Bharathi Ramasubban's 90-minute concert was an elegant, wholesome and mature presentation of many of the finest aspects of our musical tradition. Possessed of a powerful, unwavering musical voice, she demonstrated the strong foundation on which her essays stood from the inceptive stage to the present, which cannot be reached through shortcuts and half-hearted efforts. Opening her concert with Muthuswamy Dikshitar's 'Mahaganapate,’ in raga Natanarayani and brisk Rupaka talam, she settled into her cruising mood in Tyagaraja's ‘Vadera Deivamu Manasa’ on a single-beat Adi tala, in Pantuvarali.
The effortless melodic power, clear articulation and quiet confidence, adorned with pleasing brigas raised the general quality here. Niraval and kalpanaswara at 'Dhatru Vinitu Dyna' lent a stamp of liveliness with a half-beat take-off. Syama Sastri's popular 'Marivere' in a slow misrachapu, with kalpanaswaras was treated conventionally. In the next item, one could sink into blissful slumber in the late afternoon hour in the air-conditioned hall, lulled by the words ‘Vatapatra Sayana’ (reclining on the tender leaf of the oak) as Bharathi elaborated Dikshitar's 'Chetasri Balakrishnam’ in Dvijavanti.
Competent rendition
A brief interlude of Saveri with the Tamil score 'Velaiya' led to a phase of profundity. The alapana in Khambodi matched the kriti ' Evarimata' by Tyagaraja, which begins in the madhya sthayi and rises to tara sthayi in the anupallavi. Both Bharati and Sivakumar Anantharaman (violin) attended to this aspect faithfully. The pace of the alapana also suited the kriti. Competent rendition of the kalpanaswaras led smoothly to the tani avartanam by Kumbakonam Swaminathan, notable for its clarity and nattiness. The pristine allure in the delivery of the Ashtapadi 'Govindamiha Gopikaaananda Kandam' in Bagesri, khanda chapu and the Tamil number 'Vandu Vandu Tavuzhndu', Sindhubhairavi, Tisram at the end of the concert was not lost on the audience, going by their lusty applause that greeted each one. Sivakumar was eminently supportive with his unassuming and flawless playing all through and displayed perfect response in the swara exchanges.
