An interesting Carnatic duet concert by Aswathy Thirunal Rama Varma and Amrutha Venkatesh was held in the capital city. It was a pleasantly different aural experience for rasikas.
The concert began with ‘Daani Saamajendra’, a padavarnam composed by Swati Tirunal in Thodi. Their elaborate exercise during the intricate course of the kriti unravelled the grandeur of Thodi. The clear diction of sahitya and the flawless rendition of chittaswaras added splendour to the composition. Both the singers focussed on maintaining a traditional style while they emphasised on each and every detail that adorned the kriti.
This was followed by the Neelakantan Sivan kriti ‘Gajanana Ganeshwara’ in Panthuvarali and the Tyagaraja kriti ‘Marubalka’ in Sriranjini raga. The main raga Kalyani was sweetly explored in an essay that was a combination of phrases in bass and soprano ranges by Rama Varma and Amrutha. Their improvisations poured melodic content into the raga, which was blended together brilliantly without losing out on bhava or classicism.
Avaneeswaram S.R. Vinu on the violin embellished each node of the raga while travelling through exquisite phrases in his excellent excerpt of Kalyani.
The main kriti ‘Paripahi’, set to Mischra chapu, was also sung with great discipline. While Rama Varma experimented with swara patterns in his own mode, Amrutha adhered to a more conventional method of singing swaras in the kriti. A brief but impressive thani avarthanam by Palakkad Maheshkumar on the mridangam and Sudheer on the ghatam followed.
The Bharathiyar kriti ‘Ninnaye Rathi’ in Sindhu Bhairavi, ‘Japath Japath’ (ragamalika bhajan composed by Rama Varma) and ‘Pankajamukha’, a Dikshitar kriti with notes sung with a Western touch were also rendered.
Rama Varma and Amrutha wound up the concert with a thillana composed by Balamuralikrishna in Hindolam. The concert was organised by residents of Valiyasala agraharam in Thiruvananthapuram, as part of the ninetieth birthday (Navathi) celebrations of the veteran Carnatic musician Parassala Ponnammal.
