An out-of-the-world performance by a legend!

Vocalist Bombay Jayashree’s music certainly belongs to to the genre of classical music of a very appreciable quality, thanks to her keenness to maintain the clarity of Sahitya and Bhava always.In the packed auditorium of the Krishna Gana Sabha, she deployed her tonal modulation, to bring out the ‘Bhava’ of the Darbar Raga kriti of Thyagaraja (Mundu Venuka) in a style, stimulating to the audience, revealing the inviolability of Carnatic music.With her voice quite in harmony, she presented well, a palatable diction of Begada Raga Keerthana of Thyagaraja (Neevaera kula) and completed with a satisfying set of nuanced swara texts. When she followed it with her rendition (Ananda Amrithakarshini) of Dikshitar in the Raga Amrithavarshini, earnestness was reflected in the entrancing lyrical showers. But I felt with her tonal control, she could have portrayed the glimpses of the nuances of the Raga and Keerthanai, eloquently, in terms of impressive ‘akara’ exercises.She hopped on to develop a rigorous profile of the Thodi Raga and chose (Dhayarasu Kovalana) to concentrate on the portrayal of the Raga’s essential features, which made for enthusiastic listening. Certainly, her extensive Thodi Raga alapana and exploration of the same with the interpretation of the Kriti showed her musical depth. The beautiful korvai replete with permutation at ‘Sowmithri’ gave a crowning glory to the rendition.Following a dainty description of Raga Desh, the presentation of Ragam – Thanam and (Varade – Sarade) Pallavi conveyed a fairly full profile of Raga’s contours. When she converted into Ragamalika diction, the audience’s appreciation was evident. Towards the end, she presented Narayana Theethar’s Tharangam (Venu Gana Vinodha Krishna) which had a devotional effect. On the whole, the concert revealed her technical virtuosity and the capability of enriching the music with Bhava laden swara prastharas.HN Baskar, on the violin, provided comfortable support, while Manoj Siva on the Mridangam pleased us with sruti aligned Tekas in the company of Anirudh Athreya on Kanjira, whomade the recitals remarkably soft and rhythmic.