The morning concert of Manimaran began with the varnam in Saveri and moved on to a brief essay of Shanmukhapriya. The effort by Bangalore Balu Raghuraman on the violin was a little better. The kriti that followed was ‘Siddhi Vinayakam.' The appended swara segment was quite long. ‘Enneramum' in Devagandhari with two charanams was sung with bhava. The Mayamalavagowla alapana by Manimaran was quite impressive, but again the violinist proved better and in mantra sthayi it was rather pleasant. The niraval and swaras for ‘Jatharoopanibachela' was quite run-of-the-mill. A reasonably good rendering of ‘Marivere' in Anandabhairavi was followed by ‘Sivachidambarame' in Suddha Saveri of which the vocalist seemed to have forgotten the charanam. The main raga was Kiravani. It was good particularly when he dealt with it in the lower and middle registers. His voice played truant and as such he could have avoided singing much in the tara sthayi. The chosen kriti was Muthaiah Bhagavatar's ‘Ambavani Ninnu.' The niraval and swaras were taken for ‘Varaveena Vani.' Very understanding support was provided by Srimushnam Raja Rao on the mridangam and Kovai Mohanram on the ghatam, and they also played a good thani.
The amplification for Sowmya's concert was very comfortable on the ears. She began with the Kedaragowla varnam and went on to deliver a few rare songs. ‘Rara Ma Inti' in Asaveri was the first one and a little later she rendered Kalgada raga kriti ‘Parvati Ninnu,' which was very soothing. In between her alapana of Mohanam was expansive. She had to battle with a cold and cough, but she managed well without going too often to the top octave. The niraval and swaras for ‘Bhavanutha' were very lively. A relaxed exposition of Ranjani preceded ‘Ranjani Niranjani' with exhaustive niraval. The clever combination of swaras was very interesting. In fact every time the kalpanaswaras were cleverly arranged without following the regular sequence, which often elicited a smile from all the artists on the stage. After ‘Annapoorne' in Sama Sowmya came with a quick ‘Brovabarama' in Bahudhari with racy swaras for the pallavi. Vittal Ramamurthy accompanying on the violin was quite a good match for Sowmya and he pitched in whenever she was troubled by her voice. The main item was RTP in Kharaharapriya. The raga was explored with depth bringing out all its characteristic aspects. The tanam along with mridangam was indeed very appealing. The pallavi ‘Kharaharapriye Lalithe Maampahi Tharunendu' was set to Kanda jathi Jampa Tala and was dealt with anulomam and prathilomam and was followed by swaras. Neyveli Narayanan and Sowmya had perfect understanding which was an asset to the concert. He provided a lively thani. ‘Thiruvai Panindu Nittham' in Maund was the concluding item.
