It was one of the finest vocal concerts heard recently in Vijayawada. The credit for introducing M.S.Vidya for the first time to the city goes to Modumudi Sudhakar. The concert was held at Sri Sringeri Peetha Paripalita Sri Sivaramakrishna Kshetram. M.S.Vidya is the daughter and disciple of late Bellary M. Seshagiri Achar, one of the famous Bellary brothers and received her advanced training from R.A. Mani.
Pure traditional style, perfect diction, apt modulation and great aesthetic sense marked Vidya’s concert. She began with Hindola varnam composed by her father and followed with Gajananayutam in Chakravakam. After this, a Melakarta raga Yagapriya which sports two vivadi swaras – Shatsruthi rishabham and Sudha nishadam – and throws a challenge to the singer, was superbly delineated by Vidya and the kirtana Rama Rama yani , a composition of late Seshagiri Achar was neatly rendered in the raga. After rendering Neene Dayalo in Anandabhairavi and Muthiah Bhagavatar’s Rajaraja Rajithe in the rare raga Niroshta. Swamiki Sari Cheppare in Begada, one of the major items in the concert was rendered with rich bhava laden raga version, niraval and swaram. As the sub main item, Vidya sang a superb composition of Muthuswami Dikshitar in the rarest of rare ragas Ramakali taken from Hindustani music.
As the main item Vidya rendered a sumptuous ragam-tanam-pallavi in Kalyani set to Misra triputa talam in trisra nada which means that the tala unit (avartham) consists of 33 aksharas. The intricate pallavi (Saraswathi Vidhi Yuvathi—Dehi Sanmathi Veena Pani) was efficiently executed with fine command on all manodharmam aspects. Talented brothers Peravali Nanda Kumar and Jayabhasker supported the vocalist superbly on violin and mridangam respectively. M. Haribabu aided well on the ghatam. Vidya’s enchanting concert concluded with a few kirtanas of Annamacharya and Purandaradas.
