Sathur Sisters, Samajam

Sathur Sisters: Lalitha Santhanam and Bhuvana Rajagopal - Srilakshmi Venkataramani - Madurai B Sundar.

Thyagaraja Sangeetha Vidwat Samajam
14th October 2006 6:30 pm

surEshvaram - gambIra nATTai - Adi (Short Sketch)
danyuDevvaDo - malayamArutam - Adi - PSI (S)
mahA sAmrAjyasAlini - suddha dhanyAsi - Adi (Short Sketch)
vADErA daivamu - kAmavardini - Adi - T (RNS)
ennEramum - dEvagAndhAri - Adi - GKB
nI pAdamE gati - naLinakAnti - rUpakam
pakkala nilabaDi - kharaharapriyA - cApu - T (RNS)
tani Avarththanam
tiruppati vEnkaTaramaNA - hamsAnandi - Adi - PD
rAmachandra prabhU - sindhubhairavi - Adi - ST
mangaLa slOkam
'rAmabrahma suputrAya rAmanAma sukhAtmanE
rAmachandra svarUpAya tyAgarAja mangaLAm' - madhyamAvati
'kAvEri dhIravAsAya kAruNyAmruta varshiNE
avanIsura rAjAya tyAgarAjAya mangaLam' - suruTTi

The short sketch of gambIra nATTai by Smt Rajagopal which began the concert was good and the kriti was well rendered. The malayamArutam kriti, a benchmark piece of their father, was rendered beautifully with nice one Avartana svarams at 'vara mattaLa'. Smt Santanam's suddha dhanyAsi short sketch was good and the kriti was good as well.

kAmavardini AlApanai by Smt Santanam was good and strictly traditional mainly focusing on the madhyasthAyi prayOgams. The kriti was rendered beautifully with neraval at 'sItApati ani pEru galigina vADEra deivamu manasA' including the last line of caraNam and the pallavi to give a complete sentence. The svarams were good also.

The renditions of the dEvagAndhAri kriti and naLinakAnti kriti were good. Smt Rajagopal's kharaharapriyA elaboration was another example of a classical AlApanai with strict adherence to the traditional style. It was elaborated neatly and the kriti was well rendered with nice neraval and svarams at 'manasuna dalaci mE maraciyunnArA'. The clear splitting of words during the neraval as 'manasuna dalaci' and 'mE maraciyunnArA' were very evident and is to be appreciated.

The hamsAnandi kriti and sindhubhairavi piece were good also. As a finishing touch the mangaLam slOkam by Smt Rajagopal in madhyamAvati and the suruTTi one by Smt Santanam were just too good.

The sisters gave an amazing concert with complete adherence to tradition. Each piece was measured and it was a well patterened concert. It is sad that concerts of such high quality music have less number of patrons. The total number of people at Samajam that evening, including the artists on stage, the archakar at sannadi, the mic man and watch man was 25.

Smt Venkataramani on violin was very shaky in starting her AlApanais. However she later built them up in a nice way.

Sri Sundar on the mrudangam was good and played for the sangatis. His tani was good also.