Popular singer and State Rajyotsava awardee Vidu. Sangeeta Katti Kulkarni gave a Hindustani vocal recital under the aegis of SPVGMC Trust, 8th Cross, VV Mohalla, Mysuru, on last Saturday, accompanied by Vid. Satish Kolli on harmonium and Vid. Keshav Joshi on tabla.

This lady born on the Saraswati Puja Day in Dasara, is undoubtedly blessed by Goddess Saraswati generously, considering her voice, her knowledge and her singing. Sangeeta is one of the leading Hindustani vocalists of Karnataka.

She began the recital with Kedar which is Hameer Kalyani in our Karnatak style. Furnishing a rich tonal space for elaboration, Rag Kedar unfurled through highly nuanced alap improvisations, producing a pleasing evocation of the ragabhava. Sangeeta explained that Rag Kedar is a beautiful raga with two madhyams and two nishadas, blending beautifully. The bandish ‘pAyo dan’ in vilambit followed by Dhrut ‘kAnhAre nandan dhan parama niranjan’ was a creation of her Guru Kishori Amonkar in Teen Taal.

Sangeeta was conversational with the audience throughout the concert. After singing the first raga, she left the next choice to the audience and happy at their request to present another raga before moving onto the lighter side, she presented ‘SAhe lAre aa mil gae’ in detail in Bhoop, which was richly imaginative. This was followed by ‘Sara sajjanara sangava mADo durjanara sanga bEDavayya,’ a vachana by Basavanna.

While one wondered how a vocalist with an infected throat could produce such lovely music, which never showed in her music, Sangeeta continued to shower her melody with her sweet voice which never gave her away. Her shruti was perfect and steadfast as is with most of the Hindustani vocalists and traversed easily in all the three octaves, reaching the highest and the lowest notes with perfect melody.

 Heeding to another request by the audience, Sangeeta next presented the popular abhang ‘Bolava Vitthala pahAva Vitthala’ by Sant Tukaram in Kalavati. ‘Ayodhya cha RAjA,’ a bhajan on  Ayodhya BAlarAma, brimmed with emotional poignancy. Starting the next composition with ‘Gejje kalgaLa daniya mADuta’, she next sang Purandaradasaru’s very popular ‘BhAgyada Lakshmi bAramma,’ the lyrical allure creating a hypnotic effect.

Though disturbed by the strong masala smell from the nearby restaurant causing throat irritation, Sangeeta continued to sing another Basavanna Vachana ‘Innu mEle shabdavilla SwAmi neenu shAshwata neenu,’ which was sung with clear diction. The concert concluded with Mahipati Dasaru’s Dasara Pada ‘kAyo karuNA nidhe’ in Sindhu Bhairavi.

The music was so sweet that the gratified audience left the venue only reluctantly though it was past 10 pm.

—Dr. Padmavathi Narasimhan