Young Sowmya Sridhar is blessed with a melodious voice of considerable range. Her concert in Sangeetha Ksheerasagaram’s tenth annual festival put to view her dedication to the art, total conformity to Shruti and constant focus on literary content. She was accompanied by Radhika Srinivasan on violin, P.Vidyasagar on mridangam and Rahul Sundar on ghatam.
Technical finesse
Sowmya opened with ‘Ninne Bhajana Seyuvada’ in Nata of Thyagaraja preceded by brief raga alapana and interesting swarakalpana revealing good command of technical aspects including neraval presentation. Most of the numbers she presented were of Thyagaraja. ‘Makelara Vicharamu’ in Ravichandrika stood out for its presentation of literary content. ‘Narada Guruswamy’ in Durbar was opened with a brief raga essay and ended with swarakalpana, mirroring her sense for rhythm.
Mohana came for a detailed delineation for ‘Evarura Ninuvina’ of Thyagaraja in Misrachapu talam. She presented this popular raga with all its beauties, structuring it step by step. The kirtana rendition was with neraval at ‘Savana Rakshaka Nityotsava Sitapati’ anupallavi of the kriti. The swarakalpana that followed was extensive maintaining raga bhava, projecting well the melodic line and finally designing a beautiful picture of the whole number.
‘Bhuvini Dasudani’ in Sriranjani was a simple kirtana treating it as curtain raiser to the main concert ‘Padmavati Ramanam’ in Poorvikalyani of Oothukadu, a rare one. In dealing with the raga she dug out beautiful phrases, displaying her commendable vocal span.
The kriti rendition style was like paying tribute to Lord Venkateswara. It was also marked by a neraval she presented at ‘Indu Bilva Sadanam Ati Divya Mangalavadanam’ adding melodic strength to the kirtana part.The swarakalpana that followed too was a display of her creative skills, building tempo for a fine climax.
The Tani avartanam at this stage was a pleasing exercise by the pair . Violinist Radhika kept constant watch on vocal nuances and synergizing every move of the main artiste with her own contribution and adding some complementary touches too.
‘Malmuruga Shanmuga’ in Vasantha of Papanasam Sivan, Annamacharya kirtana ‘Anni Vibhavamula Asalithadu’ in Valaji and Lalgudi Tillana in Desh were the end numbers – all of which retained the classical fervour of the concert. She proved a fine artiste in the making, holding a bright future.
