys this time around? No Mischievous Kannan?

I am SO disappointed.

[arasi]

One disappointed rasikA she can live with, I'm sure

[Rasika911]

[/quote]

What? No Blind Monkeys this time around? No Mischievous Kannan?

I am SO disappointed.[/quote]

No need to be http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Bqh64Op6I8

[harimau]

One disappointed rasikA she can live with, I'm sure

Sudha does not disappoint true rasikas! Just as Perumal does not disappoint true bhakthas!

[semmu86]

perumALE

[arasi]

dEvuDA!
arE bhagvAn!

[Akshara]

Mohan, I dont have a complete take on that, will revert. And yes, Cheerful was rite - 'Yeduta Nilachite' was the sb piece.
Harimau, wow...you didn't miss what i missed (pun intended)....don't be too disappointed, you still don't singularly represent the rasika community. We call somethings 'evergreen'.....

[shishya]

She sang eduTa nilachitE
chanranam in eduTa nilachitE was wanting... she had the briga sangathis down but killed part of the sahityam.
tarAna dorakani parAku nAyeDanu rAma jEsite surAsurulu met-
thurA ipuDu .... it goes.
She repeated the first line at mE tarAna dorakani at least 4- 5 times, and then proceeded to sing mEturA ipuDu.
mEturA means "will they eat?" in a way that is associated with animals eating, whereas metturA means "Will they appreciate?".

Sorry just venting a pet peeve...

[shishya]

Mohan,

The raga vistaram preceding SR's concert was done by Trichur V. Ramachandran with the nadaswaram vidwan. He took up Sankarabharanam and demonstrated how the briga sangathis that GNB sir used in his raga alapana-s followed the nadaswaram technique. He sang a phrase and the nadaswaram vidwan played the same phrase. It was very clear as to how the sangatis were adopted from nadaswaram technique. Very interesting. the nadaswaram vidwan played like a 2 minute solo before TVR wrapped up his demo.

[Shalu]

sishya-thanks for the info on the raga vistharam preceding Sudha Ragunathan's concert. I did attend her concert and am able to comprehend your 'peeve' on the shankara bharanam ...

Harimau, I think you should go easy on mutilating song references...Its a question of sentiment and I was amidst a group of Sai devotees who had made a special request for the song to be sung by her - the lyrics are so beautiful that it really touches you deep. If my memory serves me rite, I think there is an episode of Sudha in Sai satcharitha which informs of a miracle...so I presume the musician is all the more inclined to oblige both for their and her very own sake whenever, wherever, how many ever times. Each to his own and I think this applies to all other musicians as well who make it a point to emulate on some songs across their traversing, as it does not effect the repertoire or questions knowledge in any manner. Agree with akshara, they are evergreens.The ecstacy on the faces of the group was enough proof of the impact the song created.

Lets respect such sentiments and not make a 'monkey' or situations and people for the sake of proving a point, relevant or irrelevant.