Mysore Nagaraj & Mysore Manjunath , Seshadripuram College, 11 Apr 2010

Violin : Mysore Nagaraj & Mysore Manjunath

Mrudangam : Thiruvarur Bhaktavatsalam

Ghatam : Giridhar Udupa

Songlist:

01    rArA mAyiNti  - asAvEri – Thyagaraja

02    manavi nAlakinca – naLinakAnti – Thyagaraja  ( A,S )

03    idi samayamurA – nAtakapriya – Mysore Vasudevacharya

04   intakaNtE kAvalenA ??  – kannaDa – (Patnam Subramanya Iyer)

05   RTP – kIravANi – chatusra triputa  2 kaLai

         pallavi line : rAmA maragata maNi shAmA, sadguNadhAmA

         ragamalika swaras in dwijAvanti , hamsAnandi, chandrakauns ?? , bhAgEsri

         tani Avartanam

06   jagadOdhArana – hindustAni kApi – Purandara Dasa

07   unidentified..

08 mangaLam – saurAshtram, madhyamAvati – Thyagaraja

Mysore Nagaraj and Manjunath presented a good concert yesterday at the Seshadripuram College, Ramanavami Festival.  An outstanding naLinakanti and a good Keeravani were the highlights of the concert.  The concert started 30 minutes behind schedule ( due to the late arrival of hometown artists !) by 7:00 pm.  They started with a melodious rendering of asaveri krithi. The nalinakanti that followed was outstanding. The alapana from Nagaraj was very good , so was some of the swara prasthana.  Mysore Vasudevacharya’s nAtakapriya krithi and a short Kannada alapana followed before a magestic keeravani. The tanam as well as the pallavi were very good. The ragamalika swaras went into the familiar zone with not much to cheer about.

Tani avartanam was LOUD. Tiruvarur Bhaktavatsalam had been having some trouble with the mrudangam and through out the concert, he was tuning the instrument. I am not sure of the technicalities, but it had taken considerable amount of time at the beginning of every krithi. The percussion accompaniment, barring the tani avartanam, was good , especially by Giridhar Udupa.

I thought the overal decibel level was a couple of notch higher. Nonetheless, it was a  good concert, albeit short, by the violin duo.

 

Sikkil Gurucharan, Seshadripuram College 10 Apr 2010

Vocal : Sikkil Gurucharan

Violin : Mysore Nagaraj

Mrudangam : K V Prasad

Ghatam : Omkar Rao

Song list :

01 vanajAksha ninnE kOri – mandAri – Mysore Vasudevacharya

02 jAnakI pathE – kharaharapriya – Papanasam Sivan  ( N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘ dIna charAvana drutakara kankaNa’

03 anudinamu kAvumayya – bEgaDa – Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar ( A,N )

neraval @ ‘kanakaruci nIrUpamu kAkOdhara shayanA’

04 E rAmuni nammitinO – vakulAbharaNam – Thyagaraja

05 rAma rAma guNasIma – simhEndramadhyamam – Swathi Thirunal ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @ ‘ muni mAnasa dhAma mrgamada sulalAma’

06 hidako biDabEDa – aTANa – Purandara Dasa

07 viruttam ( Ala mAmarathinmEl..) – kApi

enna tavam – kApi – Papanasam Sivan

08 thillAna ( dhim tattara tani nAdru dhrim dru dhim) – bilahari -Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar

09 slOkam ( sarvamangala mAngalyE ) – surutti

srI rAma jaya mangaLam – surutti – Papanasam Sivan

Sikkil Gurucharan and team presented a beautiful concert yesterday at the Seshadripuram College.  Look at the song list ; a variety of composers, mix of various tala, and the set of krithis rendered ( a list slightly off beat (!).. , if I may say so..).

Started 20 min behind schedule, and interrupted by poor amplification settings ( until the begada), and a free roaming  young boy on the stage ; but none of these deterred the team in putting together a good concert. Good neraval and swara for jAnai patE , good bEgada alapana and neaval, a fantastic simhendra madhyamam krithi were the highlights of the evening.

Mysore Nagaraj was fantastic and his begada and sinhendramadhyamam returns were outstanding. K V Prasad was always a delight to watch. His percussion support was appropriate as ever and he and Omkar presented a good tani avartanam.

 

T M Krishna , Ramanavami Seshadripuram College , 28 Apr 2009

Vocal : T  M Krishna

Violin : H K Venkatram

Mrudangam : Arun Prakash

Ganjira : N Amrut

Songlist:

01 enthani nE – mukhAri – Thyagaraja   ( A,N,S )

02     – bEgaDa – ??

03 sadAchalEshwaram – bhUpALam – Muthuswami Dikshitar ( A,S )

04 nenarunchinAnu – mALavi – Thyagaraja   ( A,S )

05 mAmava pattAbhirAma – maNirangu – Muthuswami Dikshitar  ( A,N,S,T )

        neraval and swara at ‘chatra cAmara karadhRta bharata lakSmaNa shatrughna vibhISaNa sugrIva pramukhAdi sEvita’

        tani avartanam

06 swAminAtha parupAlaya – nAtta – Muthuswami Dikshitar

07 RTP – kAnaDa – khanda jAthi triputa

       pallavi line  ‘ chith-sabhayil natamADum daivamE kAtharuL karuNai pozhiyum varamE’

       rAgamAlika swaras in kAnaDa , SAma , hamIr kalyANi, shivaranjani

       short tani Avartanam

08 mAnasa sanchararE - SAma - Sadashiva Brahmendra

09  thillAna ( dhim tana dhim jhanuta) – behAg – Lalgudi Jayaraman

10 mangaLam kOsalEndra – behAg

I reached during the begada kriti. The accoustics at the place where I was standing was very poor and I could not identify the kriti. I understand that he had completed an elaborate mukhari before I came in. I wsa late and reached around 7:20. Knowing TMKs usual ritual of tuning the tambura ( 2 in this case) which last about 20 mins and his current trend of starting off with a heavy kriti, I might not have missed many. If there are any ommissions, I stand corrected.

Until the main manirangu, the concert was average. Mainly because of the poor sound systems. Bhoopalam alapana was detailed and the krithi was sung in a slow tempo. I like Krishna’s lower speed renderings, but yesterday it wasn’t as enjoyable as I wanted to be. What followed was a super speed alapana of malavi, HKV trying to match the speed by playing along. I thought that was not called for, as it only added to the overall ‘noise’ in the auditorium, loosing the effect. The kriti followed by another super fast swara singing, handled better by HKV.

The take of the day was the main. By this time, sound was better and what came out was one rendering of supreme quality. The alapana, and a master class neraval ( he chose to sing the entire line as neraval, which is pretty long) and some beautiful swara kalpana. HKV was also into his comfort zone by now, matching and getting praise for his playing. Tani avartanam was notable for some intricate calculations and patterns, even though it is not of the high octane kind which we are used to listen.

The pallavi came in as a surprise, as it was 9:15 by the time the tani avartanam was over.  Kanada ragam and tanam was detailed, pallavi with trikalam was also elaborate.  There was ragamalika swaras however short it was. Unlike many others who do a ‘for the sake of a pallavi’ , this was done in detail to the merit, even as the clock went past 10:00 pm. Wonderful concert from the main krithi.

 

Lalgudi Srimathi Brahmanandam, GJR Krishnan & Vijayalakshmi Ramanavami , Seshadripuram 26 Apr,2009

Violin Trio : Lalgudi Srimathi Brahmanandam

                         Lalgudi GJR Krishnan

                         Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi

Mrudangam : Arjunkumar

Ghatam : Giridhar Udupa

Song list :

01 vallabhE nAyaka ( varNam) – mOhanakalyANi – Lalgudi Jayaraman

02 srI mahAgaNapati – gauLa -  Muthuswami Dikshitar

03 koluvai unnADe – bhairavi – Thyagaraja ( S )

04 rAmachandram bhAvayAmi – vasantha – Muthuswami Dikshitar ( A,S )  – alapana by Smt Srimathi Brahmanandam

05 mOkshamu galada – sAramati – Thyagaraja

06 marivEre  – latAngi – Patnam Subramanya Iyer  ( A,N,S ) – alapana by Vijayalakshmi

07 swara rAga sudhA – SankarAbharaNam – Thyagaraja ( A,S,T) – alapana by Krishnan

       tani avartanam

08 RTP – brindAvani – tisra ata, 2 kaLai

      pallavi line ‘ srI rAmachandram bhajE shyAmaLam, janaka sutA manOharam’

      rAgamAlika swaras in kAnaDa, sAvEri , sAranga , dEsh, bhAgEshri? , behAg

09 jagadOdhAraNa – kApi – Purandara Dasa

10 thIrAtha viLayAttu piLLai – rAgamAlika – Subrahmanya Bharati

11 thillAna – tilang – Lalgudi Jayaraman

12 mangaLam – saurAshtram – Thyagaraja

If the concert of Mysore brothers the previous eveining was of power, exhilaration and excitement , this concert was of pure peace, sublime beauty.  Three people from the lalgudi family, one veteran and the other two of the current genre put together a concert to relish for a long time.  I was a bit skeptical with a three party violin recital. My apprehentions were removed from the first varnam itself with the understanding and coordination displayed. At no point of the concert was there any indecision or confusion.  It was equi-participative and with supreme clarity. 

Every piece of the concert was rendered with its flavour and color.  The bhairavi krithi , latangi alapana , the main Sankarabharanam all were treated beautifully to the delight of listenered.  I had given up hope on the pallavi as it was already 9:15 by the time the tani avartanam was finished. By the way, what a tani avartanam it was. Both Arjunkumar and Giridhar Udupa presented an explosive tani matching to the occasion.

The surprise came after the tani avartanam, when Srimati Brahmanandam started the alapana of brindavani. Soon it was clear that we are in for a treat with an RTP. Though it was short ( for 25 mins) it wsa one of top class.  The usual tail pieces included jagadhodharana and a tillana by Lalgudi in tilang. The rain did not play spoil sport on a great evening.

 

Price Rama Varma , Ramanavami Seshadripuram , 18th Apr 2009

Vocal : Prince RamaVarma

Violin : Dr Hemalatha

Mrudangam : Praveen

Ghatam : Omkar

Song list:

01 ninne kOri ( varNam ) – mOhanam – Poochi Srinivas Iyengar  ( O )

02 dEva dEva kalayAmi – mAyAmALavagauLa – Swathi Thirunal ( S )

03 manavi nAlaginca – naLinakAnthi – Thyagaraja  ( S )

04  pavana tanaya pAlayamAm – rasikapriya – BMK

05  nI valE daivamu  – yadukulakAmbOji – MDR 

06 rAvimchu vArevarurA – supOshiNi – Thyagaraja

07 rAma rAma guNasIma  – simhEndramadhyamam – Swathi Thirunal ( A,N,S,T)

    neraval & swara at ‘muni mAnasa dhAma mrgamada sulalAma’

08 srIrAma nAmam -  ?  – Bhadrachala Ramadas

09 hodi nagari mEle – Anandabhairavi - Purandara Dasa

10 sarvam brahmamayam - khamAs  – Sadasiva brahmendra

11 bhajan ( rAma rAma raghurAma ) – sindhu bhairavi -  Prayaga Rangadas (Grand father of Sri BMK)

12 bhujaga SAyinO – yadukulakAmboji , Sri – Swathi Thirunal

Poor mic and audio setting played spoil-sport,  otherwise a good concert by Sri Ramavarma at the Seshadripuram College.  Various attempts by the operators did not yield result till the main krithi was sung.  From his part, Ramavarma was composed and apologised to the audience for poor audio ( which the organiser did later).  Concert was of his traditional, unhurried, soft rendering of krithis.  His soft voice ( as if singing to himself or a closed circle of friends) could have made the life of the sound engineers difficult. He was harldy audible over the violin and the percussion. Praveen was the first to adjust and was soft with his fingers very soon. To me, he did a fantastic job yesterday.

After an elaborated swara prasthana for malamalavagaula , which could have been appreciated better if the sound was ok, he ventured into another sets of swaras for nalinakanti. The best of the day was the rendering of MDRs krithi in Yadukulakamboji. Very emotive and soulfilling, but the lines were bearly decipherable dampening the feeling. There was only one alapana , for the main krithi of the day, and that was detailed. So was the case with neraval.