Swarajhari Sabha of Vijayawada celebrated its 26th Annivarsary for two days at Sri Sivaramakrishna Kshetram.
A pleasing vocal concert by Nagarajan Ramamurthy of Hyderabad gave a good start to the festival. Ramamurthy stuck to pure traditional format with a good voice and sound manodharmam. He began with Hamsadhvani varnam and followed with Meru Samana in Mayamalava gowla and the Thyagaraja composition in Darbar Mundu Venuka and then Korina varamulu in Ramapriya emerged as the sub main item. After rendering Evarikai in Devamritavarshini and Dikshitar’s ragamalika Sri Viswanadham the vocalist took up Thyagaraja’s masterpiece in Mohana Nannu palimpa with a superb raga delineation and finishing with fine kalpana swaras. This item stood as the highlight of Ramamurthy’s concert. Palaparthi Nageswara Rao the seasoned violinist followed well.
The second day was devoted to light music. Madabhushi Chittaranjan of Hyderabad, a disciple of Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna and a composer-conductor of light and devotional songs was conferred the title ‘Lalita Sangeeta Sarvagna’ by the Sabha. Chittaranjan gave an enlightening lec-dem on light and devotional music of different regions.
Chittaranjan and his daughters Vijayalakshmi Desikan, Vandana Devi rendered some light and devotional songs . Guruprasad (keyboard) and B.V.Ramana Murthy (tabla) gave instrumental support.
