Vocal : Priya Sisters
Violin : V V Srinivasa Rao
Mrudangam : Delhi Sairam
Ghatam : B S Purushotham
List:
01. jaya jaya jaya jAnakIkAnta – nATa – khaNda chApu- Purandara Dasa ( S )
02. rAgaratna mAlikacE – rItigauLa – rUpakam – Thyagaraja ( N )
neraval @ ‘bhAgavatOttamulu gUDi pADE kIrtanamulaTa‘
03. chittam irangAdadEnayya – sahAna – mishra chApu – Papanasam Sivan ( A )
04. chalamElarA sAkEtarAmA – mArgahindOLam – Adi – Thyagaraja
05. shrI kAntimatim – hEmavati – Adi x 2 – Dikshitar ( A,N,S)
neraval & swara @ ‘shuka shaunakAdi sadArAdhitAm shuddha tAmraparNI taTasthitAm’
06. RTP – laLita – khaNDa tripuTa x 2 , starting at +1/2
pallavi line ‘ambikE jagadambikE paralaLitAmbikE | shAmbhavI karunAkari shubhakari ‘
rAgamAlika swaras in ambika ( tansen madhuvanti) , bhAgEshrI , hindustAni laLit
06b. tani Avartanam
07. vachenu alamElumangA – hindOLam – Annamacharya
08. narahariyE ninna nAmasmaraNe mADadE – ? – Jagannatha Dasa ?
09. nalladOr vINai seidEn – dEsh – Subramanya Bharathi
10. mangaLam – saurAshtram/madhyamAvati – Thyagaraja
At the first sight, what is striking in the above list is the way the tala is used. First composition started at khandachapu, progressed to roopakam, mishrachapu, adi , adi x 2 and khanda triputa x 2 for pallavi. I have never ever seen such a progressive metering chosen in any of the concert. I am sure, it must have been planned that way, than a mere coincidence. Interesting.
On the artists part one of the sisters was having some difficulties with her voice and that made the other ( Haripriya, if I get the name correctly) to shoulder majority of the responsibilities on the stage. Even she, I believe, wasn’t in 100% of her physical ability. This is were the professionals differ from the amateurs. Despite this handicap, they presented a commendable concert. They selected the kritis and sang within these constraints to some good effects. Kudos for that.
Most of the alapana was done by Haripriya. Sahana was short and good, hemavati was much better and improved. Lalita was begun by Shanmukhapriya and was taken over in the middle by Haripriya, which probably could have been better on any other day. Tanam was very good. Srinivasa Rao was having a field day, playing some memorable alapana and doing some excellent accompaniment. Some of his innovative returns during the neraval and kalpana swaras were awesome.
After a brisk nata kriti and kalpana swaras, reetigaula kriti was sung with good rounds of very good neraval. Surprisingly, she did not extend to swaras but began her sahana alapana. Again only the kriti was sung. Hemavati alapana was much more elaborate and complete. Pretty decent affair. Dikshitar’s masterpiece was probably the only choice as a main. They sung an impressive neraval at shuka shaunakadi ( I always like long neraval lines ). Swaras were equally good.
Lalita ragam, shared between them was ok, but tanam was excellent. Srinivasa Rao excelled again. Pallavi was sung in trikalam with some brilliant execution. Both the percussionists and the violin joined impeccably during trikalam. The highlight of the pallavi was the ragamalika swaras, which were entirely consisted of hindustani ragas. Haripriya sang an elaborate swaras with few hindustani style stretches which was replicated in his own stlye by Srinivasa Rao. She announced the ragam as ambika, which is also known as tansen madhuvanti and it is embedded in the pallavi line. Shanmukhapriya sang a short bhageshri before the other sang another elaborate hindustani raga, this time announced as laLit. The percussion duo, playing along very well during the main and pallavi did a good tani avartanam. I thought Delhi Sairam was much better yesterday and more involved than the other day.
There were many request as people waled up the stage and handed over chits. But, they seems to have decided to stick to the original plans singing a annamacharya kriti a Dasara pada ( I remember hearing jagannatha vittala) and a bharatiar’s song. Within their physical limitations, I still think they presented a good concert yesterday.
Brain Drain 