Sudha Ragunathan- BVB- 27-11-2016

[jaysriks]

Sudha Ragunathan- Vocal
Sivaraman Rao- Violin
Neyveli Skanda Subramaniam- Mridangam
Raman- Morsing

Venue: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan,
Date: 27-11-2016

Sudha Ragunathan began her concert in a brisk manner with a famous Adi Talam Varnam composed by Patnam Subramanian Iyer, Evari Bodhana in raga Abhogi in two speeds. Podi gamakas stressing on ma, da and ga were a really soothing start to the concert. New patterns of brigas in charanam emphasing the swarakshara prayogas further enhanced the musical experience.

Sudha Ragunathan presented Purandara Dasar’s ‘Sharanu siddhi vinayaka’ in raga Sowrashtram. The brief and fast five rounds of kalpanaswaram were presented well by the team. The artist gave a brief overview of Vasantabhairavi ragam. I was hoping that the artist would present the most-loved piece in this raga Ni dayarada. To my surprise, she sang rama ramana barama. It was refreshing to hear this song delivered by Sudha after ages. The podi brigas in charnams was nicely delivered.

Sudha Ragunathan quickly started rendering Shuddha Danyasi. She sang the ragam for about 10 minutes, pitching her voice in right areas, made the flow smooth and graceful. The sowkiyam and slow paced rendition of the ragam brought the bhavam and aesthetic flavours. The artist presented swirls of brigas to highlight the brisk dimension of the raga. Post which, the majestic Subramannneya of Muthuswami Dikshitar was taken. Song was delivered very nicely. Venkateshwara Naama Rupena Vicitra Vishaakha Mahotsavena sahityam lines taken to deliver nereval and swarams. Interestingly, She built her swarams sm g-s, s-np mp-mp M m-g (notation of the nereval line). Suddha Danyasi piece was serenly framed on fertile creativity. Her sustenance in top octave sancharas, tonal refinement was rich, clear and deep to present graceful curves. 

Guruvayoor Apane (Reethigowlai) came as a timely insertion after the songs in other languages. Voice modulation techniques were effectively used in this song that went down well with the audience. Hemavathy is a raga that makes provisions for sancharas in all three octaves. She seemed to have a passion for raga essays and attempted to present raga bhava even in a concise measure. It, in a way, it paved way for remarkable launch of the mainstay of the concert and took up tanam and pallavi. Tanam was rendered only for about 10 mins. She took the pallavi of Srikantimathim of Dikshitar and set the pallavi in khanda jathi triputa talam. She stressed on the importance of silence between the srikantimathim and sankara yuvati. Ragamalika swarams were rendered in priyadarshini, rasikapriya and sindhubhairavi.

After the tani, arumo aval, nenjuku nidhiyum, Mere to giridhar gopal and bridavani (BMK) tillana were rendered.

Sudha Ragunathan is endowed with rich creativity and MLV school repertoire. Complete alignment to sruthi and non-negotiable diction are her strong points. She delivers all this in such effort that the output touched the audience. Oru idam thali swarams in Suddha Danyasi piece proved her prowess in swaram rendition too.

Overall it was a good concert.

[Vocalist]

Thanks for the review; sounds like it was a good concert. What was the total duration?

[jaysriks]

Concert duration was about 2 hours 30 minutes.

[HarishankarK]

Your review is good but it's coming out as if Sudha is some recent or new artiste.

[jaysriks]

It's a sort of comeback concert for Smt. Sudha as she did not perform during the last season due to health issues. In my opinion, all the artistes irrespective of their experience treat every concert as a new one and they perform with so much of sincerity and dedictaion.