R Vedavalli at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha

Smt. R Vedavalli - Vocal
Sri R K Shriram Kumar - Violin
Poongulam Sri Subramanian - Mridangam
Pudukkottai Sri Ramachandran - Ghatam
Smt. V Sumitra - Vocal Support
Smt. Sumathy Krishnan - Vocal Support & tamburA

Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, 2nd September 2005

ento prEma - suruTTi varNam - Adi
ninnE nEra namminAnura - kAmavardini - rUpakam - T (N,S at "vEda shAstra purANa vidyalacE")
sItApatE nAmanasuna - khamAs - Adi - T (N,S at " prEma jUci nApai pedda manasu jEsi")
rAmAbhirAma ramaNIya - darbAr - misra cApu - T
mAmava satatam - jaganmOhini - Adi(2) - T
mitri bhAgyamE - kharaharapriyA - Adi(2) - T (R, N,S at " bAguga vinta rAgamula nAlApamu ")
slokam - "jAnAdi rAma tava nAma ruchim..." in sAvEri, danyAsi, sahAnA, kApi, nIlAmbari, sindhubhairavi, suruTTi
nAdapriyA sivanenba - hamsAnandi - lingAyat vacanam
adaikkalam adaikkalam - madhyamAvati - Adi
tillAna - vasantA - Adi
nI nama rUpamulaku - saurAshTram - Adi - T

The concert started with a short sketch of suruTTi rAgam and the varnam was briskly rendered. The kAmavardini kriti was rendered with neraval and swarams which were just good.

The start of khamAs was giving a flavour of an AlApanai, alas it was just a short sketch and the kriti was rendered with neraval and svarams to be followed by rAmAbhirAma.

The jaganmOhini kriti was rendered with a lot of bhavam and was really the highlight of the concert. Next was the first and unfortunately the only elaborate AlApanai of the concert. kharaharapriyA was well elaborated with-in its limits and was not very exhaustive either. The kriti was started at the anupallavi 'chitra ratna maya'. The neraval was followed by vilamba kAla svarams for single or two Avartanams and just the long kOrvai in dhurita kAlam.

The post tani part of the concert featured a nice rendering of the slOkam in all the rAgams mentioned showing their essential sancarams. The tillAna was nice though gimmicky at a few places.

Sri Shriramkumar on the violin did a very good job with the violin in accompanying the concert. His AlApanai of kharaharapriyA and the neraval and svarams for all the kritis were good also.

Sri Subramanian on the mridangam and Sri Ramachandran on the Ghatam were good in accompanying though the thani was just a routine affair with nothing novel.

It was an enjoyable concert, but it did not live-up to what one would expect from somebody of the stature of Smt. Vedavalli, who was visibly feeling un easy to sit down and also had some throat problems.

bharath

Many a rasika landed up at KGS expecting the concert listed in the schedule and did not know the last-day change to that of Smt. Vedavalli. It was nice to hear people gossiping "Ava kutcheri illaiyame, vedavalli mami paada poraalaam. nanna thaan irukkum, yenna vayasaayiduthu, koral pesumo yennamo therila" and other similar dialogues. There was one particular mAmi who said, "inime concert varathukku munnadi anniki hindu paper paakanum, concert list nambi vara pdadhu" while another elderly gentleman commented "Ipdi sabhavellam list anuppina, paper paathutu vaangonnu artham".