Swarajhari's three-day anniversary music festival presented a superb violin solo concert by Devarakonda Suryaprabha, a senior disciple of legendary violinist Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu. Taking place on the last day, the concert was sponsored by Dr. Jandhyala Shanker, former mayor of the city, on behalf of the Jandhyala Dakshinamurthy Memorial Trust.
Suryaprabha served as a staff artiste in Bangalore for more than 30 years. In her long career as a reputed soloist and accompanist, she lent her violin support to many veteran vidwans like M.L. Vasanta Kumari, R.K. Srikanthan, and T.R. Subramanyam. Even at the age of 75-plus, Suryaprabha's playing has not lost vigour and melody, and her concert for Swarajhari came as a model for the rich Dwaram tradition.
The concert began with a crisp varnam in Surati followed by Sri Ganapathini in Sourashtra which carried fine kalpana swaras at the charanam. Next came Orajoopu in Kannada Gowla. Simhendra Madhyamam was beautifully delineated before Suryaprabha played Kamakshi Kamakoti Peetha Vasini with excellent niraval and swaras.
Srirama Padama in Amritavahini and Ananda Natana Prakasam of Muthuswamy Deekshitar in Kedaram was pleasingly played before she took up a fine ragam-tanam-pallavi in Sankarabharanam as the main item and played it with great efficiency. The kalpana swaras were played as an exquisite ragamalika. The pallavi was embellished with melodious and exhaustive ragam and bhava-laden niraval. Suryaprabha received support on the mridangam from B.V.S. Prasad, a staff artist of Vijayawada Akashvani.
