On a rain-soaked evening in Chennai, the singing of Bengaluru’s Saralaya Sisters, Kavitha and Triveni, seemed quite impervious to either the weather outdoors or the small audience inside Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. That was the right approach. After all, the value of classical music, on several accounts, lies among other things in the ability of practitioners to focus their mind on the task at hand, even under unusual, if not difficult circumstances.
The recital had its fair share of compositions spread out over the course of two hours.
The vocalists brought a contemporary touch to their singing when they featured the compositions of Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna as the opening and concluding pieces. The first was the padavarnam in Shanmukhapriya and the other was the thillana in Brindavani.
The two Tyagaraja kritis in Panthuvarali and Sankarabharanam – ‘Siva Siva Siva Yenarada’ and ‘Yenduku Pedala’ – were the highlights, in terms of the time devoted to their rendition. But then, 'Yenna Solli Azhaittal Varuvayo,' in Kanada may well have caught the attention of some listeners.
Nalina Mohan on the violin presented a beautiful essay of the 29th scale and Mudra Bhaskar on the mridangam and Madipakkam Murali on the ghatam gave a fifteen minute percussion solo.
