Among the different bANis of playing the Veena, the Tanjore bANi is famous for its gAyaki style. What you play on the vINA is what you sing. Great exponents like Veena Dhanammal, Shri KS Narayanaswami, Kalpakkam Swaminathan, etc. were exponents of this style. (Although some people are of the opinion that Shri KSN belongs to a "Travancore style" of playing, my Guru, Smt Kalyani Sharma, a disciple of Shri KSN once personally clarified from him that he is an exponent of the Tanjore style.)
Vidyanandi is a star disciple of Smt Mangalam Muthuswami, a great vINA exponent of the Tanjore style and an eminent teacher at Mumbai. Her technique of playing is the definition of soothing, her calm and mature approach to music throughout the 2 hr concert was indeed striking! After the demise of Smt. Mangalam, Vidya continues to learn from Shri Vamanan from Mumbai, who teaches her vocally and she translates his instruction onto the vINA!
Being an ardent devotee and follower of vINA based music and especially the Tanjore style, Vidyanandi's concert was one memorable one that will remain in my mind forever. The choice of kritis, the perfection, and the unhurried approach all contributed to making my day today. And the fact that this experience had to happen at my own place added to its value. This concert was held as part of the chamber music concert series that youngsters here have started. Vidyanandi chose Muthuswami Dikshitar's kritis for the presentation. Dikshitar himself was a vaiNika-gAyaka (so what an apt choice of theme!) and Vidyanandi brought out the ethos of His kritis and embellished them with beautiful and highly aesthetic manodharmam. Following were the kritis presented this morning:
1. vallabha nAyakasya - bEgaDa- rUpakam - R,S @ vallabha
2. kamalAmbA - Ananda bhairavi - misra chApu - R sketch
3. AnandAmrtAkarShiNi - amrutavarshini - Adi - S @ AnandAmrutAkarShiNi
4. sArasa daLa nayana- khamAs - chatushra jampa (I thought this is tisra Triputa, but it was rendered in chatusra jhampa)
5. mAmava mInAkshi - varALi - misra chapu - RNS @ syAmE
6. ranganAyakam - nAyaki - Adi
7. brhadIshwarAya - shankarabharanam - Adi - RNST with tAnam.
8. akhilAnDeshwarI - dwijAvanti - Adi
9. vIra hanumatE - kAnaDa - rUpakam
10. tAnam in madhyamAvati on my request!
My pick of the day was ranganAyakam! What an uplifting rendition! brhadIshwaraya was of course excellently rendered; the tAnam was again very pleasing. But ranganAyakam was the most beautiful! The version of kamalAmbA was a bit new, with some nice G3 prayogams in the charanam which I have heard only Vishwa sing.
Karthik Srinivasan on the Mridangam supported Vidyanandi unobtrusively with the right amount of silence and decibel levels. The 2 hr aesthetically-rich concert transported me to different level altogether. I do not remember having heard a kutcheri in the recent times that I was completely satisfied with, in all respects so this concert will be in my mind for a long long time.
-- Gokul--
