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Embellished with such swaras, Krishna’s Khamas came out resplendent. But even before the Khamas-mood left the audience the vocalist rendered an excellent Malayamarutham, where, as is typical of Krishna, the phrases were more authoritative than dulcet. Tyagaraja’s ‘Manasa Etulo’ followed, with niraval and swaras at ‘Kalilo Rajasa Thamasa.’ It was a memorable Malayamarutham, like the Durbar that Krishna sang in the same hall two years ago.

This was followed by Syama Sastri’s swarajathi, ‘Kamakshi Amba.’ The choice of ‘Syama Krishna Sahodari Siva Sankari Parameswari’ for niraval was very judicious, because it engaged the audience fully, who could mumble-along the familiar lines. At this point, Krishna surprised the audience twice over, by not singing swaras but asking mridangist Guruvayur Dorai to play the thani. The way Dorai plays his instrument is a model for younger mridangists.

Whenever Krishna’s voice thinned, as during a long karvai, Dorai would pause playing-and the effect would be splendid. A toppi-chapu combination for every accent in vocal music, a gummiki for karvai-Dorai’s play completely enmeshed with Krishna’s singing. Needless to say, thani was befitting an artist of his experience.

After this, Krishna took up Sahana for RTP. As in a few other concerts, Krishna demonstrated his range by covering notes of all the three octaves with ease. The alapana and tanam were classy, with a pronounced use of the down-swinging ‘ni’ (sounding more like Sahana). The swaras traversed through Pantuvarali, Abheri (with the lower ‘da’) and Behag. Violinist M.A.Sundaresan played excellently all through, but was outclassed by Krishna, particularly in the Sahana piece.

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