Radha Bhaskar’s concert under the Krishna Gana Sabha Gokulashtami series was on the theme of Sadguru Rasanubhava. It was truly a researcher’s attempt at fathoming the genius of Tyagaraja in sahitya and sangita. The focus was more on the musical aspects exemplified in his compositions. It was perceptively erudite and scholarly.
First, Radha dwelt on the kirtana format which, she was honest enough to admit, we can by no means comprehend in its totality. She referred to the charanams and its different facets. She said that the saint differed from his general four-line charanam in most of the songs to a flowing stream gently leading up to the pallavi. This point was brought out well when she sang ‘Bale balendu bhooshani’ (Ritigowla) . She preceded it with a crisp alapana.
The next aspect she handled was the janaka-janya technique with reference to the Suddha Seemantini kirtana ‘Janaki Ramana’. Explaining each part, she spoke of how the kirtana structure retained the janya identity even at the very first phrase of the pallavi. Here, she emphasised the saint’s imaginative gift.
The best part of Radha Bhaskar’s concert came when she explained how the integration of sangatis with the solid grace of the raga of the kirtana was a matter of natural ease to Tyagaraja. Here, she appropriately chose the Kalyani kirtana, ‘Etavunara’ where the saint retained the first word of the pallavi intact and built up the sangati edifice in the following two words ‘Nilagadu Neevu’- starting from the rishaba of Kalyani to the nishada. After that was the amazing manner in which Tyagaraja introduced the Vivadi mela technique. Here, Radha took up the two songs in Chandrajyoti, ‘Baagayanayya’ and ‘Sasivadana,’ to emphasise the poorvanga segment in the former and the uttaranga portion in the latter.
The performance, not exactly the familiar demonstrative vidwat presentation, concentrated on educating the rasikas on where to look for Tyagaraja’s excellence in compositions.
She concluded with the Darbar song ‘Rama abhirama’ and ‘Kaligiyunte’ (Keervani). Discarding general cutcheri sabha, her approach, being a researcher's, brought out the dignity, grace and tenderness of Tyagaraja’s songs.
Anayampatti Venkatasubramaniam on the violin was adequate. Guru Raghavendra (mridangam) and Madipakkam Murali (ghatam) were over enthusiastic at times in their percussive pattern.
