Lavanya Vaidyanathan, disciple of Suguna Varadhachari, presented a vocal performance at Sri Raghavendra Mutt premises, organised under the auspices of Sri Guru Guha Gana Sabha, Srirangam.
Lavanya commenced her concert with the Sahana varnam ‘Karunimpa’ followed by the Tyagaraja kriti ‘Mudhumomu’ in raga Suryakantham. After a brief alpana of Dhanyasi, she went on to render a rare Tyagaraja kriti, ‘Syamasundaranga’ followed by a fast-paced kriti ‘Malmaruga Shanmuga’ in Vasantha (Papanasam Sivan).
Rare pieces
Lavanya next took up Muthuswami Dikshitar’s ‘Ranganayakam Bavayeham,’ in Nayaki and rendered it with bhakti and accurate kalapramanam. Her alapana for Purvikalyani was beautiful and she rendered Thanjavur Ponnaiya’s rarely heard piece ‘Satileni Guruguha.’
After a fast rendering of ‘Anupama Gunambudhi’ in Atana, came the main piece of the concert - Tyagaraja’s ‘Evarimatta,’ the Khambodi raga alapana. The highlight was Lavanya brought out the nuances of the raga with élan. Then followed three pieces of Saint Raghavendrar – ‘Manthrabalam Adaintha alayam’ in Hamsanadam, tillana in Behag and a mangalam. Lavanya was accompanied by Lakshminarayanan on the violin and Vijayaraghavan on the mridangam.
Lavanya showed excellent command over layam and her sareeram was sweet and perfectly aligned to sruti. That she was trained under a stalwart was evident in the way she tried to render kritis with adherence to the manodharma.