Evaturi Vijayeswara Rao:

To talk about his concerts, the greatness of his concerts is, whether he sang a Keertana or anything else, he would sing in a Madhyama Kalam, not too slow (chaukam) or not too fast as if running. Whether he sang for half-hour or three hours, we would feel as if we listened to a full kutcheri. Whether you consider the Ragam or Swaram or Keertana, he would sing very traditionally and without following any one person's style, by mixing all different styles, he would sing in his own style that could be recognized as Varadaraja Iyengar's style. But, at the same time, he would never sing something that is not very traditional and we do not find anything in his singing that is not a Karnatic element. He would sing with Karnatic elements and very traditionally. Nowadays we mostly have all the schools unified, but in olden days even if the schools are the same each person had a different style like Ramanuja Iyengar's style and Madhuramani Style. He collected all those styles and developed his own style and whether he sings a Keertana or a Ragam or a Swaram, he knew very well how to make the concert to takeoff (Rakthi), as far as I listened to him. Thus, I listened to his concerts from 1950 to 1962 or 1963. I listened when Sethuramaiah and others accompanied him in Madras and with Ramaswamy and others in Vijayawada; I listened to a lot of Kutcheries with a lot of different accompanists. But, whichever Kutcheri it is, it used to take off at the beginning with Varnam and continue the same level until the Mangalam. Unlike, the Kutcheri failed here or it is good at this stage or it is good from here, it used to be the same from the beginning till the end. Also, whether he sang a Vakra raga or a Sampoorna Raga, whether he sang a popular raga or a rare raga he would sing with the same ease. He used to make it look as if we could also sing the same but when we make an attempt, it would be very difficult. Thus he used to make the raga appear to be very simple. Even if you consider the ragas like Narayani, he would elaborate and sing it as easily as Sankarabharanam. In Narayani he used to sing Bhajana Seyu Margamunu Joopave. He, once in a while used to sing Rama Neve-gani Nannu but he used to sing Bhajana Seyu Margamunu a lot. I almost learnt and repeated that Kriti by listening to him. When I could not remember a few Sangathis, recently I listened to DK Pattammal and perfected it and then taught my students.

I listened to his Kutcheries, apart from Radio, public Kutcheri only once in Vijayanagaram with Tirupati Ponna Rao on Violin and Veerabhadra Rao or Janardhana Sastri on the Mridangam. I don't remember what he sang. It was in about 1959. I remember very well it to be 1959 because, he came to the Thyagaraja Utsavams held there and my Guru passed away in 60. They asked my Guru to play accompaniment to him for that Kutcheri but my Guru refused saying that he stopped playing as an accompaniment. By then he stopped playing that for sometime. I knew that Narasinga Rao played for him too. But since there were not many concerts in Vijayanagaram and I could not go to Kakinada and Rajamundry to attend. I know about their performing together. He (Narasinga Rao) used to tell me, I am going to Kakinada to play for Varadaraja Iyengar. Thus I know at-least 7 or 8 Kutcheries that he played for him. In those days, if any musicians come from south to here (Andhra) it is only Narasinga Rao and VenkataRaju (Kolanki) who would accompany them. In those days they did not have so many people (to accompany). Naidu (Dwaram) stopped playing accompaniment sometime in 30s or so. Ever since, it was only he; no one else was there. Even he stopped (accompaniment) by 1954 or 1953 except for rare and compulsory one or two cases. After that he lived only till he was 50 years old or so, he passed away.