Age seems to be catching up with veteran vocalist R. Vedavalli, hampering the presentation of the enormous erudition. The octogenarian’s strained voice was the reason why it felt like listening to a concert happening in a distant galaxy — despite vocal support by her disciple, Sumitra Vasudevan. It didn’t help that mridangist Arun Prakash thought it fit to confine himself to bringing out barely audible taps.
The concert held in Chennai was not lacking in class though. Vedavalli belongs to the old school, which sets great store for aesthetics and fidelity to tradition, giving an incantational aspect to music, as opposed to the riotously wild exploratory forays, which is the trend today. If the first approach is a beautiful painting, the second is a splash on the canvas — neither is bad art. Vedavalli belongs to the first, which was borne out by the simple-yet-elegant Saveri, the first major element of the concert.
Impeccable alapana
The alapana was pure gold and it was a surprise when the raga essay segued seamlessly into Syama Sastri’s ‘Sankari Samkuru’, without the violin in-between. Niraval and swaras sequences came at the traditional point, ‘Syama Krishna Sodari’.
The Hemavati raga sketch that followed was again dripping with classicism, with slow measured phrases and every note firmly in its place, Sumitra chipped-in while summiting the alapana. The composition selected was Papanasam Sivan’s ‘Ennai kaatharulvadoru barama’, not heard since Maharajapuram Santhanam days — redux appears to be the defining trait of Music Season 2017, for everybody is bringing forgotten melodies out of the cellar. Sweet song, rendered fully-featured, niraval, swaras and all.
The Thodi that tailed the Hemavati had a surprise. Without giving Hemalatha opportunity to play the raga, Vedavalli slid to tanam. The tanam cued a Pallavi, but there was none. The vocalist took up Dikshitar’s ‘Dakshayani Abhayambikam’ making it the main piece of the concert. Arun Prakash, and Anirudh Athreya (ganjira), played a brief tani, which seemed to end abruptly, without the vocalist picking up the niraval thread. Tyagaraja’s Balakanakamaya (Atana) and Seetamma Mayamma (Vasantha) were part of fare.
