Swara Tarangini, one of the major sangeeta sabhas in Vijayawada, celebrated its 3rd anniversary for three days at Sri Sivaramakrishna Kshetram with top class concerts on all days.
Reputed singing duo of Chennai Chitra and Vijayalakshmi popularly known as Mambalam sisters pleased the audience immensely with their expertise. They received their training from eminent vidwans B.V.Raman and Laxmanan and vidushi Suguna Varadachari. The sisters began the concert with Sahana varnam and followed it with Endaro the Sriraga pancharatna kirtana. Next Chitra presented an elaborate raga delineation of Pantuvarali and the sisters sang as the sub-main item, Sambho Mahadeva complimenting it with crisp kalpana swaras. After singing Marivere of Syama Sastry in Anandabhairavi and Marugelara of Thyagaraja in Jayantasri Chitra and Vijayalakshmi took up Sankarabharanam for the main item singing Sarojadala Netri of Syama Sastry sumptuously with raga, neraval and swara kalpana. Vijayalakshmi elaborated the raga brilliantly and the sisters shared the bhava-rich neraval and the swarakalpana with good command. The neraval elaborating the lyric Sama gana vinodini at the charanam was aesthetically appealing.
While Radhika Srinivasan of Chennai supported them on violin competently, Dandamudi Sumathi Ramamohan Rao, Phanibhushan and B.Suresh Babu gave fine support on mridangam, ghatam and kanjira respectively. The sisters closed the concert with an Annamayya kirtana Akativelala in Revathi.
On the second day an interesting jugalbandi between a violin and sitar was featured. Young and talented violinist Peri Thyagaraju, son and disciple of eminent artiste Peri Sriramamurthy played the violin and Irfan Ahmed khan of Hyderabad, an experienced artiste played the sitar. Thyagaraju was supported on mridangam by P.S.Phalgun and Irfan Ahmed Khan was supported on tabla by M. S. Pavankumar .
Thyagaraju and Irfan started with Vatapi (Hamsadhvani) of Dikshitar and next Thyagaraju Niravadi Sukhada of Thyagaraja crisply. This was followed by sweet version of Keeravani by Irfan Ahmed on the sitar. The highlight of the concert was Mohana played in real jugalbandi form by Thyagaraju and Irfan. The performance was soothingly melodious .
The last item in the jugulbandi was a Thumri-like item in rag Piloo, which was thoroughly enjoyed by the large audience who gave the artists standing ovation.
On the last day the sabha presented a full-fledged Tala Vadya Kutcheri led by BVS Prasad, a top grade mridangam vidwan and a staff artiste of Akashvani. Reputed Vishnubhatla sisters Saraswathi and Krishnaveni (also an A-top graded violinist and a staffer of Government Music College) provided the rhythm team fine support on vocal and violin respectively. Their solo versions of Saraswathi who sang Uttukadu Venkatasubbayyar’s Sri Vighnarajam Bhaje in Nata and Krishnaveni played a sweet version of Bindumalin before playing the kirtana Entamuddo and her version of Kafi preceding the kirtana Neevalla was also melodious.
Then the main part, an hour long rhythmic treat started and B.V.S.Prasad took over the lead with his mridangam. Saraswati gave the lead by singing the adi tala pallavi and the tanam was entirely played by Krishnaveni. Other percussionists were Harihara Subramanyam on ghatam, Nerkonam S.Sankar of Chennai on Kanjira. The tani was brilliantly executed by the team with many intricate laya patterns.
A novelty was the percussionists followed the tanam phrases played by Krishnaveni one by one, thus complementing the tanam phrases very well. The sumptuous tala vadya kacheri was preceded by a brief inaugural function including vidwans Modumudi Sudhakar, P.Gowrinath and K.Sadgurucharan. On the occasion the Sabha felicitated Neti Visweswara Sarma, secretary of Thyagaraja Samskritika Sangham of Guntur.
