Good tutelage and a good, sruti-aligned voice ensure that half the battle is won on the concert platform. Listening to Brinda Manickavasagam, one could not help noticing the quality of training received by her. She commenced with the Thodi varnam in Adi talam and sang it in too speeds. The slower tempo was particularly appealing. Tyagaraja’s ‘Nine Bhajana’ in Nattai was the next kriti, sung at a leisurely pace. As she closed with a spell of swaras for the pallavi line, Mohanakrishnan (mridangam) caught the attention of the listener with his sprightly accompaniment.
Brinda made a brilliant start to her alapana of Surutti, with her mere touch of the nishadam showing the raga unambiguously. Her entire exposition was full of raga bhava. Chidambaram Badrinath (violin) supported her singing with his clean bowing and played a competent Surutti for his part. She sang Dikshitar’s ‘Sri Venkatagirisam,’ marked by good pronunciation. Brinda restrained herself to singing swaras alone at the line, ‘Alamelumanga Sametam.’
Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer’s ‘Sri Sankara’ (nagaswarali) served as the tempo-booster before she started her alapana of Kalyani for the main item of her concert. It was heartening to see Brinda explore Kalyani as a raga and not as a scale. There were many lovely moments as she sang some of the trade-mark phrases of Kalyani. Her voice soared to the gandhara in the higher octave with telling effect. Badrinath provided an apt reply, sticking to traditional colour of the raga. Brinda sang ‘Pankajalochana’ (Swati Tirunal) and topped it up with niraval and swaras at ‘Brindavananta Kruta.’ It was a standard concert fare with all the ingredients such as koraippu and korvai, followed by the tani avartanam.
Mohanakrishnan, who provided lively percussive support throughout, played a good thani, though he seemed to race a wee-bit too fast towards the end. The concert ended with a tillana in Kanada. In summary, a good team was on view and all the artists showed potential to move up in the field of Carnatic Music.