Arundhathi Krishnan has a strong voice and clear diction and significantly she has not succumbed to the speed bug. Her rendition also has azhutham and the brigas are applied at relevant places. She began with Dikshitar's Hindola raga kriti ‘Saraswathi' and sang swaras for the madhyamakala passage ‘Sabdharathaswaroopini.' The Pantuvarali essay was decent followed by ‘Thaye Idhu Tharunam,' a composition by Ramaswamy Sivan.
After an interlude with ‘Bhogeendrasayinam' in Kuntalavarali, she took up the main item Kharaharapriya. Her relaxed elaboration for this raga had depth. Vijai's effort on the violin was good. Arundhathi began ‘Ramaniyeda' with the anupallavi and the niraval and swaras for the pallavi were good. Arjun Narayanan on the mridangam played a decent thani.
The Kalyani kriti ‘Theril Erinaan' set a lively ambience to the concert of Sangeetha Swaminathan . The niraval and swaras for the pallavi were vibrant. The leisurely ‘Nannuvidachi' in Ritigowla was replete with bhava. Next came the raga alapana of Bhavapriya which sounded totally like Subhapantuvarali and missed some of the characteristic nuances of the raga. The chosen song was ‘Srikantaniyeda,' there were swaras for the pallavi. On the whole in this item sowkhyam took a back seat.
The Kiravani essay was good except for a few repetitive phrases. Had she sung a little in the lower octave and perhaps toned down her voice while singing in the top octave it would have been more pleasant. The selected song was ‘Punniyam Oru Kodi.' The niraval and swaras taken for the charanam line, ‘Annai Kamakshi Pole' and the swara structures were quite interesting.
Due to shortage of time, it had to be a fast thani played together by Poongulam Subramaniam on the mridangam and Madipakkam Murali on the ghatam, who gave good support, as did M.R.Gopinath on the violin.
Nirmala Rajasekar was in complete control of fingering and she also mixed playing in the lower octave strings of her veena which made her recital more interesting. After the varnam in Vasantha, she played a short alapana of Begada followed by ‘Vallabha Nayakasya.' The playing/singing swaras for the pallavi seems to have become standard practice these days, which Nirmala also did. It was soothing to listen to the Gowlipantu raga kriti ‘Terateeyegarada.'
Also appealing in the same manner was her raga essay of Nattakurinji. The song ‘Vazhimaraithirukkudhu' was filled with bhava. She could have avoided the swaras, which somewhat spoilt the mood. Then came Pallavi Sesha Iyer's kriti in Arabhi followed by Koteeswara Iyer's Rasikapriya composition ‘Arul Seyyavendum Aiyya.'
The tour de force was Kalyani. The alapana had some innovative phrases, which were particularly suitable for instrument. If this was long, her tanam with an endless swara exercise was much more so. The latter half of the tanam was accompanied by Neyveli Skandasubramanyam on the mridangam and E.M. Subramaniam on the ghatam. V.V. Srinivasa Rao met Nirmala's challenge very well indeed in all aspects. The kriti chosen was ‘Etavunara.'
