Dwarakalaya recently organised a Carnatic vocal concert by the Chennai-based Vani Ramamurthi at the temple complex of Ram Mandir, Dwaraka. Endowed with a melodious voice, Vani, in a well-structured concert of about two hours, enthralled music lovers with her musical talents. Vani began her recital with Swati Tirunal’s Ata tala varnam “Chalamela” in raga Shankarabharanam. The neat presentation of this varnam was by itself and indication that the concert would turn out to be a delightful experience. Vani lived up to that expectation and at the end of the concert one left with a feeling of satisfaction.
Vani’s invocation song on Ganesha was Papanasam Sivan’s “Gajavadana” in raga Sriranjani. The introduction of kalpana swaras towards the end of this song revealed her improvisational talents early on in the recital. While singing Shyama Shastri’s “Nannu brovu” in raga Lalita, Vani brought the emotive contents of the lyrics to the fore.
Vani took up Tyagaraja’s “Nadasudharasam” in raga Arabhi after introducing the raga with an alapana. The fast paced kalpana swaras provided liveliness to the rendition.
After Swati Tirunal’s “Bhogindra sayinam” in raga Kuntalavarali (Khanda Chapu tala), Vani moved to her central piece, another composition of Swati Tirunal — “Rama Rama gunaseema” in raga Simhendhra Madhyamam. In an unhurried alapana, she brought out the raga’s features. While presenting niraval and kalpana swaras, once again her creative talents shone forth. She concluded with “Karunai Deivame” (Sindhu Bhairavi) and a tillana (Baghyashree).
Another highlight was the quick rapport Vani established with her Delhi-based accompanying artistes. Delhi Sridhar on the violin and M.V. Chandrasekhar on the mridangam provided very good support. Their accompaniment, particularly, when the vocalist was presenting niraval and kalpana swaras for the central piece, added value. While Sridhar’s take on the raga Simhendhra Madhyamam was delightful, Chandrasekhar’s responsive playing throughout the concert and his subsequent tani avartanam in Adi tala were enjoyable.
Vani Ramamurthi is currently under the tutelage of the popular vocalists B. Ranjani and B. Gayatri.
At a time when veena concerts are on the decline, it was also heartening to listen to All India Radio’s National Programme of Music recently, in featuring a veena concert of by Vijayalakshmi. It is said the veena is closest to the human voice. It was therefore a wonderful experience to hear the artiste who presented a delightful recital. However, one’s joy was short lived as the concert came to an end within an hour to pave way for a brief laya vinyasa (percussion) concert. Even the earmarked timing of 90 minutes is short for a classical concert, so further curtailing of the veena recital was disappointing.
At Ramana Kendra it was heartening to see young Carnatic music students participate enthusiastically in a varnam competition organised by the Ramakrishnapuram South Indian Society. Though a basic lesson of Carnatic music, practicing varnams well in more than one speed not only develops a good grip on rhythm, it also gives the essence of the raga in which it is composed and helps develop creative skills. The organisation needs to be complimented for its efforts.
