Review by Ram Ganesan
Nisha is not new to Houston. A few years ago she gave a full concert in the Ramar Sannidhi of MTS.
The passage of a few years has made a great impact on her performance. On Friday, the 24th April, we heard a well rounded concert.
After the Eranapai varnam, Ninnada in Kannada was sweet and brisk. It was a very traditional rendering.
Syama Sastri’s Biranavara in Kalyani with elaborate niraval at Syama Krishna Sodari was very good. I was expecting kalpana swarams to follow. We missed it. May be she remembered that she did elaborate kalpanaswarams during her last concert here; that time the song was Etavunnara.
What I took home with me was her fantastic rendering of the Surati ragam for over 10 minutes. I am glad the younger generation ventures into breaking the mould; surati is thought of as an end game light raga.
The violinist Mysore Srikanth also played this ragam well for about 5 minutes. The song was Sri Venkata Girisham. No Kalpana swarams here either.
Azhaga azhaga in Tamil in Suddha Dhanyasi was crisp in Kanta chapu followed by a few strings of kalpana swarams.
Kiravani was her other major piece; raga alapana was very creative and her voice exhibited the full 2 octave range, remaining sweet all through the range.
Trivandrum Balaji on mrudangam gave excellent support through out and his thani was much appreciated.
We had torrential rains outside with thunder and lightning. We even lost power for a few minutes.
Someone aptly commented “Velila gana mazhai; ulla gaana mazhai”
Tukkadas were Nan oru vilaiyattu bommaiya, kandena Givindana. I expected more emotion from Nan oru vilaiyattu bommaya. Being a tamil song one understands the meaning of the lyrics which let you sing it with greater emotion.
She ended the concert with the crisp thillana in Purnachandrika.
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