Spoorthy Rao impresses with her voice, but should adopt a restraint approach in her performances

Spoorthi Rao, Vocal at Parthasarathy Swamy Sabha, Vidya Bharathi, in Mylapore on Tuesday…. Photo: SRINATH M/ THE HINDU
| Photo Credit: SRINATH M

Spoorthy Rao easily won the hearts of the audience with her rich and melodious voice that covered all the octaves up to the tara panchmam. Spoorthy commenced her concert with a varnam composed by T.R. Subramanian in Hamir Kalyani set to Adi tala. , a composition of T.R. Subramanian that was well rendered. This was followed by a brief electrifying alapana of Nattai and Dikshitar composition ‘Pavanatmagaccha’. The swaras were a bit too fast, leading to an occasional lapse in the swarasthanam.

Ranjani, a raga that can melt a stone with its emotional touch if rendered with a balance of sancharas, had a similar issue. The lower Madhya sthayi sancharas, which form the core heart of a raga alapana for Ranjani, were wound up within a couple of minutes and the foray to the Tara Shadjam made way for briga sangatis and sancharas. These were dealt with in so much breathtaking detail it stole the essence of the raga in alapana. The composition chosen was ‘Durmargachara’ by Tyagaraja. The artiste chose to take up the line in the anupallavi ‘Dharmatmaka dhana dhanyamu’ for niraval after completing the composition. The composition, being set in Rupaka Talam, one did expect some speed in the niraval. However, the speed , particularly when she chose to build a raga edifice in the niraval with briga sancharas during the niraval was unwarranted. This was not the intended effect of Ranjani as a raga.

The artiste chose not to sing swaras for this composition after a niraval of 15 minutes, another surprise — or, perhaps, there was nothing left for her to present after the exposition. Ranjani was followed by a brisk Tyagaraja composition ‘Vararagalaya’ in Chenchukamboji in Adi tala. It would have been better to insert a vilamba composition in between these two ragas, which would have made the latter composition more meaningful before one came to the main item.

Karaharapriya was the main piece of the concert. The raga alapana, which began with some shades of Kurinji, was dealt with in detail in all the three sthayis, with an unusual sangati sancharas in the Tara sthayi. The artiste did show her mettle, going to the Tara panchamam and touching the dhaivatam before coming back to the shadjam. The artiste took up ‘Pakala nilabadi’ in Misra Chapu, and rendered it in an effective manner. She chose the charanam line ‘Manasuna’ for a detailed niraval. There was another foray into the briga sancharas which got her a huge round of applause from the audience.

Spoorthi Rao with V. Deepika on the violin, Hariharan on the mridangam, and Ram Siva on the kanjira.
| Photo Credit:
SRINATH M

The swaras were rendered in the second speed with a well-designed kuraippu, followed by another cascade of swaras, particularly in the Tara sthayi touching the panchamam, before an intricate muthaippu at the end. This was well-handled. However, the proportion between a niraval and the kalpanaswaras in any composition needs to be maintained to give balance to a concert.

The support from violinist V. Deepika was good through out the concert. Mridangam by Hariharan, though a bit loud at times, gave an excellent tani along with Ram Siva on the kanjira for the Misra Chapu tala in Karaharapriya. The concert came to an abrupt end with no time for a small devotional piece.

Spoorthy rendered a well-rehearsed concert, with brilliant shades of Karaharapriya. However, attention to achieving a moment of peace between phrases in a busy raga alapana, a clear understanding of how much in volume is good for a niraval and the sense of proportion of the niraval to kalpanaswara ratio would add more value to her concert.