A sonorous voice is always an advantage. Sudha Ravi Prakash , who sang at the 110th year celebrations of Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha at Narada Gana Sabha, displayed her pleasant vocals to her advantage. The customary Hamsadhwani and ‘Gam Ganapathey’ (Muthiah Bhagavatar) with a stretch of swarakalpana set the concert rolling.
Sudha compiled her programme with kritis from Tyagaraja (‘Yochana’ in Darbar), Papanasam Sivan (‘Ma Ramanan’ in Hindolam), G.N. Balasubramaniam (‘Nee Paadamegathi’ in Nalinakanti), Dikshitar (‘Meenakshi Memudam’ in Poorvikalyani), Purandaradasa (‘Narayana Ninne Namade’ in Suddha Dhanyasi and ‘Yemanelyokana’ in Sivaranjani) and Thanjavur Sankara Iyer (‘Mahadeva Siva Sambho’ in Revati).
The raga essays were drawn briefly for Hindolam and quite expansively for Poorvikalyani. Sudha’s training and diligent approach helped her develop the raga without any excesses or exuberance. Her mellifluous voice could travel freely in all sthayees without difficulty. The exercises carried more precision with limited ingenuity. The result, something seemed to be missing in Hindolam whereas in Poorvikalyani was quite gratifying. Sudha’s swara sections were concise without rambling.
The niraval on ‘Meenalochani Pasa Mochani’ in ‘Meenakshi Memudam’ was illustrative of Sudha’s understanding of the classical slant and her swaras were well set and neatly rounded off, taking shadjam as the focal note.
Nevertheless, in the initial stages, a hairline shift from sruti as well as slight drifts off swara sthanas could be felt. In fact, her voice as well as these problems got settled with Poorvikalyani. Sudha should keep an eye on these aspects.
K.J. Dileep supported Sudha on the violin. His swaras and ragas were competent. B. Ganapathyraman was on the percussion front with mild padding.
Sweet strains
Sachin Patwardhan ’s Hindustani instrumental concert started late by nearly half an hour. Hailing from Indore, Sachin is the disciple of sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. So one can easily imagine the quality of music Sachin had to offer. He seems to have mastered both the sarod and the mandolin. He started on the sarod with Raag Shree. Resembling Kamavardhini of the Carnatic school, Sachin initially expounded the raga at a slow pace, progressed exquisitely and touched the racy passages set in three different rhythm cycles. The finale had very dynamic exchanges between the sarod and the tabla that culminated into a cloud burst of music. Agniky Joshil’s fingers danced on the tabla with great control and grace.
The next session was on the mandolin where Sachin played something like a medley of Raags Tilang and Malkauns. The freedom of musical expression prompts many musicians to experiment. The sound of the mandolin was understandably more pronounced than that of the sarod; but the medley’s resonance was light with many unexpected and unusual combinations, which could be called adventurous.
