Three women artistes in the field of Carnatic music recently performed in the Capital for three different organisations and delighted music lovers with their musical talents. On the last day of Sunaad’s three-day festival, “Sangamam 2014”, senior vidwan A. Kanyakumari enthralled music lovers in her violin recital of about two hours. She opened her concert quite briskly with Papanasam Sivan’s “Muladhara moorte” in raga Hamsadhwani with crisp and delightful swara formats towards the end.
Tyagaraja’s “Nadatanumanisam” in raga Chittaranjani was her next item, which she presented in a lively manner. In Carnatic music concerts, one rarely gets to hear alapanas in ragas like Sooryakantam (17th mela). Kanyakumari, before presenting Tyagaraja’s “Muddumomu”, played a scintillating alapana of this raga. Kanyakumari’s central item was again a composition of Tyagaraja — “Swararagasudha” in raga Shankarabharanam. The detailed raga alapana, the way the song and the creative aspects were handled by her with remarkable clarity even in the fast passages, spoke highly of her calibre in this field of Carnatic music.
Another highlight of this recital was Kanyakumari’s composing skill that came to the fore. She presented a composition of Annamacharya tuned by her in a raga invented by her and named “Seshachalam” after one of the seven hills at Tirupathi. Kanyakumari was ably assisted by the seasoned K.V. Prasad on the mridangam and youngster Anirudh Athreya on the khanjira, who rose to the occasion. Apart from providing understanding support, the percussion duo played a brilliant taniavartanam in Adi tala. V. Sanjeev, disciple of Kanyakumari, provided good violin support in this concert. He was good both while playing the compositions along with his guru and the swaraprastaras individually.
Elsewhere, the only woman participant in the entire Tyagaraja festival organised by Shanmukhananda Sangeetha Sabha, Subhashini Parthasarathy, presented a delightful vocal recital. Subhashini was featured on the second day of the festival. Her central item was Tyagaraja’s “Evarimata” in raga Kamboji which was very impressive. Apart from a fine presentation of the composition, she brought out the features of this raga in an unhurried and neat delineation of the raga. Neraval and the subsequent swaraprastaras during this central piece were reflective of her creative talents.
Earlier, Subhashini started her concert with the Todi raga Adi tala varnam. Tyagaraja’s “Bhuvinidasudane” in raga Sriranjani, Dikshitar’s “Tyagaraja yoga” in Anandabhairavi and Papanasam Sivan’s “Venkataramana” in raga Latangi were other songs she sang very well. Another noteworthy feature of Subhashini’s recital were the scintillating ragamalika viruthams in Mohanam, Dhanyasi, Sahana and Kapi before singing “Enna tavam seidane”. A.G. Venkatasubramanian on the violin, and K. Arun Prakash on the mridangam provided appropriate support.
Delhi-based Sudha Raghuraman too presented an enjoyable recital on the occasion of the golden jubilee celebrations of Ramana Kendra, Delhi. Apart from singing scintillating bhajans to suit the occasion, Sudha’s central item was Papanasam Sivan’s “Kapali” in raga Mohanam, which she handled very well with utmost care for various sangatis. In the raga alapana, she brought the features of the raga to the fore. Instead of the usual violin accompaniment, Sudha’s husband Raghuraman accompanied her on the flute. K.N. Padmanabhan on the mridangam and Shambunath Bhattacharyaji on the tabla provided able percussion support.
