Chennai-based Carnatic vocalist S. Sowmya enchanted rasikas for over two-and-a-half hours at Sri Chembai Memorial Hall, Thiruvananthapuram, with her cultured voice. True to the spirit of her gurus, S. Ramanathan and T. Muktha, Sowmya began her concert with an Ada tala varnam in Kanada. She followed it with the evergreen Tyagaraja kriti ‘Seethamma’ in Vasanta, set to Rupaka tala. While Dikshitar’s ‘Sri Balasubramanya’ in Bilahari was set to misra chappu, ‘Ella Kalathilum’ in Poorvikalyani was set to Adi tala.
Swati Tirunal’s ‘Vande Sadha Padmanabham’ in Navarasakanada was preceded by a neat delineation of the raga. The kriti was set to Adi.
Concert’s highlight
The highlight of the evening was ‘Kaddanuvariki’ in Todi, composed by Tyagaraja in Adi tala. The rendering stood out for the sangatis in the pallavi and the niraval. The raga vistaram was ably picked up by Avaneeswaram S.R. Vinu on the violin who played it with finesse. Palakkad Maheshkumar on the mridangam and Perukavu P.L. Sudheer came good in the taniavartanam, which lasted for about 15 minutes. The audience received it with a round of generous applause.
The concluding part of Sowmya’s concert was rich with a repertoire of bhakti-laden and melodious compositions of great masters.
The tukkadas included Swati’s ‘Chaliye kunchana’ (Brindavansaranga), a fast paced kriti ‘Narimani’ (Khamaj), Bharathiar’s ‘Thiruvaippanithu’ (Mand) had a soothing violin bit, ‘Chennikkulla,’ a kavadichinth with a folk touch in Chenchurutti, a virutham – ‘Ithu Thano Thillai Sthalam’ with a ragamalika comprising shades of Hamsanandi, Shanmugapriya, Kedaragoula and Behag, followed by a tillana in Mandari.
Sowmya ended her concert with Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar’s oft-repeated mangalam, ‘Pavamanasa.’
Sowmya’s was the opening concert of a 10-day music festival organised by Sri Chembai Memorial Trust to mark the 113th birthday celebration of the late Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar. The opening concert was sponsored by The Hindu .
