Saketharaman’s sruthi suddham can be seen in all his raga delineations whether it is brief or expansive.
The few who attended Saketharaman’s morning concert on a weekday (what happened to all the season ticket holders?) were lucky to leave with immense satisfaction. He started the concert with Lalgudi Jayaraman’s beautifully structured padavarnam ‘Devar Munivar Thozhum Paadan’ and proceeded to sing
Tyagaraja’s ‘Nadasudha Rasambilanu.’ He managed to convey the beauty of Arabhi in a nutshell and kalpanaswaram at ‘Dharabhajane’ was enjoyable with lots of jantai swarams. ‘Maaravairi Ramani’ in Nasikabhushani was also preceded by a short raga alapana (he seems to have a penchant for alapana) with chowka kala phrases devoid of any unnecessary vocal exercise. The violinist V. Sanjeev played a good version of the raga.
Saketharaman’s sruthi suddham can be seen in all his raga alapanas whether it is brief or expansive, especially when he dwells on any note. The delineation of Thodi, concentrating only on the rakti aspect of the raga, had an appealing and lasting effect.
The violinist proved his grasp of the raga in his essay. ‘Thamadam En Swami’ followed with kalpanaswara at ‘Thamadam,’ the swaraksharam made use of beautifully and it was a volley between the singer and the vocalist, played nicely.
When one was wondering why there was no niraval at all came the RTP in Vasantha.
Saketharaman has a knack of bringing out the charm of any raga and his concept and picturisation is different and good. He created a beautiful picture up to tara sthayi shadjam and the violinist was asked to play. When the vocalist took over again, to complete the beautiful picture, and presented a step by step thanam, it was like dressing it up with traditional jewellery without missing anything. The pallavi ‘Ananda Natana Prakasa’ (tisra jathi ata talam chathusra gati) was handled well with ragamalika swarams and there was very good support from the violinist.
K.V. Prasad on the mridangam and Madipakkam A. Murali on the ghatam closely shadowed through out and gave a good thani after the Thodi piece. The concert ended with ‘Yaramita Vanamali’ in Hamirkalyani and Lalgudi’s Desh raga Thillana.
