Keerthana Vaidyanathan at BVB 29/12/13

[sangeethadasan]

I am observing a very sad trend in the concert of youngsters. There are hardly any people sitting in the audience. Its just 5/10 people who attend these concerts. This trend must be certainly changed and we need to bring up to limelight a lot of Youngsters. One such promising young vocalist is Smt Keerthana Vaidyanathan.

The concert List is as follows:

1) Sarasiruhasana Priye - Nattai - Puliyur Doraisami Iyengar
2) Baagayanayya - Chandra Jyoti - Thyagaraja Swami
3) Marivere dikkevvaro - Lathangi - PSI (R,N,S)
4) Maakelara Vicharamu - Ravichandrika - Thyagaraja Swami
5) Ninne Nammi Nanu - Thodi - Shyama Sastri (R,N,S,T)
6) Irakkam varamal - Behag - Gopalakrishna Bharathi
7) Thillana - Brindavana Saranga - LGJ

Choosing Nattai and Chandrajyothi as opening and leading pieces was a Good decision taken by keerthana. Nattai is an emotion filled ragam where the Vivadi Rishabham is not dealt as it was (in those days). Keerthana intelligently handled the Ragam to set the mood for the concert. Of course the ragam Chandra jyoti itself is very beautiful containing the shuddha gandharam and handling it needs to be done with care and Keerthana excelled here too. Next item in the concert was Lathangi which was chosen as as the sub main piece of the days concert Patnam Subramanya Iyers Marivere was chosen to be elaborated. Neraval was good but melkala neraval was not sung. Probably because of lack of time. Swaras were laden with intricate laya patterns and were rendered with precision in kala pramanam. The tempo could have been a little slower to give an assimilation time for the audience. Next she rendered, Maakelara vicharamu of thyagaraja Swami followed by the main ragam Thodi. Raga Alapana was done with an aesthetic sense and a lot of her Guru's (Bombay Jayshree?) flashes could be seen in her raga elaboration. Kamakshi Kanchathalaya thakshi was the place chosen for neraval swaras. Once again, due to lack of time, detailed treatment could not be offered to neraval. Swaras were brisk and effervescent laden with sarva laghu patterns. Sai Ragavan was very loud on the mridangam trying to offer keerthana a good level of comfort. But I sensed that she lost her comfort level due to his playing. Shraddha gave excellent support on the violin. The thani was followed by Gopala krishna bharati's irakkam varamal and Sri Lalgudi's thillana in brindavana saranga.

Overall an amazing concert. Should have been given a 2 hour slot so that the artist can render the pieces with calmness.

Keerthana - Vocal
Shradda - Violin
Sai Ragavan - mridangam

[mohan]

Yes, Keerthana is Bombay Jayashri's student. You can often see her playing the tambura for Jayashri's concerts.