Vocal Support : Ramani Shankar

Violin : Nalina mohan

Mrudangam : Cheluvaraju

Ghatam : sukanya Ramgopal

List:

01   ugabhOga ( ADigaLisi..) – nAtta- Purandara Dasa

        vandisuvudadiyali gaNanAtha – nAtta – khaNDa chapu – Purandara Dasa ( S )

02  kaNDa jUDumi – vAchaspati – Adi – Thyagaraja ( A , N, S )

        neraval & swara @ ‘ alanADu soumitri pAda sEva’

03   entha muddO entha sukhasO – bindumAlini – Adi – Thyagaraja

04  tatwameruga taramA – garuDadhwani – Thyagaraja

05  Emi jEsitE nEmi – thODi -  mishra chApu – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S )

        neraval & swara @ ‘  vara mantramanyulakupadEshinchatE nEmi’

06  karuNAnidhiyE – malayamArutam – Purandara Dasa ( O )

07  marukELarA – jayanthashree – Thyagaraja

08  anupama guNAmbudhi – aTHANa – Thyagaraja

09  pAlisamma muddu shAradE – mukhAri – Purandara Dasa ( A )

10  raghuvarA nannu – pantuvarALi – Adi x 2 – thyagaraja  ( A,N,S,T )

       neraval & swara ‘manasunA nannu maravu konnAnu’

11  SrIkAntha enagisTu daya mADO – darbAri kAnaDa – mishra chApu – Purandara Dasa ( O )

12   hari smaraNe mADu srI rangada – yamunA kalyANi – Purandara Dasa

13  sItA kalyANa vaibhOgamE – kurinji – khaNDa chApu – Thyagaraja

14  ugabhOga ( dhanyayuL trithAyudAdi) – sindhu bhairavi

        tambUri mIti tava – sindhubhairavi – Purandara Dasa

15  mangaLa SLOkam (thyagarAjaya mangaLam)  - rAgamAlika ( sAvEri,hindOLam, Anandabhairavi, bEgaDa, madhyamAvati)

       nInAma rUpamulaku – saurAshtram – Thyagaraja

Vid.Shankar and the team gave a brilliant concert yesterday at the Madasurabhi Monthly music Concert.  Being the season of ‘Thyagaraja-Purandara Dasa Aradhana’, the entire concert was on the compositions of these two composers. Started with a quick nAtta kriti and a set of swaras, he quickly got into the groove with a nice presentation of Vachaspati alapana. Kanda jUDumi, had the expected neraval and some intersting sets of swaras.  Couple of fillers came before a grand alapana of thOdi, pretty early into the concert.  Thodi was detailed and had all the typical phrases one likes to hear. Emi jesite, came in as we were contemplating the choices. The neraval and swara between the two vocalists and the violinst were very good.  Another couple of fillers came before Sankar asked his son to continue the proceedings. Ramani sang a quickfire aTHAna ( 3 fillers were unwanted though).  As one was expecting a pallavi, after a grand thOdi, mukhAri alapana started. However, alapana was short and he sang pAlisamma with no neraval ( I liked his neraval at ShringAra nagari nEle ) and swaras.

It was pantuvarAli as main. The alapana from Sankar , with some interlude from Ramani was very good. Violin return was also god, but was too short ( less than 3 min) for the main piece of the day. But, then I prefer neraval and swaras for pantuvarali than an elaborated alapana. Raghuvara nannu was treated very well with some brilliant support from the percussion team. Detailed neraval and swara followed keeping up the status of the main kriti of the day.

Sri Cheluvaraju and Sukanya stole the show from here on with a stupendous tani avartanam. I haven’t seen or heard him play so well over all these years, for which he received appropriate appreciation from the audience. Post main wsa also intersting with a very emotive darbari kAnaDa and a longish mangaLa slokam ( was it his own composition ?).  Being my first concert attendance of the year, I could not have asked for more.  

Violin : C N Chandrasekhar

Mrudangam : M T Rajakesari

Ghatam : M A Krishnamurthy

List:

01  gajavadana pAlisO – hamsadhwani – Adi – Vijaya Dasa  ( S )

02  rAgi tandirA – Ahir bhairav/chakravAkam? – Adi – Purandara Dasa  ( S )

03  pAhimAm pArvati paramESwari – mOhanam – rUpakam – Dikshitar ( A,S )

04  chalamElarA – mArga hindOLam – dESAdi – Thyagaraja ( S )

05  paridAnamichitE – bilahari – khaNDa chapu – Patnam Subramania Iyer ( S )

06  rAma nAma pAyasakE – AbhEri – tisra gati – Purandara Dasa

07  himAchala tanaya – Ananda bhairavi – Adi – Shyama Sastry ( S )

08  sadAmatin dalatu – gambhIra vANi – Adi – Thyagaraja

09  tanayuni brOva – bhairavi – Adi x 2 – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S,T)

        neraval & swara @ ‘ vatsamu veNTa dhEnuvu canunO vAridamunu’

10  krishNa murAri bhavabhaya hari – Saibhajan -  ??

11  rAdhikA krishNA rAdhikA – vAsanti ? – Jayadeva

12 kanDEnA gOvindana – mAND – Purandara Dasa

13  kshIra sAgara – dEvagAndhAri – Thyagaraja 

       ( started at anupallavi)

14  dEva bandA namma ranga banda – bhAgEshrI ?? – Purandara Dasa

15  thillAna ( dhim tana ta dhim tana ) – pahADi – LGJ

16  SLOkam ( srI vidyA shiva vAma bhAga )  – madhyamAvati

        mangaLam – saurAshtram – Thyagaraja

Sankaran Namboodiri gave another very good concert yesterday at SrI Jayarama Seva Mandali auditorium.  The elaborate Bhairavi and the chain of swara singing for most of the initial kritis were the highlights of the evening. He also chose to sing large number of Dasa compositions, which I thought was very apt for a non-Karnataka singer to do while perforning here.

Starting with a couple of kannada kritis ( rAgi tandirA was a bit awkward to sing so early in the concert), with some good round of swara’s set the tempo of the concert, getting the accompanying artists into the groove.  His first alapana of mOhanam came with some nice phrases,  and an intersting choice of Dikshitar kriti. While the kriti may not be a great one, it was interesting none the less. The swara that followed was appropriate and good.

A chain of various kritis followed before the main, each rendered pretty well and added with few round of swarams for most. The Gambhiravani kriti and the Anandabhairavi kriti stood out from the list. Ideally, I would have preferred lesser number of compositions at this stage, and another Alapana and a neraval.

The main bhairavi was brilliant, to say the least. After a couple of minutes, where I thought he wandered around, it settled into one superb alapana of Bhairavi filled with some great passages , traversing all three octave. Chandrasekhar was subtle and very emotive in his return adding to the overall effect of the alapana performed by the vocalist. Tanayuni brova ( what a welcome change!) came with all its grandeur with a brilliant neraval and some spellbinding kalpana swaras. Brilliant piece.

The percussion was good through out the concert.  Rajakesari and MA Krishnamurthy gave a spirited tani avartanam ( but was longish to my comfort ) adding to their already good show during the evening.

Post main was rather long, which seems to have included a couple of requests ( like the ksheerasagara, showing his mettle at the higher octave repeating 4-5 times at ‘tAraka rAmA’).  He concluded the concert with a thillana in pahadi.

Sankaran Namboodiri gave a very good concert yesterday. Look at the list above, it has all that variety that was needed.  Another alapana and a neraval is all I could have asked for, dropping a couple of kritis from the list.  But, that do not take away the good work he did last evening..

Vocal Support: Ramanathan

Violin : Mathur Srinidhi

Mrudangam : Padmanabhan

Professor Venkataramanan started the morning  referring Sri  Muthaiah Bhagavathar as Sangeetha Chakravarthy. He would rather talk less and sing more kritihs that reflect the genius of Sri Muthaiah Bhagavathar, he said, before starting the proceedings. However, to the benefit of the audience, he went through the life history briefly.

Sri Muthaiah Bhagavathar, born to Lingam Iyer and Anandavalli Ammal on the 15th ov November 1887 at a village called Punalveli near Rajapalayam in Thirunelveli District. His ancestors on his mothers side were reknowned Tamil scholars. While he was only 7 years old, his father passed away and he was brought to Harikeshanallur, under the protection of his uncle. At the age of 9 he started learning music from Fiddle vidvan Sambashiva Iyer of Tiruvarur in Tanjavur District, along with learning languages Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and Sanskrit apart from Vedas. He returned to Harikeshanallur at the age of 19. His early recognition came from the State of Travancore. Moolam Thirunal Maharaja presented him Rs1000 and a ‘Veerashringhala’ pleased with his concert. He married to Sivakami , daughter of his uncle at the age of 22.

On the request of Krishna Bhattji, he learned the Marathi Style Harikatha and started performing vaLLi kalyANam, kausalya KalyANam and few others in the ‘satdhi neeti’ style. In early 20th century, he performed in the Mysore Palace in front of Krishnaraja Wodeyar, and he was appointed as the ‘asthana vidwan’ where he stayed for long and most of his compositions were originated during this tenure. He wrote ‘Chamunda Ashtothara’ in Kannada, Shiva Sthrotra in Sanskrit, Navavarana kritis, all types of varnams, Thillanas. King asked him to compose a band song to be performed “Jumbo Safari” and while the discussion was on, he composed the ‘notes’ on the go and sang then and there. State of Mysore recognised him with a citation of “Gayaka Shikhamani” the first such award of the many that followed including Sangita Kalanidhi.

In the year 1936, Travancore Maharaja requested him to popularise the kritis of Swathi Thirunal. He suggested to start a Music Academy to teach Swati Kritis, but insisted on creating jobs for those who pass out of the college. The post of Music Teachers were created in every school on this request, a practice continued in Kerala State even today. Muthaiah Bhagavathar, joined the College as its first principal and appointed eminent musicians like Keshava Bhagavathar, N V Narayanaswami and Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer as the teachers. He also got the fees to very manageable levels for the students. Prof Venkata Ramanan recalled having paid Rs 5 per month as tuition fee in his early years and Rs 8 for advanced training.

In 1941, he authored a book titled ‘Sangita Kalpadruma’. He was given D Lit by Travencore University for his contribution to Music , subsequent to the release of the book. He was the first musician to receive doctorate. He joked, that these days every one is receiving Doctorate’, loosing its value. Sri Muthaiah Bhagavathar passed away on the 30th June 1956.

Muthaiah Bhagavathar will be remembered for his contribution to Carnatic Music as a composer. He has composed many kritis in his lifetime which are popular in the concert circuit. He has also considered to have introduced numerous new Ragams to the Carnatic music arena.

He started his concert with a varnam on Chamundeswari.

01 mahishAsura madhini – AndOLika ( O )

02 siddhi vinAyakam – mOhana kalyANi – ( A, S )

Muthiah Bhagavathar composed all types of varnams , tAnavarnams like the above, pada varnam and daru varnams. He chose to sing sAma varnam saying even though it is short it is special. The other daru varnams in khamAs ( more popular) and vasanta ( at this point Sri Bangalore Shankar who was in the audience, chipped in with hindustAni kApi) , which are difficult to learn and sing and he did not prepare.

03 paluku samayanu ?? ( daru varNam) - sAma ( A )

He said ragams sAranga malhAr and nAgabhUshani are like twins. Unless you are familiar to both these ragas, you will not be able to identify one from the other. Explaining the differences ( I guess, nishadam in avarohanam in nagabhushani) he said, he will sing a composition each to clarify the differences.

04 srI mahAbalagiri nivAsini – sAranga malhAr ( A,S )

05 gaNEsha skanda janani – nAgabhUshaNi ( A,S )

NiroshTha is another interesting raga from this genius composer. As the name suggest, nirOshta does not uses ma and pa ( the close of mouth thus eliminated). The krithi composed by Muthaiah bhagavathar does not have sAhitya and swara that require closing of the lips.

06 rAja rAja rAdhitE – nirOshTha

Urmika, he says was composed with the memory of durga in ‘bhadrakAli avatar’. The composition of Muthaiah Bhagavathar, uses words and phrases from ‘lalita sahasranamam’ cleverly mingled with his brilliance. Urmika, to the layman is Simhandra madhyamam minus dhaivatam.

07 kALarAthri swarUpiNi – Urmika ( A,N,S )

         neraval and swara at pallavi line

08 uraga rAja maNi valayE – paSupati priya

09 sarva jagat vyApinam bhajEham – manOrama

10 niramayE niranjanE – kuntaLa varALi

11 yArukkum aDangAda – bEgaDa

12 satchAmara ramA vANi – hamsAnandi

13 Notes ( da ri sa ri ga ri da ? )

14 thillAna ( dhim ta rara ) – hamsAnandi

this thillana was compolsed for Sri Chithira Thirunal Maharaja

15 jaya mangaLam nitya Subha mangaLam – hamsAnandi

SLOkam ( lOkA samastA sukhiNo bhavantu ) – madhyamAvati

What a performance. The alapanas of Saranga malhar, naga bhushani and Urmika, the swaras that he sang, the neraval for Urmika,..every thing as top class. One need to preserve some of these gems of Muthaiah Bhagavather as he demonstrated the nuances of the compositions. He was ably supported by the accompanying artists, and I was very impressed by the young Srinidhi, who was outstanding through out. Wonderful Sunday morning with some fabulous music.

Violin : V V Ravi

Mrudangam : Trichur C Narendran

Ganjira : Guruprasanna

List:

01 Alapana -  pUrvikalyANi

       SLOkam ( srI vidyAm shiva vAmabhAga nilayAM ) – pUrvikalyANi

       mInAkshi mE mudam dEhi – pUrvikalyANi ( gamakakriya) – Adi x 2 - Dikshitar ( A,N,S )

        neraval & swara @’vINa gAna daSa gamakakriyE’

02  amba vANi – kIravAni – Adi-  Muthaiah Bhagavathar ( S @varavINa pANi)

03  RTP – bhairavi & sindhu bhairavi  – khanDa triputa, 2 kaLai

        pallavi line ‘ kapAlini trishUlini Ezhil sindhu bhairavi pAhimAm’

       no Ragamalika swaras

       tani Avartanam

04  SLOkam ( jagati vijita manthram) – jAunpuri

        rAma manthrava japisO – jAunpuri – Purandara Dasa

05  thillAna ( dhim tadana tani nadru dru dru dhIm ) – bilahari - Poochi  Srinivasa Iyengar ?

06  mangaLam – saurAshtram – thyagaraja

        SLOkam (srIyAy kAnthaya ) – madhyamAvati

The concluding concert of the 5 day Academy of Music Festival at Chowdiah hall. The concert was shortened due to the extended falicitation ceremory, to a mere One and half hour affair, and that was a bit disappointing. He seems to have warmd up but the constant glance at the watch indicated a shorter concert with greater disappointment. On his part, he did not fill in the available time with lot many kritis. Upto the tanam of the pallavi, it was grand. The time pressure seems to have taken off with the tanam and the rest of the concert was not worth mentioning.

Earlier the evening , he received the covetted K K Murthy memorial Chowdiah Award from Suttur Guruji, along with Rudrapatnam Brothers.  The speeches and garlands went on for a while , despite the function starting on time. It was 8 ‘O clock, before the concert to kick start. Guruji, bagan his speech mentioning that the audience are here to listen to the concert, and went on to speak for another 20-25 mins.

TNS started off with a brilliant alapana in pUrvikalyani, and some how it reflected as he removed the first couple of pieces from his original list. The alap was detailed and long. Continuing with a slokam before the Dikshtar’s master piece ‘mInAkshi mE mudam’. He chose to do neraval at ‘vIna gAna dasa gamaka kriyE’ with a lot of emphasise on ‘dasa gamakakriyE’ . Kalpana swara was done in two speeds,  taking around 35 mins on this composition.

A fast paced AmbavAni followed along with a quickfire rounds of swaras. though it was of high octane and bit rashy, I liked it ( personaly I prefer slower version of Keeravani). Bhairavi alapana ,which followed had all the ingredient of a main. The slow build up, the deliberate and unhurried phrases , the high octave sancharas, the dhruta prayogas that followed and the landing. Including the mrudangist, everyone was ready for a bhairavi heavy weight to follow, but came sindhu bhairavi. Equally eloquent in his typcial fashion, the alapana was fabulous. There was the ‘crowd puller’ grahabhedam ( to what I cant recollect). Alapana concluded with the alternating phrases between the two chosen ragas.  Tanam was fast and somewhat hurried. There was no pause as he was clearly trying to catchup on speed. From here the rest of the concert was pretty quick and not very great. Tanam was done in a coupleof avartanam, pallavi was short, there was no trikalam, swara singing was also shortened with no attempt for ragamalika swaras. Tani Avartanam was also short. Trichur Narendran and Guruprasanna was very supportive through out the concert.

Despite the short duration, there was another break with the speech and flowers. Concert was wound up in next 5 mins with a dasar nama and a thillana. On the whole, it was not satisfying, as I did not come for a one and half hour concert. But, it is my experience , that any concert followed by a felicitation function will eventually be truncated by the extention of speeches and the associated delays.

Violin : Pakala Ramdas

Mrudangam : Mannarkoil Balaji

List:

01 sAmi daya jUDa ( varNAm ) – kEdAragauLa – Adi- Thiruvottiyur Thyagayya

02 vinAyaka vighna nAshaka – vEgavAhini – rUpakam-Dikshitar ( S )

03 SlOkam ( mAtA maragata shyAma) – kalyANi-

       srI madhurAmbikE SrI SivE – kalyANi -Khanda Chapu – Dikshitar ( N,S )

       neraval & swara @’sOmasundarESwara hrdaya vilAsini ‘

04  mahA tripurasundari – valaji - rUpakam – N S Ramachandran ( A,N,S )

        neraval & swara @ ‘ charAcharamayI chinmayI chidambara sharIriNi ‘

05  nI chittamu nA bhAgyamayya – vijayavasantam – dEsadi – Thyagaraja

06  bAlagOpAla pAlaya pankaja nayana – mukhAri – Adi x2 – Swati Thirunal ( A,N,S )

       neraval & swara @ pallavi line

07  toli nEnu jEsina – kOkiladhwani – Adi – thyagaraja

08  RTP – shaNmukhapriya – Khanda triputa , 2 kaLai , +1 eDuppu

       pallavi line ‘ sa ri ga ma pa da ni yenna pADuvOm shaNmukhanai ninaindu’

       rAgamAlika swaras in shankarAbharaNam, rasikapriya, gaurI manOhari     

       tani Avartanam

       trikAlam

09  SLOkam ( manOjavam mAruta tulya vEgam) – hamsAnandi, bhAgESri, sahAna

        entha balavandanO kunthiya sujAthanO – sahAna – Tisra gati – Purandara Dasa

10  jagadIsha panchashara – nAthanAmakriya – Swathi Thirunal

11  tillAna ( tOm tOm tadara tadara tani) – pUrNa chandrika – Pochi Srinivasa Iyengar

12  mangaLam – saurAshtram / madhyamAvati – Thyagaraja

Vidushi Prema Rangarajan and the team presented a good concert at the Indiranagar Sabha yesterday. The concert, to her reputation, was again filed with a lot of ‘not often heard’ kritis. 

After the brisk varnam in kEdaragaula and the Vinayaka kriti o Diksitar, she quickly uped the gear with a slokam and the dikshitar kriti Sri Madhurambike in kalyani. I found both the sloka and the kriti appealing. She did neraval at ‘Soma sundareswara’ to some detailing accompanied with kalpana swaras. Valaji alapana was prertty decent, so was the violin reply. The kriti of N S Ramachandran was new to me, and she did a good job with the neraval and short sets of swaras.  Another rare rendition of nI chittamu came in as a filler before somewhat elaborate mukhAri alapana. Alapana had the typical mukhari phrases , repeated by the violinist in his turn. Balagopala was also a pleasant surprice with some good sangati’s. She chose the pallavi line for neraval with some intricacies around pAlaya pankaja lOchana. 

A kokiladhwani filler came in before the elaborate , 2 phased alapana of shanmukhapriya. Somehow the violin solo wsnt all that impressive, may be started off a bit jerky.  A  swara sahitya pallavi ( purvangam with swaras and uttarangam with the sahitya) line , she announced it prior to the start, was interesting. The palavi wasn’t long as she quickly moved to ragamalika swara.  Swara was sung in 2 avartanams ( in 2 speed), changing the ‘shanmukhanai ninaindu’ to the appropriate raga name. Trikalam was done post the tani avartanam concluding a decent Ragam Tanam Pallavi.

Accompaniment was in general good. Ramdas was better during the neraval and swara phrases. his valaji and mukhari was also pretty good. Tani Avartanam, withou any support of upa pakkavadyam was done very well. Post main had a ragamalika slOkam followed by a dasara pada tuned in sahana ( in the lines of vandanamu) and the nathanamakriya kriti of Swathi Thirunal. A Purnachandrika thillana concluded a wel presented, in terms of kritis and ragas, concert by Prema Rangarajan.