The December chill has already claimed a victim. S. Sowmya cancelled her concert at Kartik Fine Arts on December 4 and Charumathi Ramachandran, one of the senior artists in the music fraternity, agreed to pitch in along with Subhashree, her daughter. They did not disappoint the rasikas.
Charumathi’s music touched the heart profoundly. Instead of the Trinity’s compositions, her line-up included songs of Purandaradasar, Narayana Tirtha, Annamayya and Sivan. With the sheen in her voice, Charumathi was able to create a mesmerising effect. Subhashree, blessed with a smooth voice, more robust than her mother’s, complemented Charumathi.
Through the recital, Charumathi took the rasikas on a nostalgic journey into the good old days of MLV’s music.
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Embar S. Kannan (violin) and Neyveli R. Narayanan (mridangam) followed the pakkavadhya dharmam, reengineering their style to suit the duo. Young Chandrasekara Sharma’s (ghatam) involvement was sincere.
Hamsavinodhini was rendered adroitly by Charumathi with tough akara phrases. It was followed by Theerthar’s ‘Sharanam Bhava’ tuned by vidwan T.M. Tyagarajan. Subhashree did justice to Kalyani. Her sruti alignment was striking. Sivan’s ‘Janakipathay’ (Kharaharapriya) was breezy. For the Chandrachooda Dasar padam in Ragamalika, Charumathi sang Sankarabharanam, Sunadavodhini and Khamas in her alapana, while Subhashree sketched Thodi. Their efforts were appealing. Kannan’s reply was in tandem with the main artists. The swara korvai in the end was a bit tricky but the cascade of ragas was impressive. The duo rounded off with ‘Enneramum’, ‘Yadvaraya’ and ‘Deva Bandaramma’ which left the rasikas spell bound.