The fully packed auditorium sat in rapt attention to vidushi R. Vedavalli’s sedate but stately opening piece ‘Sri Rajagopala’ (Dikshitar) in Saveri. She luxuriated the piece with vilambita niraval on ‘Deeraa-graganya’ and swaras which went on for nearly 20 minutes. That Vedavalli showcased the raga, kriti and its grandeur with reverence added to the impact and left the audience spell bound. This spell was sustained till the end of the concert.
Her advancing age took a back seat as the veteran immersed herself in the music in her distinctive style that embraces piety and passion. The raga treatises exhibited the depth of her penchant for classicism.
A tidy Gowri Manohari and ‘Brovasamayamide’ (Garbhapurivasa) after a sweet ‘Ne Nendu’ in Karnataka Behag (Tyagaraja) and lively ‘Ramabhi Rama’ (Tyagaraja) led to the raga alapana of Abheri.
Vedavalli’s student Sumitra Vasudev presented an outline in her concert this past week, and the guru gave it full form in her concert. Always averse to dilution or variation of the original raga lakshana, Vedavalli showcased the true and exquisite shades of Abheri on the lines of its original patanthra in no uncertain terms. She followed it up with ‘Nagumomu’ (Tyagaraja), with swaras at ‘Jagamela Paramathma.’ True, anything in its purest form has its own appeal!
Khambodi, a raga generally projected with a dynamic and high pitched treatment, was projected by Vedavalli in its sober and subtle form. Except for a few flashy phrases on the upper registers offered to Sumitra, the lower and middle regions radiated with the raga’s charm as sung by Vedavalli. The tanam with a touch of other ragas (Varali and Ritigowla) landed on the pallavi set in Kandajathi Triputa as ‘Rangane, Thiruvarangane’. The niraval and swaras began slowly, progressed steadily and concluded meticulously.
‘Sri Abhayamba’ in raga Sri (Dikshitar), ‘Nee Vadane Gana’ in Saranga (Tyagaraja) and the concluding virutham in ragamalika of Azhwar leading to Purandaradasa’s kriti kept the tempo.
I happened to listen to a lec-dem by mridangam artist K. Arun Prakash where he spoke about playing percussion for a kriti keeping the musician’s mood in mind. He demonstrated that aspect here in the company of N. Guruprasad on the ghatam and reserved his expertise only for a matching and elegant but not extravagant tani avarthanam. The percussion artists deserve special appreciation.
Dr. R. Hemalatha’s experience of playing for many artists came in handy as she could fathom the mind and the style of a veteran of Vedavalli’s calibre; she translated them on the violin in her replies with equal modesty.
