Vocal : Vidushi Neela Ramgopal
Violin : Vittala Rangan
Mrudangam : Renukaprasad
Ghatam : Ranganatha Chakravarthy
Thematic Concert on Lord Subramanya
List:
01 slOkam ( srIkAntO mAtulO yasya janani) – hindOLam
mAl marugan murukan ( varNAm) – hindOLam – T M Thyagarajan
02 swAminAtha paripAlayA – nAttai – Dikshitar ( O , S )
03 vara sikhi vAhana vArija lOchana – supradIpam – thyagaraja
04 lambOdara sOdara – kalyANi – Muthaiah Bhagavathar ( A, N, S )
neraval & swara @ ‘ nA kOrina varamunu nOsangi nannu brOvumu’
05 muruka tiru mAlmaruga – harikAmbOji – Papanasam Sivan ( A, N,S )
neraval & swara @ ‘ karuNai kaDalE unnai kanamum upiriyEn kandA’
06 vElum mayilumE – sucharitra – Koteeswara Iyer ( O )
07 srI subramanyO mAm rakshatu – thODi – Dikshitar ( A, S,T )
08 viruttam ( vizhikku tuNai ) – mOhanam, kApi, behAg, sindhu bhairavi
manathir kugandadu – sindhu bhairavi – Tanjavur Sankara Iyer
09 tillana ( tom dru dru tani dru dru dhim tanana dhim) – darbAri kAnaDa - Lalgudi Jayaraman
10 mangaLam – saurAshtram ending with madhyamAvati – Thyagaraja
A thematic concert like this gives us ample reasons to attend. One, it gives you a lot of new kriti’s which are not often heard in regular concert. It also gives you enough chances to speculate ( in turn rejig your memories with the kritis you remember) on the possible choices. In any count, today morning concert by Vidushi Neela Ramgopal was fantastic. We were treated with many rare kritis and not regular ragams and some complicated talams too.
Hindolam varnam on lord murugan preceded a slokam, before the familiar nattai kriti by Dikshitar. There were short set of swaras but nothing to harp about. A rare supradeepam krithi of Thyagaraja on Subramanya ( there aren’t many such) came in before the first alapana of the day. Kalyani is not my favourite, but the alapana was classy. Muthaiah Bhagavathar’s kriti was also new to me, with a detailed neraval and swara by Vidushi.
The next harikamboji alapana was my take of the day. It was beautifully constructed and had some mesmerising phrases. Vittala Rangan did a good job with his return. The neraval was outstanding with some excellent take at the line “karunai kadale” . Koteeswara Iyer’s kriti in sucharitra as a filler was again new to me,
Thodi alapana had all the typical phrases and was showcasing her vidwat. Kartikeya gAngEya could have been the easy guess, but she chose to sing Dikshitar’s heavy weight SrI subramanyO mam rakshatu’. Another good round of swara singing with some tala intricacies, with apt support from the rest of the crew.
Renukaprasad was subtle and supported the singer spiritedly through out the concert. The tani avartanam with Ranganatha Chakravarty was good, but was far too stretched for me. It was getting a bit boring, lasting over 25 mins. Otherwise, the percussion in general was of very good standard. young Vittala Rangan impressed one and all with a great performance. To his age and concert experience, he played like a seasoned professional through out the day. I’m sure, he is going to enthral the listeners for many more decades to come.
Beautifully delivered viruttam stood out in the post main section, in ragamalika and a tillana in darbari kAnaDa. A nicely planned and delivered concert by the senior vidushi.
