Vignana Samithi featured two Carnatic musicians of repute – vocalist S. Venumadhav and veena virtuoso Ayyagari Shyamasundaram with wife Jayalakshmi accompanying him on another veena. This was held at Ananda Nagar Community Hall.
The event began with Venumadhav’s rendition of Annamacharya kirtanas in the company of N.C. Ananathakrishna on violin and T.P. Balasubrmanyam on mridangam. The first number he sang was Hariki Lankini Hantaku set in Hamsadhwani, Roopaka talam. This song addressing Hanumantha was tuned by Venumadhav. This set the tune and tone to the concert and the rest of the compositions were a cakewalk. Yemi Niddirinchevu was tuned by him in Vasanthi. Later he sang the popular number Vade Venkatadrimeeda tuned by Sripada Pinakapani in Vasantha ragam.
Madhava Boodhava in Kalyani khandachapu talam tuned by Nedunuri Krishnamurthy was the next number he rendered in an animated manner . This was the main number he presented with detailed ragalapana and swarakalpana. The final number was Mayamoham in misra Jog, tuned by Malladi Suribabu.
Veena concertAyyagari Shyamasundaram was accompanied by his wife and disciple Jayalakshmi in a veena concert. K.Sadgurucharan on mridangam and T.P. Balasbrahmanyam on ghatam accompanied him.
Shyamasundaram made a beginning, saluting the discerning audience playing Thyagaraja’s pancharatna kirtana Endaro Mahanbhavulu in Sriragam. And the play of Chittaswaras and their matching sahitya was a treat. He then played another kirtana of Thyagaraja Rama Neepai Thanaku in Kedaram, a raga not much in circulation. There are not many kirtanas in this raga too. He played the melody in great detail. He then went for popular composition also of Thyagaraja Durmargacharadhamula in Ranjani. He played the raga giving its detailed picture and the swarakalpana that followed kept the tempo of raga and kriti play.
It was time for Shyamasundaram to play Shyama Sastry’s composition. O Jagadamba in Anandabhairavi. He presented the number with sahitya appeal on veena, considered as nearer to vocal, after playing raga briefly. He later played Sankara Srigiri Nada Prabhuke in Hamsanandi of Swathi Tirunal. Later he made Simhendramadhyamam as his main for the kirtana Needu Charanamule in triputa talam with neraval at the line Papa Karmapu , followed by tanam presented by both and kalpanaswaras in triputa talam. Jayalakshmi too joined in the play of tanam. This was followed by Tani Avarthanam notable for the way Sadgurucharan presented laya vinyasam displaying how the less used left produced kanjira type effects.
Later he played a Tarangam of Narayanateertha in Misrachapu talam and ended the concert with Annamacharya kirtana Kolanu Dopariki in raga Saraswathi, Pappu Someswara Rao’s kirtana Maruthi Dheemantham in Yadukula Kambhoji. His wife too took part in raga and swara play in all the numbers.
