A gottu vadyam recital by Lalitha Krishna was organised by Kalasagaram at Keyes High School recently. Gottu vadyam resembles veena sans frets and played with a slide generally made of special wood. Lalitha Krishna being an expert player on veena, it becomes easier for her to know where the required note was located. The beauty of Gottu vadyam is its continuous melody be it play of swaras or kirtana presentation.
Lalitha opened her concert with Intha kopamela , Navaragamaalika varnam in Adi talam that made audience get acquainted with the instrument and its melody filled notes. She presented this in two speeds. After playing popular number of Thyagaraja’s Tulasidalamulache in Mayamalavagowla set to Roopaka talam, Janani Ninu Vina in Reethigowla of Subbaraya Sastry in Misrachapu talam and Thyagaraja’s another composition Brovabharama in Bahudari, Lalitha Krishna came out with the rare raga Sucharita for the Koteeswara Iyer’s composition Velumayilume in Roopaka talam and dealt with it in great detail, denoting her rich manodharma. The kirtana play too was melodious with its sahitya expression.
Lalitha then chose Annamacharya kirtana Brahma Kadigina Padamu in Mukhari in Adi talam was a meaningful presentation matching the rich sahitya content. She then chose Raave Himagiri of Syama Sastry in Thodi and made it her main number. She played this enchanting raga with the same décor that gottu vadyam is capable of. The kirtana presentation was expressive, filled with melodic lilt. The swarakalpana too was expansive for it was presented in ragamalika format. The Tani avartanam that followed was a display of the expertise of percussionists Kalyan and Shanti Kaladhar. Violinist Radhika’s responses to raga and swaras were matching to the principal artiste’s presentation adding her own imaginative spells, displaying her rich manodharma.
In the later part of the concert, Lalitha brought in Vega Neevu a Javali in Surati of Poochi Sreenivas Iyengar and Teeradu Vilayatu in raagamalika in Tisra nada of Subramanaya Bharati.
