Madurai R. Sundar knows his music. And his concert showed that this was more than enough to pull off an enjoyable performance.
At the very start of ‘Era Napai’, for which Sundar followed his unusual but interesting affinity for appending the varnam with kalpanaswaram, his vocal chords seemed to have a mind of their own, cracking here, breaking there. But to an extent, the hoarseness lent his voice a ripe texture, although there was the odd apaswaram.
His experience, however, showed in the techniques he used to manage these snags. In ‘Saraguna Palimpa’, he transposed the melody to the tara sthayi — sometimes mid-word — in order to evade the soundless vacuum in the mandhra sthayi. At higher peaks, the voice went soft and tender to coax sruti shuddham from the swara. In all of this, though, the gamakas remained intact.
Niraval at ‘varaguna seshaadri’ explored interesting phrases in Kedaragowla. The swaras had both sarvalaghu as well as off-pulse kanakku. The thani avartanam here was energetic. Thanjavur Ramadas and Madipakkam Gopalakrishnan flitted expertly between nadais as the latter modulated the ganjira’s sound to a nicety.
Often, Sundar used the last bit of a phrase to breathe in. But his alapanas were free from this shortcoming as he availed himself of the rests they offered between phrases. His Kedaragowla essay gave full form to the raga.
Madurai S. Balasubramaniam’s instrument had no glitches, and his full-sounding notes reinforced the raga swarupa in Sundar's essay.
As it did with the rare raga Ramapriya, which preceded Ambujam Krishna’s ‘Nilichiyunna Rama’ and kalpanaswaram at ‘Baaga Saevinchi’.
After a brief ‘Marugelara,’ and a request that the stage side-door be closed to prevent smoke wafting in, Sundar and ensemble progressed to the ragamalika Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi in Valaji, Kalyanavasantam, Revati and, the main raga, Dharmavati. The latter was built with an ergonomic structure and moving phrases, including evocative stopovers at the upper rishabha and gandhara. The tanam was sung with clear phrases, sphuritams landing perfectly now. The pallavi, set to misra nadai adi talam, was enhanced by Ramadas’ pakhawaj-like accompaniment.
Sankara Sivan’s Khamas padam ‘Sundari Yen Soppanathil’ was rendered with ease and speedy phrases. So was ‘Saramaina’; only, the speed detracted from the pathos that Behag is able to evoke when rendered at a leisurely gait. The concert came to a close with a virutham in a ringing Surutti.
