As part of its 58th anniversary celebration, South Indian Cultural Association (SICA) organised a vocal concert of sisters Shanmukhapriya and Haripriya as its inaugural concert. The event held at Ravindra Bharati last week, was inaugurated by Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan.
Priya sisters were accompanied by M.A. Krishna Swamy on violin, Delhi P. Sriram on mridangam and M. Murali on ghatam.The sisters opened their concert with Kambhoji varnam of Tiruvattiyur Thyagayya and got warmed up resorting to present it in two speeds. The first kirtana they presented was Thyagaraja’s popular number Samajavaragamana in Hindolam. They rendered the composition with sahitya clarity and they presented swarakalpana too, sharing the phrases.
Vinayakunivalenu Brovave in Madhyamavathi of Thyagaraja was opened with lengthy ragalapana. The kirtana rendition too was expressive in presentation. Later they got down to present a Tamil composition in Manj of Gopalakrishna Bharati. It was a simple kirtana rendition that was followed by sub-main composition Ranjani Mrudupankajalochani in Ranjani ragam. The ragalapana and swarakalpana shared by both was the strength of this number though the rendition of the composition was with right expression of sahitya. The swarakalpana too was graceful presentation and as it progressed it became more engaging with high tempo.
The main number of the concert was another popular kriti of Thyagaraja, Chakkani Rajamargamu in Kharahara Priya. Its raga and musical elements too are of higher order. The sisters made it sound superb even excelling in the technical parts of presentation of raga and swara. The final number of the concert was Annamacharya kirtana Aakativelala .
The support by violinist and percussionists was laudable.
