Apart from the name Suguna, they (Suguna Purushothaman and Suguna Varadachari) share the same patanthara of Musiri School that makes their dual singing comfortable according to a recent interview of Suguna Purushothaman. True, their voice carry different range while their methodology almost merges well with one another. Their concert on the third day of the Mid Year Music Festival organised by Charsur Arts Foundation at the Narada Gana Sabha Mini Hall testified this again.
The Suguna-s have chosen two remarkable compositions for their two-hour concert and done full justice to those two inimitable kirits with alapana, niraval and swarakalpana in the right degree.
Unhurried pace
Ritigowla, the matchless melody was traced through the musically emotive phrases by Suguna Varadachari. Subbaraya Sastri’s ‘Janani Ninnuvina’ was articulated in an unhurried pace with a powerful niraval on ‘Dikkevaramma’ followed with swaras without sacrificing the melody at any juncture. Khambodi was elaborated by sharing the lower and middle sections by Suguna Varadachari and the upper registers by Suguna Purushothaman. The sancharas exhibited their long innings in the musical ground. Every phrase was couched in the beauty and majesty of the raga. Here Dikshitar’s ‘Sri Subrahmanyaya Namasthe’ explored all the sangatis and embellishments. The improvisation went on ‘Bhusurathi Sakala’ with swara adjunct.
Except for a few overlaps, the swara trades and delivery went on lively and enjoyable mode. Dr. R Hemalatha on the violin responded with poise and her versions of Ritigowla and Khambodi were commendably melodic and majestic respectively. Neyveli Skanda Subramaniam was brisk through out in the company of Udipi Sridhar on the ghatam and also provided an energetic tani avartanam.
‘Ra Rama Intithaga’ (Asaveri, Tyagaraja), ‘Srikanta Nee’ (Bhavapriya, Tyagaraja), ‘Sri Kumara Nagaralaya’ (Atana, Swati Tirunal) were other notable inclusions.
Glimpses of expertise
O.S. Thyagarajan is a disciplined singer and one can expect the minimum guarantee for quality in his concerts. In this particular concert OST offered only glimpses of his expertise as he limited himself to a brief alapanas of Devagandhari and Kalyani and also just a fleeting touch of his excellence in swarakalpana. Starting the concert with ‘Ilalo Pranatharthi’ in Atana he just kept moving with ‘Sambho Mahadeva’ in Pantuvarali, ‘Vinarada’ in Devagandhari, ‘Teradeeyaga Rada’ in Gowlipantu before resting
on Kalyani and ‘Sundari Nee Divya.’ He concluded his concert with ‘Pahi Rama Dootha’ in Vasanthavarali.
Well, when one just wondered of the ninety minutes concert, nearly twenty minutes were apportioned for an elaborate thani avartanam by Trichur Narendran and Vaikom Gopalakrishnan and a good part of the time to S. Varadarajan for his stimulating raga essays and imaginative swarakalpana on the violin what was left with OST, the vocalist? The absence of OST’s usual involved interpretation could be felt by a discerning listener.
Surprisingly, the artist himself accepted towards the end that he had a hectic schedule since the previous day and in the morning and he learnt a lesson in his over enthusiasm. Yes. One could feel the fatigue in his voice and delivery at the same time. OST deserves appreciation for his the honesty and humility.
Even then there was something special about OST’s selections. As an avid rasika mentioned to this scribe, all the kritis of the bard were representative of different kshetras such as Tiruvaiyaru, Kovur, Srirangam, Tirupati, Thiruvottriyur and Sholingapuram.
