The word passion doesn’t seem enough to describe Abhishek Raghuram’s relentless pursuit of musical excellence. Abhishek began with a virutham ‘Naanadhedhu neeyadhedhu’ extolling Rama nama in Sahana as a prelude to the varnam ‘Karunimpa’ by Tiruvotriyur Tyagayyar. Tyagaraja’s ‘Endundi vedalithivo’ in Misra Chapu and the swara passages at the pallavi opening provided the full spectrum of the raga. Abhishek’s Varali …
Sriranjani Santhanagopalan’s vocal concert, as part of Hamsadhwani founder R. Ramachandran’s birth centenary celebrations, brimmed with energy. Held on Tamil New Year’s day, the performance included a variety of Tamil works — from Avvaiyar’s ‘Vakkundam’ in Ritigowla as a prelude to ‘Tatvamariaya tarama’ by Papanasam Sivan to the concluding Thiruppugazh. Sriranjani took up the rare raga Jyothiswaroopini for detailing and …
A stimulating ‘Undedi ramudu’ was Aishwarya Shankar’s opening kriti in Harikamboji, a sampoorna raga, which J.B. Keerthana took up as the centrepiece for her concert at the same venue six days later. As her main piece, Keerthana took up ‘Muruga thirumal’, penned by Thanjavur Shankara Iyer, another of Sunder’s gurus. The Harikamboji alapana made clear Keerthana’s penchant for unfurling the …
Listening to Vishnudev K.S. In his concert at Bhavan, he began with a refreshing ‘Saketha nikethana’ by Tyagaraja in Kannada with madhyamakala swaras at the pallavi lines set to Rupaka tala. Tyagaraja's ‘Makelara vicharamu’ in Ravichandrika was quick and precise, and an expansive Saveri kriti ‘Devi pavane’, one of Swati Tirunal’s Navaratri compositions, followed. Vishnudev did not disappoint with his …
Shertalai Ranganatha Sharma’s concert was pleasing not just for his selection of ragas and compositions but also in how he balanced the concert between the various songs. Ranganatha Sharma provided a poignant niraval at ‘Samayamu juchi delpu vaarevaro’, embellishing it with a few rounds of kalpanaswaras. Ranganatha Sharma offered a powerful alapana of Kalyani, with Tyagaraja’s ‘Endugo nee manasu’ as …
