Karnataka Sangeetha Sabha and Shankara Vidya Kendra, in association with a host of other organisations in the Capital, organised a grand event titled “Dilliyil Thiruvaiyara” to pay homage to the legendary saint composer Tyagaraja. K. Vageesh of New Delhi led the group singing of the Pancharatna kritis of Tyagaraja. Shanmukhapriya and Haripriya, popularly known as the Priya Sisters, who were in the Capital, also joined the group vocals along with other musicians of the city, students and music lovers. It was heartening to see Vageesh, while being honoured first for leading the group, magnanimously insisting that the organisers honour the Priya Sisters first as they were the guest artistes from Chennai.
The previous day, the Priya Sisters, in their delightful vocal recital, took up two compositions of Tyagaraja, “Bagayanayya” in raga Chandrajyoti and “Karuna judavamma” in raga Todi, for detailed presentation. M.A. Krishnaswamy on violin, Neyveli Skanda Subramanian on mridangam and B.S. Purushotam on kanjira provided excellent support.
On the second day of the three-day event titled “Sangamam 2013” organised by Sunaad, renowned mridangam vidwan Umayalapuram K. Sivaraman’s performance, “Rhythm Cascade”, was captivating. Violinist VSK Chakrapani played Tyagaraja’s “Darini telusukonti” in raga Suddha Saveri, set to Adi tala, and towards the end Sivaraman played an enthralling tani avartanam.
Chennai-based Nisha Rajagopalan’s vocal concert, featured on the same day, was delightful too. Nisha took up Papanasam Sivan’s “Maramanan” in raga Hindolam and Tyagaraja’s “Ma Janaki” in raga Kamboji for detailed rendition. While in the former, the emotive contents of the lyrics came to the fore, in the latter Nisha took utmost care of the sangatis of the composition and presented it artistically. B.V. Raghavendra Rao on violin and K.N. Padmanabhan on mridangam provided good support.
Earlier, on the first day of the event, Delhi-based Saraswati Rajagopalan in her veena recital started off with Tyagaraja’s compositon “Teliyaleru” in raga Dhenuka, took up Shyama Sastri’s “Mayamma” in raga Nattakurunji as her central item, and finished off with Tanjore Sankara Iyer’s “Mahadeva Shivashambho” in raga Revati. J. Vaidyanathan on mridangam and S. Karthic on ghatam provided understanding support, and their brief tani avartanam in Adi tala was enthralling.
