Bharat Sundar’s nagaswaram-inspired 13-minute Abheri alapana was the high point of his recital

The astir indispensable instrumentality indispensable for a vocalist is simply a flexible voice, crisp philharmonic caput and a diligent consciousness of proportion. Bharat Sundar’s performance for The Music Academy had each these, topped with good raga bhava.

Purvikalyani, Abheri and Kalyani were his main ragas. A brisk Thodi varnam ‘Era napai’ was followed by M. Balamuralikrishna’s ‘Ganasudha’ successful Nattai and the accompanying swaras. The Purvikalyani alapana was well- sketched staying wrong its perimeter. ‘Satru vilagidum pillai’ by Gopalakrishna Bharati successful Rupakam is an evocative Nandanar opus that Bharat and violinist M. Rajeev handled sensitively, particularly astatine the niraval astatine ‘Bhakthiyil karai kandavan’. Swaras pursuing the niraval were optimised for the clock.

‘Sri tyagaraja’ successful Sree raga (Muthuswami Dikshitar) successful vilamba kala skirted slowness and was cleverly augmented with deft taps from Patri Satish Kumar connected the mridangam. Bharat Sundar did not dainty adjacent the filler ‘Sarasa samagana’ successful Kapi Narayani lightly — the swara korvais with janta prayogas livened it up.

Abheri was a masterpiece of nagaswara chakravarthi T.N. Rajarathinam Pillai. That was Bharat’s notation usher for the alapana encapsulated successful 13 minutes — abbreviated phrases, impactful sustains and karvais successful an unhurried tempo got some the vocalist and the violinist plentifulness of appreciation.

Mysore Vasudevacharya’s epochal kriti ‘Bhajare re manasa’ demands an extended standard scope crossed the octaves and Bharat passed the test. The niraval astatine ‘Pavana japtham’ was absorbing adjacent though somewhat curtailed. Rajeev again came to the fore with brevity.

The RTP successful Kalyani was a full package, washed with ragarasa. The alapana commencement successful nishadam was not conscionable unusual, but seemed to reflector the Pallavi which besides starts with a Ni and swarakshara. ‘Nee dayai puriya thamadama saravanabhava’ acceptable to Khanda Chapu, tisra nadai. Bharat and Rajeev rendered 4 kalams wrong 1 cycle, a people of bully laya control. The petition to the assemblage to refrain from clapping was understandable.

‘Kuyilar’, the Kalki Krishnamurthy creation with charismatic lyrics acceptable successful Mandu got the serene attraction and gait the opus demanded.

Rajeev played subtly, producing intelligent sequences and landings, and his consciousness of proportionality allowed the performance to travel similar a stream. Satish Kumar calibrated his mean benignant a bit, adding further subtlety to kritis specified arsenic ‘Satru vilakidum’ and ‘Sri Thyagaraja’. Guruprasad connected the ghatam lent his value successful fast-paced swara korvais and successful the tani.

The performance was besides a bully objection of balancing time, temper and variety. However, Bharat needs to play his mediate overs cautiously to exploit his strengths fully.