The serene ambience of Lalitha Peetham at Lalithanagar Visakhapatnam reverberated with melodic notes as young vocalist Kasthuri (Vempati) Kamala Deepthi sang her way into the hearts of music lovers. A disciple of T.N. Sesha Gopalan, she was at her evocative best all through. Known for her energetic presentation with an eye on detail, she delivered a classy concert on several counts of artistic brilliance. Her music, a judicious blend of melody and cadenced rhythmic grace, carries a soothing and balmy effect. Imbued with soft and silky gamakas her raga essays stand refreshingly pleasant reflecting her in-depth grasp of the contours of the raga at hand. The way she builds it up in the course of elaboration sans duplication of any phrase testifies her enormous talent. And in this concert, exposition of ragas Suddha Saveri, Lalitha and Kalyani spoke of it in detail. Her involved rendition made it a memorable experience.
She opened the concert with Srirajamatangi , a varnam in raga Dhanyasi. After this warm up, she was into a concise aalapana of raga Nata. The kriti for this was Pahimam Srirajarajeswari of Shyama Sastry. Bolstered with good swara sortie it formed the launching pad for the rest to soar high in spirited presentation. She seems to have a penchant for the compositions of Shyama Sastry and rendered each phrase of those taken up with great felicity of expression. Prior to taking up the mainstay, she picked up raga Lalita for Nannu brova, again of Shyama Sastry. Prefacing it with a slokam Srividya Siva Vamabhaga Nilaya accentuated its devotional claim in good measure.
Then she proceeded to take up raga Kalyani, the star piece of the session, for elaboration. The kriti for this, again of Shyama Sastry, was Kamalambam Bhajare . With a grahabedham leading to Suddha Dhanyasi and fluent neraval at Nityakalyani Katyayani and nifty swara suit, the presentation was truly a connoisseur’s delight. Srirama Saraswathi in raga Saraswati, Kanakasaila in raga Punnagavarali, Ksheerabdhi Kanyakaku were other notables in the concert.
Mavuduri Satyanarayana on violin and G Venkat Rao on mridangam lent competent support. Sri Vijaya Thyagaraja Sangeetha Sabha hosted it.
