Vocalist Dr Subashini Parthasarathy makes her music attractive through polished, expressional maturity, striving to communicate her package with convincing classical force. She is endowed with tonal felicity and training that percolates through raga sancharas.
In her recent concert for Kartik Fine Arts at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, she opened with a Kambhoji varnam (Taruni), that culminated in swaras at the end and traversed through Sivaloka of Gopalakrishna Bharathi in Raga Mayamalavagowla, with abundant Kalpana Swaras for Pallavi. We knew then, that the concert would be brimming and would neither be pedantic nor anaemic. The fact that her manodharma was getting tampered with the quality of music was certainly evident, when Thyagaraja Kritis (Thulasamma) in Raga Devaganthari and Raju Vedala in Thodi was presented with an extensive ragam, neraval and swaras.
Ragam-Talam-Pallavi in Raga Dharmavathi (Kandajati – Tripuda Thalam) with elaboration of ragas ‘Dharmavathi’ and Bhairavi sung for neraval and ‘Sahana’ taken up after Trikalam, when shifted to one Kalai and Swaram in Ragas Dharmavathi, Malayamarutham, Natai Kurinji, Behag and Madyamavathi, she exhibited her taste for shapeliness in a form aligned scrupulously on the sruti.
Her dedicated rendition earlier in the Raga Natakapriya (Bhoga Chayae) of Dikshitar and Arunachala Kavi’s composition (Ramanukku Mannan Mudi) in Raga Hindolam, revealed the evocative factor of Carnatic music of the singer.
Violinist Gnanaskandan lent sweetness to the concert, while the rhythmic accompanist Ganapathy Raman (mridangam) and Nanganallur Swaminathan (ghatam) were equipoised in their syllables and offered affable percussion support.