Suguna Varadachari, Nada Inbam

Suguna Varadachari - R K Shriram Kumar - K Arun Prakash

Nada Inbam, Raga Sudha Hall
8 Sept 09. 6 pm

gnAnAnanda mayam dEvam - slOkam in shankarAbaraNam
sAmi ninnE - shankarAbaraNam - Adi - VK
kOTinadulu - tODi - Adi - T (short sketch, S)
talli ninnu nEranammi - kalyANi - vilOma cApu - SS (RNS)
cintayamAkanda mUlakandam - bhairavi - rUpakam - MD (short sketch, S)
kOniyADina nApai - kAmbhOji - Adi - VK (RNS)
tani
AlamAmaratinilai mEl - pAsuram in Anandabhairavi, nIlambari, sahAnA, kApi
bhaja mAdhavam anisam - kApi - Adi - MV
mariyAda teliyakanE - suruTTi - rUpakam - PSI
tillAnA - khamAs - Adi - PSI
nI nAma rUpamulaku - saurAshTram - Adi - T
sriyatkAntAya - madhyamAvati

It was a grand concert. With all the 5 big ragams coming one after another and all grand pieces chosen to apty present the rAgams, it was a class apart. with the kriti renditions being as heavy as they need to be and matching manOdarmam added it was only a concert that could linger in the minds of those who attended and one that would vibrate in the surroundings of the hall for quite a long time.

Smt Varadachari began with an invocatory hayagrIva slOkam in a very moving shankarAbaraNam. The Adi tALa varNam which followed, a personal favourite, was superbly rendered. The tODi was quite fast and yet had the essentialities of the rAgam displayed aptly with a good round of svarams. The svarams were alternately sung to 'gangA', 'kAvEri' and 'danushkOTi'.

By the time tODi was finishing, i had a gut feeling that this concert is going to be different. Once, the kalyANi began, i was sure it is going to rain heavy ragams and was even convinced that Musiri School favourites, nI pAdamulE and tiruvaDi charaNam are going to come one after the another and probably a pallavi too in kharaharapriyA.

However it was not so and things only got better as we kept listening. On some days, one can exactly predict the songs and rAgams and others, one is totally off beat. It turned out to be somewhere in the middle that day, with the rAgams coming but not the kritis.

The kalyANi AlApanai was very classical and was well built and moving. The kriti was rendered with neraval and svarams at 'AdarinchuDakidi manchi samayamu' which were totally fitting with the mood of the kriti and only adding more to the concert. The bhairavi kriti was rendered with a beautiful short sketch and nice tricky set of svarams to 'bhairavi prasangam'.

It was only about an hour since the concert started that Smt. Varadachari started a leisurely kAmbhOji. The next 10 or so min was a grand, majestic, classical, elaborate, slow, meditative, soothing, punchy, superb, i-am-short-of-words kAmbhOji AlApanai. I was not bothered of which kriti is going to come as i was totally immersed in the kAmbhOji. The violin return was equally fitting and only made one long for more. The grand kriti was rendered with absolute classicism and all the progressive sangatis were fully rendered. The neraval at 'ninnu minchina deivamu lEdani' was totally out of the world. The svarAs that followed were all the more beautiful. With the short tani, it was atleast about an hour or so of just kAmbhOji vibrating around the full hall. The rAgamAlikA slOkam and songs that followed, including a quick jAvaLi, were all presented in a nice fashion.

Now come the accompanists. Sri Shriram Kumar was only following the main artist like a shadow. His kriti renditions were totally matching and the manOdramam replies were apt and crisp and totally subdued to highlight the main artist. Sri Arun Prakash was the perfect Mrudangist one could have got for the concert. With his impeccable sense of anticipation, be it kriti renditions or manOdarmam parts, it was all one, truly mixed and merged with the music that was being presented by the main artist. Kum. Vidya Kalyanaraman provided very good vocal support to her guru and also sang few phrases of the kAmbhOji AlApanai in the upper registers.

On the whole, it was one of those concerts that I find it difficult to express in words. I am sure I will remember it for years.