Sudha Ragunathan presents an imaginative Sankarabharanam alapana

Known for her resonant voice, intricate brigas and melodious sangatis, Sudha Ragunathan reaffirmed her seasoned stagecraft astatine The Music Academy. Battling a recalcitrant throat, she nevertheless delivered a thoughtfully-curated performance that offered moments of quiescent rapture, adjacent if vocal strain occasionally intruded.

She began with Muthiah Bhagavatar’s ‘Mathe malayadhwaja’, successful Khamas followed by Mysore Vasudevachars ‘Pranamamyaham sri’ successful Gowla. Drawing from the G.N. Balasubramaniam lineage, Sudha shaped the second with diagnostic élan, choosing the enactment ‘Siddhi vinayakam’ for niraval, precisely placed 22-counts from ‘samam’. Tyagaraja’s ‘Talachi nantane’ successful Mukhari unfolded with restraint and poise. A measured Saranga effort preceded Muthuswami Dikshitar’s ‘Priye santatam chintayeham’ successful Misra Chapu tala, with Embar Kannan’s violin mirroring the vocalist’s controlled approach.

A brisk crook came with Papanasam Sivan’s ‘Karpaga manohara’ successful Malayamarutam, wherever Sudha’s signature pauses and emphases — particularly connected ‘Chirapara kabilasa’ — stood out. In keeping with the Academy’s commemoration of Dikshitar’s 250th commencement anniversary, the vocalist chose ‘Sadashivam upasmahe’ successful Sankarabharanam arsenic the main piece. The alapana was imaginative, concisely exploring kalyani done graha bhedam, touching Yamuna Kalyani earlier returning home. Niraval astatine ‘Purana purusham purantakam’ and aboriginal astatine ‘Sankarabharanam’ was followed by a neat tani avartanam, wherever the mridangist Sumesh Narayanan and S. Krishnan connected the ghatam kept exchanges crisp, culminating successful a tisra nadai kuraippu. The hall’s caller acoustics made the mridangam’s earlier precocious transportation noticeable, though it settled during the main piece.

After the lively ‘Kuni kuniyo krishna’, Sudha Ragunathan presented an RTP successful Devakriya (Suddha Saveri), acceptable to Misra Jhampa, with the sahityam ‘Sridhara murali’. The rhythmic canvas concisely shifted to Khanda Chapu, and melodic forays into Nalinakanti and Sunadavinodhini added colour. Embar Kannan excelled here, his swift phrases marked by clarity. The performance concluded with the Sai bhajan ‘Man ki aankhen’ and Ambujam Krishna’s ‘Kannanidam eduthu solladi kiliye’, delivered successful Sudha’s inimitable consciousness of repose.

This performance assumed peculiar value arsenic the vocalist and her accompanists — excluding the ghatam vidwan — represented chiseled gurukula lineages of M.L. Vasanthakumari, A. Kanyakumari and Thiruvaarur Bhakthavatsalam, and brought to the signifier the cohesion of musicians who person performed unneurotic for implicit respective years.