With a few ear-friendly passages in the madhyama sthayi and top shadja, a frenzied rhetoric sans refinement in the tara sthayi, some raga alapanas, interpretation of songs and expansion of neraval, Sandeep Narayanan stabilised his recital for Sri Thyagaraja Seva Samiti. Being a Bahula Panchami programme, the kirtanas carried Tyagaraja’s inherent touches of exquisiteness, no matter the manner in which he preferred to present them.
Two major ragas, Kharaharapriya (‘Rama Nee Samaanam Evaru’) and Kalyani (‘Ninnala Valasinademi’), were elaborated in great detail. Peppered here and there with daring creativity by way of vakra prayogas, his mind was anchored in the pursuit of vigour in technique to showcase its musical perspective.
With robustness as the main driving force, Sandeep aimed at creative sancharas in the two ragas. A large part of the excursion in the tara sthayi was by way of uncoiling the sancharas where subtlety was lost though the raga identify was retained.
‘Ne Nendu Vedakudura’ (Karnataka Behag), ‘Muddumomu Elagu Chelengeno’ (Suryankantam) and ‘Ramachandra Nee Daya’ (Surutti) were the other songs in the programme.
Verve and fervour sliced through the sahityas in an attempt to make it a high quality performance. If an item could be singled out for offering reposefulness, it was the Yadukulakhambodi piece, ‘Sri Rama Jaya Rama Sringara Ramayani,’ sung towards the end of the concert.
The violin accompanist B. Ananthakrishnan was a picture of poise and settled for what would go well with the vocalist’s style. The mridangam support by Arjun Ganesh was pertinent for the songs and revealed that he was equally competent.
