Raghul Narayanan gave an outstanding raga alapana of Jyotiswarupini in his concert for Kartik Fine Arts. This youngster has a robust voice, and with great control and modulation, he brought out the beauty of the raga with varied and interesting prayogams, and rendered Koteeswara Iyer’s kriti, ‘Gaanaamuda Paanam’ neatly. Thirumurugai Dinesh Kumar drew out the contours of the raga very well and, from the beginning to the end, there was great understanding among the artists which made the concert more enjoyable.
Raghul opened his concert with ‘Karunimpa,’ the Sahana varnam followed by a short sketch of Abhogi which contained the essence of the raga. Tyagaraja’s ‘Nannubrova Neekinta Tamasama,’ was followed by lots of swaraprastaras, which included many single avartana swaras. After a short essay of the raga Mayamalavagowla, Swati Tirunal’s ‘Deva Deva Kalayami’ was rendered with niraval and swaram at ‘Jatarupa Nibhachela,’ which he handled like a veteran (with understanding beats from the mridangam player). His style was quite evident at this point, from the handling of the lyrics to the step by step progression. Also his tremendous efforts paid him dividends.
‘Brova Baarama’ in Bahudhari was presented with a few rounds of kalpanaswaram, before embarking on Madhyamavati, the main raga of the concert. The raga alapana flowed effortlessly, with the vocalist negotiating lots of permutations and combinations without any repetition. The violinist, in his turn, brought out the beauty of the raga. Tyagaraja’s ‘Rama Katha Sudha’ was rendered competently with yet another delectable round of niraval and accurate swaraprastara at ‘Bhama Mani Janaki.’ Resonant percussion support was provided by V.S. Raghavan throughout the concert and he also presented a good thani.
When Raghul concluded the concert with Narayana Tirtha’s Tarangam, ‘Govardhana Giridhara,’ the audience was waiting for one more tailpiece from him.
The Narada Gana Sabha Mini Hall’s acoustics quality has improved since last year.
