Amritha Murali, a Chennai-based youngster regaled the music lovers in the Capital with a meditative and soothing vocal recital. Amritha’s concert was organised on the first day of the two-day music festival titled Chithirai Music Festival 2015. Organised by Delhi’s Shanmukhananda Sangeetha Sabha in association with Hamsadhwani, Chennai as part of latter’s silver jubilee celebrations, the concert took place at the auditorium of Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, recently.
Endowed with a melodious voice, Amritha started her concert with Tyagaraja’s “Meru samana dhira” in raga Mayamalavagoula. The kalpana swaras for this piece were indicative of Amritha’s creative talents. Amritha proceeded to take up an item for detailed presentation. She took up Varali raga and delineated it in a scintillating manner. Since she had already taken up Tyagaraja and Shyama Sastri, one expected that it would be the turn of Muthuswami Dikshitar, another stalwart belonging to the musical trinity of composers. Instead, Amritha took up a Tiruppavai pasuram “Aazhi mazhai kanna”. Despite singing neraval of a phrase from the pasuram and kalpana swaras, it did not have the feeling of completeness. One felt, Amritha’s choice of the pasuram, in a way, turned out to be a misadventure. However, in presenting another detailed item, namely Papanasam Sivan’s “Kaana kan kodi vendum” in raga Kambhoji, Amritha excelled.
Apart from handling the composition well, she sang an excellent alapana of the raga in an unhurried manner bringing out the features of the raga to the fore. While singing the neraval of the phrase “Manikkam vairam mudal navarathna baranamum” and kalpana swaras, her creativity once again came to the fore. Earlier, Amritha sang Gopalakrishna Bharathi’s slow tempo composition, “Vazhi maraithirukkathe” in raga Nattaikurinji in a riveting tempo.
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The renowned senior vidwan T.V. Sankaranarayanan enthralled the audience on the second day of the festival. Sankaranarayanan’s central item was a ragam-taanam-pallavi. The pallavi (not in quite a leisurely manner) and the subsequent Ragamalika kalpana swaras in ragas Behag, Desh and Sindhubhairavi (apart from Simmendra Madhyamam) was delighted the audience. “Unadu paadam thunaiye orarumugane” was the pallavi composed in raga Simmendra Madhyamam and set to tisra jathi thripuda tala.
Earlier, Sankaranarayanan sang Purandara Dasa’s “Nambi kettavarillavo” in raga Kalyani and Tyagaraja’s “Mohanarama” in the raga Mohanam in a detailed manner. He sang Papanasam Sivan’s “Ma ramanan” emotively.
Chennai-based V.V. Srinivasa Rao on the violin, Mannarkoil J. Balaji on the mridangam and madipakkam, A. Murali on the ghatam provided excellent and appropriate support to Amritha Murali on the first day and to Sankaranarayanan on the second day. Rao’s presentation of ragas Varali, Kambhoji, Kalyani and Simmendra Madhyamam were impressive and the percussionists played fine tani avartanams in adi talas on both days.
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