Audiences at the Sri Venkateswara Temple at Pittsburgh were treated to a classical music vocal recital by Haripriya and Lalitha on March 26. Well known as the Hyderabad sisters, they were trained in the Alathur style by T.G.Padmanabhan. They were ably assisted on the mridangam by Lakshminarayana Raju and on the violin by Subbalakshmi in a concert that lasted a little more than two and a half hours.
The recital was organized by Sri Venkateswara Temple at Pittsburgh as a part of their cultural programme highlighting Indian classical music and dance.
The recital started with the rendition of ‘Evari bodhana’ varnam in abhogi ragam, adi talam. A composition of Patnam Subramania Iyer, it was sung in all three kalams and set the stage for recital.
This was followed by ‘Vinayaka’ in Ragam Hamsadhwani, talam Adi with a brief introduction to the ragam at the beginning of the song. Sathoor Karpagam’s composition in Saramati ragam, ‘Kothanda Paaniye’ in adi talam was well sung. The next song to be sung that evening was composed by a native of Pittsburgh - Ashok Madhav. ‘Thaaraka nama’ in Bahudari, Adi talam was pleasant.
The Hyderabad sisters then dwelt straight into a famous composition by Saint Thyagaraja, ‘Nagumomu’ in abheri, followed by ‘Ninaada Nele’ in ragam Kannada, Talam adi. This was a composition of Saint Thyagaraja. Lathangi ragam was chosen for an elaborate and well rendered alapana and this was ably complimented by the violin. This was followed by the song ‘Marivere’ by Patnam Subrmania Iyer in Jhampa tala.
Smoothly flowing into ‘Annapoorne’ (a composition of Muthuswami Dikshitar), they showed the nuances of ragam Shyama. The penultimate song was ‘Upacharamoolanu’ by Thyagaraja. This was preceded by a beautiful alapana of Ragam Bhairavi which exposed the very essence of the raga and its subtle nuances.
The thani-avarthanam by the mridangam then followed. Lasting almost 15 minutes, it was a scintillating performance by Raju.
Another composition by Ashok Madhav of Pittsburgh followed in ragam Sivasakthi.
The audience appreciated and enjoyed the entire recital and it turned out to be a pleasant kutcheri on a pleasant evening in Pittsburgh.
Contact: Sri Venkateswara Temple at Pittsburgh: E-mail: srivaru@svtemple.org.
Mridula Anand of Pittsburgh who has written this article can be contacted at Email: mridu@stanfordalumni.org.
