Chennai: Excellent team work on stage

I believe this was the first official concert for Bharat Sundar for the December 2017 season and inaugural Concert for NaadaInbam. It was a good, albeit subdued start. Bharat presented all in white, a la Sanjay and set off with a brisk ‘Ninne Kori’ – the Vasantha  Adhi Tala Varnam. Papanasam Sivan’s ‘GaanaRasamudan’ in Begada, RoopakaThalam was decorated with some crisp Kalpana Swarams.

Some new, some old, some Tamil, Telugu and Sanskrit all bundled up together by Bharat and his team for a well-spent evening of music.

 A decent foray of Dhanyasi was returned with flavour by Nagai Sriram on the violin, as they launched into the popular SyamaShastri composition ‘Minalochana’ with a telling Niraval @ ‘SamajagamanaNeevu’ and rounded it up with Kalpana Swarams. ‘VidhiIllarukku’ in Kharaharapriya was announced by Bharat as a composition of AnaiAyya Brothers. A rarely heard kriti in Tamil as well-it was refreshing. Thyagaraja’s ‘InthanuchuVarnimpaTharama’ was announced as Guntakriya-again a novel and refreshing addition, sung super-fast. He even toyed with the idea of maybe attaching some Kalpana swarams in the end, but eschewed the temptation.

A beautiful, elaborate Sudha Saveri by both Bharat and Nagai Sriram set the stage up for ‘DhariniTelusukonti’ May I commit the sacrilege of saying it is my least facourite kriti. Maybe because it brings memories of students (myself included) labouring over the numerous sangathis. Bharat presented it immaculately but the real work was in the niraval line ‘Aa Janmamu’ in the Charanam. The line was dropped to a slower speed and Bharat tried to prepare for the many RTPs he needs to sing this Season by playing with various Nadais. Nagai Sriram of course was game for all the variations and the two set up a good parley. As expected this was tied up with a good thani by Shri KV Prasad and Anirudh Athreya.  

The voice and the mood was well in-groove for a pensive ‘EnthatiKuluke’ Kalyani —  the Dharmapuri SubbarayaShastriJavali. Bharat & Nagai played with when a brigha would be offered instead of a gentle glide creating good surprise elements. Appar’s Thevaram ‘VaananaiMadhiSoodiyaMainthanai’ was sung as Raagamalika Virutham before a rare Gopalakrishna Bharati composition ‘KannaaleKanden’ Bharat announced that the verse was found in GKB’s biography and probably not set to tune before. The evening ended as briskly as it started with Patnam’s Poornachandrika Thillana and Mangalam. Some new, some old, some Tamil, Telugu and Sanskrit all bundled up together by Bharat and his team for a well-spent evening of music.

Concert Review

Artiste:         Bharat Sundar
Hall:             Ragasudha Hall
Ambience:   Chamber/cosy
Acoustics:    Good
Date :           6/12/17 6.30pm