Spoorthi Rao impresses with her voice, but needs to adopt a balanced approach

Spoorthi Rao impresses with her voice, but needs to adopt a balanced approach

Spoorthi Rao.
Spoorthi Rao.
| Photo Credit: SRINATH M
Spoorthi Rao easily won the hearts of the audience with her rich and melodious voice that covered all the octaves up to the tara panchmam. Spoorthi commenced her concert for Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha with a varnam composed by T.R. Subramanian in Hamir Kalyani set to Adi tala. This was followed by a brief 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 evokes an emotional appeal if rendered with a balance of sancharas, had a similar issue. The lower Madhya sthayi sancharas, which form the core 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 detail that it stole the essence of the raga in alapana. The composition chosen was ‘Durmargachara’ by Tyagaraja. Spoorthi chose to take up the line in the anupallavi ‘Dharmatmaka dhana dhanyamu’ for niraval. The composition, being set in Rupaka tala, one did expect some speed in the niraval. However, the speed one heard, particularly when she chose to build a raga edifice, in 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. Ranjani was followed by a brisk Tyagaraja composition ‘Vararagalaya’ in raga Chenchukamboji set to Adi tala. It would have been better to include 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.

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 in 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, played an excellent tani along with Ram Siva on the kanjira, especially for the Misra Chapu tala in Karaharapriya. The concert came to an abrupt end with no time for a small devotional piece.Spoorthi rendered a well-rehearsed concert, with brilliant shades of Karaharapriya. However, attention to achieving a moment of peace between phrases in a 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.Spoorthy would do well if she avoids unnecessary use of speed and brigas particularly in ragas where this has a negative effect and the notion that diving beyond the Tara Shadjam in all ragas is the gateway to success. Published – January 04, 2025 01:33 pm IST

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