A serene mood marked Ananth Mysore’s vocal recital, held recently as part of the HCL Concerts by The Music Academy at Kasturi Srinivasan Hall.

The U.S.-based vocalist’s training under eminent vidwans came through in his well-nuanced essays and deft handling of the kritis. Adding the requisite creative suites without excesses during the raga essays struck a chord with the listeners.

The highlight of his performance was Bhairavi raga, the main piece of the evening. Equally commendable were his accompanists — Sreeranjani Muthu Subramanian on the violin and Srihari S. Raman on the mridangam. The young team regaled with their dynamism.

The concert started with Tyagaraja’s Harikamboji raga kriti ‘Rama nannu brova ra’. The composer questions Rama: “Won’t you come to protect me? All that I have done is worship you, Sri Rama.” Ananth conveyed well the essence of this kriti. This was followed by a brief raga sketch, setting the tone for a poignant rendering of ‘Kamakshi bangaru Kamakshi nannu brovave’ (Varali raga, Syama Sastri). Sreeranjani’s responses on the violin enriched this melodious raga outline. 

Niraval by the artistes added colour to the line ‘Shukha shyamale shivashankarI’. Ananth chose to render Muthu Thandavar’s Tamil song ‘Kanaamal vinnile,’ in Nilambari raga. The composition is rendered in other ragas too.

Anant brought out the myriad facets of Bhairavi in his elaborate alapana. The violinist did justice to her version of the raga. The kriti was ‘Bala gopala palaya shumam’ (Muthuswami Dikshitar). The niraval-swara suite at ‘vainika gayaka guru guha nuta pura vairi vihita gopika manohara’ was well-crafted. While Ananth is honing his presentation skills, he would do well to work more on impact. 

The mridangist’s rhythmic excellence came to the fore in the slow-paced Adi tala performed during the tani avartanam.

The concert concluded with ‘Sreenivasa thiruvenkata, (Hamsanandi raga, Papanasam Sivan) and a Kanada raga thillana.