BRAHMA GANA SABHA
String of songs sans planning
SUBHASHREE RAMACHANDRAN has a clear and pleasant voice. Her afternoon concert would have been more impressive with better planning instead of a string of compositions, 14 to be precise, from the Kalyani Ata tala varnam to the final tukkadas. The Vachaspati raga alapana was decent, followed by the Tyagaraja kriti, "Kandajoodumi''. While singing the brief neraval at "Allanadu Sowmitri'' and kalpanawaras she could have avoided stopping at "Allanadu Sow'' instead of completing the word. This was followed by Dikshitar's ``Ranganayakam'' in Nayaki and then ``Kripajoochutaku'' in Chayatarangini. The latter was rendered in a fast pace and the sound of the ghatam drowned the voice. The elaboration of the popular raga Karnaranjani was pleasant preceding ``Vanchatonu'' of Muthiah Bhagavatar. The main item was Kamboji. Though there were some attractive passages the development of the raga was not too well laid out.
Following the kriti, ``Elara Krishna,'' the neraval and swaras were very brief and both seemed to end abruptly. More time could have been allotted for the main piece perhaps by reducing the number of items. The tani by Bhuvarahan on the mridangam and Sivaramakrishnan on the ghatam was lively. The two, along with T. K. Padmanabhan on the violin, rendered good support to the vocalist.
Classical
It was a veena concert within the classical framework without resorting to gimmicks. After ``Deva Deva'' in Mayamalavagowla and ``Brova Bharama'' in Bahudari, both of which had attractive kalpanaswaras, E. Gayatri's elaboration of Subhapantuvarali and the eventual neraval and swaras in ``Sri Satyanarayanam'' showcased the essential characteristics of the soulful raga. The patanthara of this kriti was quite different from the popular one.
Ramaswamy Sivan's ``Kadaikkan Vaithennai'' too was preceded by a brief but fulfilling essay of Begada.
Whether the time tested ragas or those which not many take for alapana like Saramathi ("Mokshamugalada") and Neethimathi ("Mohanakara"), Gayatri was totally at ease and went about her task with composure which had a calming effect on the listeners.
A fast-paced "Annadudanuganu'' in Jingala came before the main item. The alapana of Mohanam was exhaustive but not tiresome and brought forth the enticing beauty of it. Besides Mohanam, the tanam was a ragamalika of Poorvikalyani, Bhairavi etc. The swara segment also was quite long for the Tyagaraja kriti, "Nannupalimpa." The accompanists Trichur Narendran on the mridangam and Purushothaman on the ganjira, not only accentuated the total quality of the concert, but were obviously enjoying it themselves. Their tani was very impressive.
Mature handling of ragas
Like last December, Srividhya Ganeshan impressed this time also with her mature handling of ragas Natakurinji and Todi. Though not very long the alapana of the former was well developed. The song to follow was "Mamavasada Varade'' of Swati Tirunal and had interesting swarakalpana patterns.
She took her time in essaying Todi, touching the strong points of the raga as well as the subtle emotive phrases. While listening to ``Jesinadella,'' one could not help wondering how Saint Tyagaraja has given varied profiles to this raga in his many compositions in it.
The neraval and swaras in the kriti also explored the nuances of Todi well.
Amritha Murali on the violin was no less competent in her raga alapanas and swarakalpana. A spirited but brief tani was rendered by Sairam on the mridangam. He also gave good support to the entire concert. LAKSHMI VENKATRAMAN
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