Kanaga Durga’s voice has a sweet timbre and she could reach high notes effortlessly. She genuinely offered the items with care and daintiness. Kanaga Durga seems to be a sincere artist. Open-throated and diligent articulation made Kanaka Durga’s vocal recital creditable. In her concert, at Sri Srinivasa Sastri Hall, Mylapore, she took up Dharamavati and Thodi for exhaustive exploration. Her approach to raga essays carried the dedication of a well-trained musician and commendably she banked on long phrases to bring out the speciality of the ragas.
It was Muthuswami Dikshitar’s ‘Parandamavathi Jayati’ in Dharmavati and ‘Venugana Ramana,’ Oothukadu Venkatasubbiar’s composition in Thodi. Kanaka Durga selected ‘Paranjyotir Vikasini’ for niraval and swaras in the Dharamavati kriti, and did full justice to it. In Thodi, her niraval was centred on the pallavi with a brief niraval but a lengthy swarakalpana, which could have been tidier.
Kanaka Durga began her programme with ‘Ninnujoochi’ in Sowrashtram (Patnam Subramania Iyer) with few rounds of swaras. The Durbar alapana was appended with Tyagarja kriti ‘Mundu Venuga.’ She meticulously followed all the sangatis in anupallavi and charanam adding allure to the presentation with an addition of swaras in the end. Bright Khamas and Dikshitar’s ‘Santhanagopala Krishnam’ was another inclusion in her line-up .
Neela Jayakumar’s responses on the violin did not fail the vocalist’s expectations. Her Thodi treatise was noteworthy. N.R. Jayakumar’s mridangam was a little noisy (thanks to the balancing system) initially but got settled as the concert progressed.
