Vidya Kalyanaraman at Raga Sudha Hall

[shriram.krishnan72]

Back after a hiatus of work travel. Using the long weekend to catch up on old notes and posting.

R K Shriramkumar - Violin
Arunprakash - Mridangam
N Guruprasad - Ghatam

Highlights:

Vidya has a pleasant voice and a very humble demeanour on stage. Her selection was top notch. She started with the evergreen Kedaragowla varnam and followed it with Intha Paraaka in Nadanamakriya. Could someone please explain how it is different from Mayamalavagowla? It sounded exactly the same to me. It had a generous dose of neraval and swaram which uplifted the concert tempo. She sang a good Kannada and followed it with Sri Mathrubootham. The next Hameerkalyani piece was rendered well and this was the first time I was hearing it and loved it. Shivanai Ninai Maname. Trilokamatha in Paras preceded an expansive Thodi. A rarely heard Munnu Ravana was handled well for both neraval and swarams and the thani was melodious to the ears. She sang a lilting shlokam in Darbari and Behag and began Devadi Deva when I had to leave. Overall it was a good concert with lovely music.

Positives:

Lovely pronunciation of words and paid attention to smaller details which garnered her a lot of appreciation from RKSK. Her selection was rare but outstanding.

Strong music with traditional values that comes to the fore in her singing.

It is also wonderful to see 3 senior musicians like RKSK, Arunprakash and Guruprasad be so supportive and work together with Vidya cohesively. There seemed no discomfort or egos at play which was heartwarming to watch.

Senior musician Suguna Varadachari seems to be training a number of talented and solid musicians like Vidya, Aishwarya Shankar, Brindha and Adithya Narayan. May her tribe increase.

Negatives:

Sometimes her vocalisation goes a bit harsh and produces an unpleasant tone. Hope she works on that to correct it.

Also though Arunprakash was fabulous throughout he has silent moments and then times of volcanic eruption. It is difficult to balance the microphones for both so his louder playing was starkly high in decibel level. Wonder if there is a solution for this.

Her voice also may need better stamina to sound the same and last the entire concert. Just a minor note.

Special Mention:

Raga Sudha Hall is always lovely for a concert setting and this was no different. Hopefully we can all hear more such good concerts with more audience in attendance for all types of music.

With a couple more years of hard work I see Vidya climbing near the likes of Amrita Murali, Nisha and others. Best of luck to her.

- SK72

[narayara000]

She started with the evergreen Kedaragowla varnam and followed it with Intha Paraaka in Nadanamakriya. Could someone please explain how it is different from Mayamalavagowla?

I think Nadanamakriya is more or less Mayamalavagowla sung in Madhyama Sruthi with no phrases that go above the madhya sthayi N or below the Mandara Sthayi N.

[Venkat Ramachandran]

When did it happen? Today it was supposed to be neela ramgopal

[Sundara Rajan]

This program was live streamed on June 17, 2017, and is available in You Tube.

[kssr]

If you get the feeling that it is MMG but still not MMG, you can think of Naadanaamakriya. I use this trick to recognise many ragas and it sometimes click

[shriram.krishnan72]

@narayara000 - Thanks for your explanation. I thought the same too but it does go above the Madhyasthayi N and to the Thaarasthayi hence my question

@kssr - Interesting way to look at it but maybe not fool-proof!