Vocal : Sanjay Subrahmanyan
Violin : Mysore Nagaraj
Mrudangam : K U Jayachandra Rao
Morsing : B Rajasekhar
List:
01 satura kAmini dEva (pv) – kalyANi – Swathi Thirunal
02 gitichakra ratha sthitAyAi – kannaDa – Dikshitar ( A,S )
03 vanadurgE vanaspati – vanaspati – Muthaiah Bhagavathar ( A,S )
04 kAlai tUkki ninrADum daivamE – yadukulakAmbOji – Marimuthu Pillai
05 koluvamArE gadA – thODi – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S,T )
neraval & swara @ ‘ tambura jEkoni guNamula jeluvonda bADacu ‘
06 manEyoLagAdO gOvinda – abhOgi/shrIranjani – Purandara Dasa
07 RTP – kEdAragauLa – khaNDa Eka x 2 kaLai x 2 avartanam for complete pallavi
pallavi line “tANDavam ADum tillai naTarAjan, tajam takajam takitajam enru -”
rAgamalika svaras in ‘Anandabhairavi , pantuvarALi , kadanakutUhalam
08 nirupamAna sAmi nI – behAg – Ramanathapuram Srinivasa Iyengar
09 ennamO vaghayAi varugudE – khamAs – Ghanam Krishna Iyer ( O )
10 palukutE nelatalli – AbhEri – Annamacharya
11 rAmanai bhajitAl – mAND – Papanasam Sivan
12 mangaLam – saurAshtram – Thyagaraja
vAzhiya sentamizh – madhyamAvati – Subramanya Bharathi
It had been a long time. Almost two months since I attended a concert. First time in last 10 years or so, where I haven’t attended a concert for an entire calendar month. Hence the expectations were high and so was the anxiety. Despite early departure from office and maneuvering the traffice, we could only find a place in the balcony. Sanjay, always begins his concert on time, and yesterday was no difference. But I was there to witness the entire concert unfold from the beginning. And what a spellbinding concert it was. Having used to see the same accompaniment for Sanjay, this sight of Mysore Nagaraj and K U Jayachandra Rao was a welcome surprise.
Sanjay, probably the only leading artist who brings a lot of variety to singing varnams. It is laudable in the days when singing varnam is becoming a taboo and whole lot of discussions for and against are being circulated in the community. I personally prefer a varnam at the beginning of the concert and not going to add my reasons to why, here. Every concert of Sanjay these days begin with a different varnam and some of them are real masterly compositions. The Kalyani varnam he sang yesterday was another gem of a composition. While there are available versions in the ‘youtube’ including one sung by Sanjay, this is for the first time, I am hearing this. I am amazed at the depth as well as the length of this pada varnam. This alone lasted nearly 16 minutes. Fantastic start.
Kannada alapana came soon with another not often heard composition to follow. Gitichakra ratha sthitAyai was very good, so was the kalpana swaras that followed. Vanaspati alapana came in immediately. He came to the rescue of people scratching the identiy of their brains, announcing it vanaspati. Pariyachakama was playing in my mind, but he chose to sing the Muthaiah Bhagavathar’s composition, which has a beautiful start with the rAgamudra’ embedded in it. The was after an eloquent return by Nagaraj. Kalpana swaras were sung at madhyamakala at ‘vanaspati’ with some mesperising patterns, largely through short ones, before returning to the song and completing the remainder of the charanam. A moving yadukula kamboji came in as a filler before the main.
Thodi alapana was weaved carefully through series of short phrases and quick bhriga laden akaram singing. Few instances of Mani Iyer influence during the alapana was nice to hear. In the middle, he took us to a different terrain with some different take, little folkish ( for want of better word as I am unable to explain it in technical terms) sounding slow phrases. This seems to have gone well with the listeners as he received a lot of applause for his efforts. A similar pattern he continued during the neraval. Great alapana from the singer was aptly complimented by a majestic return from Nagaraj. He did some fast moving phrases in his typical style. KoluvamarE gadA was a fabulous choice for the evening after the grand build up. The team played a brilliant neraval. To me, the morsing was a little inadequate at these stages, and I saw Jayachandra Rao chipping in more often even during the violin returns. There was equally enaborate kalpana swaras in typical two speed variation.
The percussion duo, played a good tani avartanam post the main. Jayachandra Rao was involved from the varnam playing some exquisite takes. Morsing left me for wanting most of the first half, improved much better towards the second part of the evening. A devarnama came in before the pallavi.
Kedaragaula alapana was very good, played even better by Nagaraj, barring a few jarring sound at high speeds. As usual an elaborate tanam between both the vocal and violin. A few impressive takes, clever ‘pause and fill’ between them to some great effect. A few ‘tagugugu’ patterns probably wasn’t very appealing. Pallavi was set to an interesting tAla. The entire line was completed in two beat cycle, even in 2 kaLa. Some great variations in the ‘tajam takajam takitajam’ during the pallavi repeats, using different ‘syllables’ were very nice. There was trikalam as well, which isn’;t common in his pallavis. Ragamalika swaras has some great takes too, espacially with pantuvarali. A very different approach to ‘pantuvarali’ svaras got many thinking and that made his comment’ pantuvarALi tAn’ in the middle.
Post pallavi was a few quick songs, with a short khamas sketch for khamas. Again a variety of new kritis, apart from the mAND composition. Surprisingly, there was no viruttam this time and he extended his mangalam by adding vazhiya senthamizh in madhyamavati.
A very refreshing sets of kritis and ragams, outstanding thodi and a classy kedaragaula pallavi. A concert sure to get a lot attention in the connoisseurs and common listeners discussions in the coming days.
