Music in a soft idiom
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Sumitra Nitin's smooth raga delineation and the facile technique of Hyderabad Sisters were some of the week's highlights.
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Sumitra Nitin, in the afternoon bracket, provided music in soft idiom without much of thrills. A tender voice ensured smooth flowing raga delineation of Arabhi (`Narasimha-Maamava') Ananda Bhairavi (`Marivere') and Mohanam (`Nanu-Paalimpa'). There was clever adjustment of vocal modulation and direction. The alapanas were not a mere run of sancharas, but an expression of vivid moorchana niches. Suresh Babu was the violinist, fairly adequate. Mridangist A.V. Manikantan's clarity of strokes, strong but not loud, were supportive to the concert. His whole laya exercise was in polite pleasing style.
The management of music was a stylised achievement at the hands of Hyderabad Sisters (Haripriya and Shanmukhapriya). Their interpretative technique is facile, floating over the scales of ragas and sangatis in kirtanas. Sancharas in the alapanas of Simhendra Madhyamam (Sumadhyuti according to the Dikshitar school) and Mohanam were presented meanderingly. The only exception was Ananda Bhairavi where the picture of the raga was clearly etched. Similarly, of the kirtanas sung `Neeke Teliyaka" (Ananda Bhairavi) and `Mohana Rama' (Mohanam) gave weight to the performance. The shift in values in music and the singing style accordingly was unmistakable. Alapanas were watered down to clichéd sancharas. Against this pattern, the violin accompaniment of Akkarai Subbulakshmi was marked by sound purity and significant silences, which threw light and shadow on the images of Ananda Bhairavi and Mohanam. Slicing musical expression and tapering cadences sensitised the appeal of the alapanas. Neyveli Skanda Subramanian on the mridangam was effective without being assertive. The ghatam vidwan S.V. Ramani came on his own only in the tani.
SVK
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