Concert Review of Smt.Sudha Ragunadhan SIFAS_Singapore 02-04-2016

[csuresh]

Smt.Sudha Ragunadhan :Vocal
Sri.Embar.S.Kannan _Violin
Sri.K.V.Prasad_Mirudangam
Sri.Ajay.Parameshwaran _Ghatam

Venue :Esplanade Concert Hall_Singapore

Date :02/04/2016

SIFAS Music Festival 2016

Concert theme : anAhata

The concert titled as anAhata by Sangeetha Kalanidhi Smt. Sudha Ragunathan started with a pleasant vasantha daru varnam in praise of Devi Chamundeswari, a composition of HMB. The humming she started gave a sample of what is in store for rasikas.

The solu kattu/ jatis of this daru varnam was presented very clearly by the vocalist and reproduced by Sri. Embar S. Kannan. She presented the trikalam in the varnam and good support from percussion team of veteran Sri.K.V.Prasad on mirudangam and Young Sri.Ajay Parameshwaran on Gatam.

After the varnam Smt.Sudha gave a short lecture on the theme anAhata meaning Unconquered sound. She explained about OmkAra and nAda.
She moved to lovely mOhanakalyANi . She presented the slokam on Vigneswara gajAnanan and moved to short alapana of mOhanakalyANi. The bright brighas at umAsutam and namAmyaham in the sloka gave a nostalgic remembrance of her Guru MLV. After the brief AlApana, was followed by Siddhi vinAyakam, yet another composition of HMB. The sangatis she presented in the pallavi line was worth listening. She presented this in a bit leisure speed. The typical chittaswarams were presented neatly and swara kalpana was presented at pallavi line. Embar also chipped in with his own manOdharma during swara kalpana. Typical lalgudi mOhanakalyANi tillana swaras could be spotted at various places. The whole song gave an ample testimony to parampara of GNB and MLV.

Her next presentation was bit dragging Endaro Pancha rathna keerthana of Saint Thyagaraja inSri.
The sub main was a masterly Sriranjani. Her AlApana was surely the highlight of the concert. No AbOghi mix up at any part of the AlApana. Embar AlApana was even more soothing. She presented the Muthuswamy dIkshitar krirti Sri rAmachandrO rakshatu . Her niraval at Seetha kalyana vaibogam and swaras followed reminds rasikas that they are listening to a concert from a Sangeetha kalanidhi. In this sub main the brighas were used less, but was full of nidhAnam and bhAva. She gave a short lecture on the significance of this kriti where MD explains the significant events of bala kandam of ramayanam up to Seetha kalyanam.

Arul seiya vENDum Ayya in rasikapriya of koTIswara Iyer was the quick filler before the main.
The main raga was kAmbOdhi, no ambiguity as the very first phrase in the raga AlApana gave the sketch of the raga. Her 12 minutes AlApana and 7 minutes return from Kannan was typical example of pure/ suddha) Karnatic music. Predictably she started the Saint Thyagaraja kriti O ranga shAyi. Niraval at bhulOka vaikunTam and swars are done neatly.

The 20 mts tani avarthanam by KV Pasad and Ajay was so good that both singer and violinist allowed extra 3 mts for avarthnam.
After main, 7 mts AlApana of Subha pantuvarali indicated rasika that there will be rtp. Her AlApana was so soulful added additional beauty to the raga. But time was running short as clock ticks past 10 and smartly after AlApana kannan straight away moved to quick fire thanam. This was a good move wrt time management, but the way sudha brilliantly presented the raga AlApana traditional violin return of the AlApana and thanam in a more leisurely singing by vocalist and return by violinist would have added more glory.

The Pallavi was venkaTEswara girdhara abhyankara sadhAdinam unnai charanandainDEn, presented in misra jAti jampa tALa and moved to khaNDa jAti. She completed pallavi with niraval and tri kalam in 4 mts. SubhapantuvarALi swaras for 2 mts and equal time for kannan. Then she presented ragamalika swaras in priyadarshini and vAasanti . All the formalities for RTP completed in 25 mts.

This was not at all a justification from Sudha amma after the super melodious raga AlApana. I feel she could have saved the time spent on explanation of the theme anAhata, details on srI rAmachandra kriti and pancharathna krithi.

The tukkada section was all of Smt. MSS hit songs. Jagododarana then katrinele varum geetham and completed with kurai ondrum illai. The only interesting point is she sang the pasuram chediyaya in same shiva ranjani like a keertanai after the pallavi line kurai ondrum illai then moved to charnam of the famous rajaji’s song.

But overall the concert was full of sowkyam , shruthi sudham and bhAvam. The 4 months rest she took in November has done wonders to her voice and rasikas are fortunate to hear old vintage Sudha.

Madam we look forward to such wonderful concerts, with a bit of planning and time management to give a whole some treat to rasikas.
The concert thematic title was anAhata meaning unconquered music. But you and your team has definitely conquered the heart and soul of 1000 odd rasikas presented at Esplanade Concert Hall Singapore on April 2, 2016.

[rajeshnat]

csuresh
The krithi sri ramachandra rakshitO is a mlv krthi. I only discovered that after I heard the rendition from sanjay and abhishek in academy. What can i say if the time is squeezed for RTP that too when the raga is subhapantuvarali considering there were 1000 odd rasikas. Apart from tukkadas one can say that O rangasayee is also a great tribute to ms amma. Thank you for the review.It looks presently in all parts of the globe CM is on.

Bala747
By any chance were you there ??any comments about the concert?

[csuresh]

Rajesh,
There will be a jugalbandi of Sri.G.J.R.Krishnan and Sri.Sriram Parusuram on Friday(8TH) and Concert of Sri.OS.Arun on Saturday.(9th).
So Singapore has a busy musical week end.

[hnbhagavan]

Recently a jugalbandhi between the same artists was held at Arkay Convention hall which was well received by Rasikas at Chennai.

[Shalu]

Thanks suresh - you have captured very well the concert in all its entirety. Having missed her during the December season, I think this concert was truly a celebration. While one can not have enough of the music, her speech and explanations helped in understanding the theme because when i first heard it, it did sound very abstract and left me wondering how anyone could present a concert on anahata! Also I recollect reading somewhere, MLV Amma herself had learnt the ramachandra rakshito kriti from tm thyagarajan. When one gets carried away by the music and some brilliant team work, guess the analysis on timing etc gets secondary. Yes, guess Sudha amma is on one great comeback spree and hope she tours Singapore and the east more often. It was a magical evening and suresh, you have related the song sequences and the intricacies so well

[Vocalist]

While I wish I was there for what sounds to be an excellent concert overall, the list seems fairly standard rather than one developed for a special theme. I expect if bala had attended, it may have been a more scathing version of that.