S. Kedarnath had a promising start at his Chennai concert

Chennai-based Kedaram Trust introduced the 13-year-old S. Kedarnath, disciple of senior vocalist A.S. Murali, to the Chennai audience during its annual music festival. Though Kedarnath effortlessly navigated the three octaves and sang with sruti alignment, his voice needs to mature.

Among the kritis rendered, mention must be made of his Kalyani raga alapana and swaraprastaras for Subbaraya Sastri’s ‘Ninnuvina gati gana’ and his Asaveri swaraprastara in the Tyagaraja kriti ‘Janakajaa sametha’. His Anandabhairavi alapana for ‘Marivere gati evaramma’ (Misra Chapu) and the swara phrases rendered at the pallavi showed promise.

Kedarnath began his concert on a brisk note with the Surutti varnam ‘Ento prema tone’ by Pallavi Gopala Iyer. The swaraprastaras were at the charanam line ‘pantamela jesevu’. So was Swati Tirunal’s ‘Deva deva kalayamithe’ (Mayamalavagowla, Rupakam). Kedarnath captured well the essence of the raga in his niraval and swaraprastara at the charnam line ‘Jatarupa nibha chela’.

The highlight of the concert was Muthuswami Dikshitar’s ‘Amba neelayadakshi’ in Nilambari. Kedarnath wound up his concert with M.A. Chidambaranathan’s ‘Namam nalla namam’ (Valaji).

M. Vijay, on the violin, presented well-etched Kalyani and Anandabhairavi raga essays. Aduthurai Guruprasad on the mridangam and H. Sivaramakrishnan on the ghatam showcased their rhythmic prowess during the tani avartanam.