Delhi's Karnataka Sangeetha Sabha recently celebrated its platinum jubilee year as also the bhoomi poojan (foundation laying ceremony) of its auditorium-cum-music school by organising a two-day music festival. Two delightful concerts took place at the Delhi Tamil Sangam. However, the delayed start of the concerts, coupled with lengthy functions turned out to be spoilsports in an otherwise glorious event. Delhi being a city of considerable distances, music lovers were seen leaving unwillingly before the end of the concerts. The artistes also had to wind up hurriedly.
Shanmugapriya and Haripriya, popularly known as the Priya Sisters, performed on the second day of the festival. The way they structured their concert and presented both characteristics of their music — the learnt and the creative aspects — ensured a delightful result. After presenting the start-up varnam and the invocation song to Lord Ganesh, the sisters did adequate justice to each of the musical trinity, namely Muttuswami Dikshitar, Tyagaraja and Shyama Sastri by singing their compositions with detailed attention.
Shyama Sastri's “Kamakshi” in raga Begada was handled well and preceded by a detailed raga alapana by Haripriya. In the process, she brought the features of this raga to the fore. The swaraprastaras spoke highly of their creative talents. While presenting Tyagaraja's “Entamuddo entasogaso” in raga Bindumalini the sisters brought out the emotive aspects of the raga as well as the lyrics. This raga is rarely taken up for detailed delineation in concerts. The sisters sprang a surprise. They presented a fine alapana of this raga in turns and scintillating swara formats too.
The central piece was Dikshitar's “Kamalambam bhajare” in raga Kalyani. The sisters handled this composition very well. This is one of the nine Navavarna Kirtanas composed by Dikshitar. Earlier, Haripriya presented an excellent alapana of Kalyani. Neraval of the phrase “Kamalapura sadanam mrudu khadanam gamaniya radanam kamalavadanam” (the only neraval in the entire concert) was quite elaborate. Creativity flowed, here as well as during the subsequent swaraprastaras.
The concert was enhanced by the able and understanding support of M.A. Krishnaswamy on the violin, P.S. Palghun on the mridangam and Madipakkam Murali on the ghatam. While Krishnaswamy's alapanas of Bindhumalini and Kalyani were delightful, the percussionists' tani avartanam in Adi tala was captivating.
On the first day of the festival, Sreeram Prasad and Sree Ravikumar, popularly known as the Malladi Brothers, too presented an enthralling concert. The items they presented, starting from the Ata tala varnam in raga Kamboji till the end were enthralling. Dikshitar's “Mathangi Sree Rajarajeswari” in raga Ramapriya as well as “Akshayalinga vibho” in Shankarabharanam were taken up for detailed presentation, interweaving the creative talents of the duo.
M.A. Krishnaswamy on the violin and Yella Venkateswara Rao on the mridangam provided excellent support. While Krishnaswamy played a scintillating alapana of Ramapriya, Rao's thunderous tani-avartanam in Mishra Chapu tala fetched thunderous applause from the audience. On the whole, a concert driven by a combination of enterprising youth and seasoned senior artist that paid rich dividends.
