Sincere yet repetitive
UMA AND Geetha (Mayavaram Sisters) exerted to the full to draw what they could from their voice. Free flow of sancharas in raga alapanas or in rendering sangatis in songs was not within their grasp. Their sincerity in giving of their best was never in doubt. Geetha painstakingly worked on the delineation of Madhyamavathy, the main item in the programme, and the necessity to build up the raga's image in short phrasings, often resulted in repetition.
Aesthetic expressions, in the absence of a mellowed voice, made an occasional presence. The kirtana was "Adiki-Sukham". Earlier Uma projected a sedate Sankarabharanam with little sparkle in it, followed by the song "Nagalingam Bajeham". The two compositions "Ranjani Niranjani" (Ranjani) and "Thaye Tripurasundari" (Suddha Saveri) kept up the tempo in the first half of the concert. M.A. Krishnaswamy was the violinist whose accompaniment was very tame to the last note. R. Sankaranarayanan (mridangam) and V. Anirudh (Kanjira) were the percussionists.
Lacking in variety
It was a routine, uninspiring performance by T.V. Sundaravalli for the Sri Parthasarathy Swamy Sabha. There was very little of colour and variety in the framing of the concert, which spoke of her circumscribed musical vocabulary. The Suddha Saveri kriti "Darini Telusukonti" was rendered briskly, with the mounting sangatis providing the necessary tempo. The main raga alapana was kambhoji and the song "O! Ranga Sayee". Mohana Kalyani was another alapana effort. H. N. Bhaskar, the violinist was vigorous sans niceties. Lack of thick and thin in his play was marked. Bala Shankar (mridangam) and A.S. Krishnan (morsing) were engagingly enlivening.
Perfect in alignment
After the anniversary function of Sruthi magazine and the presentation of the Vellore Gopalachari award to S.V. Parthasarathy, nine disciples of Sulochana Pattabhiraman sang as a group, ably guided by their guru. Though short in duration, the perfection in alignment in the rendering of the songs served to proclaim what discipline in music can achieve in goshti ganam. The long ragamalika in which the names of the raga were deftly incorporated in each line was noteworthy. Music without accompaniments provides a different dimension to appreciation, which is rarely to be experienced in a hackneyed concert. The participants in the group were: Prema Rangarajan, Bhagyalakshmi Suresh, Nirmala Vaidyanathan, Pushpa Lakshman, Jayanti Nagarajan, Bhuvana Mahadevan, Nirmala Nandakumar, Vijayalakshmi Sivakumar and Anagha Ramaswamy.
SVK
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