It was a celebration of classical music at Rasikapriya's 34th anniversary celebrations in Kochi. It featured Carnatic vocal concerts by Preethi Satheesh and Abhishek Raghuram.
Preethi began her concert with a three-speed rendition of ‘Viriboni,' the Ada tala varnam in Bhairavi. After ‘Gajavadana,' the Papanasam Sivan composition in raga Sriranjani, the vocalist sang another Papanasam Sivan composition – ‘Sarade veena vadana visharade' in Devagandhari. However, she sang this number in the style popularised by D.K. Jayaraman. The niraval and swaras for ‘Jnanamusagarada' in Poorvikalyani were quintessential of the raga and the kriti, and the vocalist's mid-tempo singing charmed listeners.
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Her alapana of Todi was wholesome and the niraval for ‘Malmaruga shanmugha muruga guha' was succinct and delightful. Bindu K. Shenoy (violin) ably supported the vocalist and Tripunithura Neelakantan (mridangam) and Haripad Sekhar (ghatam) also put up a good effort.
Abhishek Raghuram 's concert stood out for its trenchancy and verve. The Navaraga varnam of Patanam Subramania Iyer made way to more dulcet compositions such as ‘Muddumomu' in Suryakantham and ‘Saraseeruha ramaiyya' in Mukhari.
The vocalist sang sustained notes of Charukeshi and thus brought out the true raga bhava. The kriti chosen was ‘Adamodigalade,' a composition of Tyagaraja. The vocalist took off to the upper octave with Anandabhairavi and gave the choicest phrases a true Carnatic flavour with long and deep gamakas.
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Trivandrum Sampath Kumar left no stone unturned in giving a near replica of the vocalist's phrases, and his comprehensive support on the violin added to the success of the concert. Abhishek sang an unexpected niraval for the phrase ‘Ramanamane' in the Hamsanadam composition ‘Bantureethi koluvu' and proceeded to brisk swaras, which turned out to be one of the highlights of the concert.
The main raga for the evening was the rarely sung Abheri and the kriti was Dikshitar's ‘Bhajare re Manasa,' which is also not too often heard. The brigas were unerring and crisp. Trivandrum Balaji on the mridangam remained subdued but gave a decent tani towards the latter part of the concert.
He excelled with some charming improvisations for ‘Saramaina matalentho' in Behag and ‘Jagadodharana' in Kapi. Abhishek concluded the concert with a tillana in Darbari Kanada composed by Lalgudi Jayaraman.