Bharat Sundar @ Odukathur Mutt, SGBS Trust Gokulashtami Festival 22 Aug, 2018

Vocal : Bharat Sundar

Violin : B U Ganesh Prasad

Mrudangam : Sankaranarayanam

Ghatam : Sivaramakrishnan

List :

01 chalamEla (varNam) – nATakurinji – Adi – Rangaswamy Nattuvanar

02 sonnatai kEL kaNNA – pantuvarALi – Adi – Oothukkad Venkata Subbaiah ( S )

03 akhilANDEshvari rakSamAm – dvijAvanti – Adi – Dikshitar

04 gOpikAmanOharam bhajE ham – mOhanam – Adi – Dikshitar ( A,N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘gOpAlam kaustubhamaNi bhUSam, kamsaharam gambhIrya mrdu bhASam’

05 gAnAmudapAnam – jyOtisvarUpiNi – Mishra Chap – Koteeswara Iyer ( A )

06 kAlaharaNa mElarA harE – shuddhasAvEri – Adi – Tyagaraja

07 naDaci naDaci – kharaharapriya – Adi x 2 – Tyagaraja ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @ ‘puDamisuta sahAyuDai celenge pUrNumi ‘

08 gOvardhana giridhAra – darbAri kAnaDa – Adi – Narayana Theertha

09 krSNA nI bEganE bArO – yamunAkalyANi – Mishra Chap – Vyasaraya

10 thillAna ( taka tajhunu dhImta ) – mOhanakalyANi – Adi – Lalgudi Jayaraman

11 mangaLam – saurAStram – Adi – Tyagaraja

First of all kudos to the artist, despite all the difficulties, presented a brilliant concert yesterday at Odukathur Mutt. After a long journey from Canada, with delayed flight, missing baggage and missing the Bangalore flight, eventually driving down from Chennai, with jet lag, missing sleep and delivering a commendable concert shows his commitments and professional discipline. There was no visible signs exhibited through out the concert. Suh attitude will surely take him far in his professional endeavour. Keep it up !

Fast pantuvarali with super fase swaras for pantuvarali spiced things up after a meh! varnam.  A sedate, very pleasant dvijavanti was memorable. Unlike the rest of the concert, this was really sung very slow. Two observations here. One, the mrudangam accompaniment wasn’t very pleasing. It did not go with the feel of the composition. Two, he sang it as ‘varashailarAjanutE’  ( that is how it is given in karnatik.com ), but the other version ‘varashailarAjasutE’ , I think is more appropriate.

Very nice mohanam alapana by both artists. Gopika manOharam was indeed a good surprise. He sang a crisp neraval at ‘gOpAlam kaustubhamani’. He did the speed/nadai variations and in upper and lower octaves. Probably, it had to do with the scope of the composition, haven’t seen much variations in the sangati during the neraval. Swara was very good too. BUG, played some delectable phrases. Very classy alapana of jyothisvarupini, probably the highlight of the evening.

Elaborate kharaharapriya alapana. Very impressive. On the other hand, I am not all that happy with naDachi naDachi ( literally meaning ‘walking on and on’) in ‘running’. I am reminded of my first year hostel mates ( who is from Madurai, incidently) who used to play the then super hit ‘aDi AthAdeeeee’ in a walkman every morning before class starts. On most of the days, he adjust the speed of the walkman to make it run faster, as the time was short.  Nadachi nadachi was uncomfortably fast. And in that it lost some of its sheen. Otherwise, it was good. Neraval and swaras suffered by the speed, however good it was. The percussion team was decent through out, so was the tani avartanam.

He was mellowed down after this and the rest of the evening were very well done. Darbari kanada and the yamuna kalyani were splendid. Especially the early stage of Krsna nee begane baro were very good.

He is a brilliant musician. Ramesh Swamy commented on his free flowing music, which I agree with. If he is able to get the speed down by a notch or two, it would have made a himalayan difference to me.

 

Bharat Sundar @ Unnati, Gokulashtami Series, 05 Aug 2017

Vocal : Bharat Sundar

Violin : M R Gopinath

Mrudangam : Neyveli Skandasubramanian

Ghatam : H Sivaramakrishnan

List

01. varNam – AbhOgi

02 sAmaja varadA nIku – shuddha sAvEri – Ramanathapuram Srinivasa Iyengar ( S )

03 bAlakrSNan pAdamalar – dhanyAsi – Papanasam Sivan ( A,N,S )

neraval @ ‘nIlamukil pOl azhakan’  Swaras @ ‘varaguNa bAlakrSNan’

04 ninne nammitinayyA – simhEndramadhyamam – Mysore Vasudevachar ( N,S )

neravan&swara @ ‘pannagEndra shayana, pannagAri vAhana’

05 nambi kettevar evarayya – hindOLam – Papanasam Sivan ( A )

06 challarE rAmachandruni – Ahiri – Thyagaraja ( O )

07 vandE sadA padmanAbham – navarasa kannaDa – Swathi Thirunal ( S )

08 kAmAkSi varalakSmi – bilahari – Dikshitar ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @ ‘kAmakalE vimalE karakamalE kAmakOTi bilaharinuta kamalE’

09 nI mATalE mAyanurA ( javaLi) – pUrvikalyANi – Pattabhiramayya

10 viruttam ( kArAyavaNNa maNivaNNA kaNNA) – brindavana sarang,varLAi,khamAs,mAND – Ramalinga Swami

muraLIdhara gOpAla – mAND – Periyasami Tooran

11 jamunA kinArE pyArE (bhajan) – mishra pIlu – Swathi Thirunal

12 thillAna ( tOm tOm tadara tadaradAni ) – pUrNachandrika – Ramanathapuram Srinivasa Iyengar

13 tirupugazh ( charana kamalAlayathai) – shubha pantuvarALi

14 mangaLam – saurAStram/madhyamAvati – Thyagaraja

shLOkam ( mangaLam kOsalEndrAya) – madhyamAvati

Brilliant concert by the young vidvan. Very refreshing set of ragas and compositions. Nice mix and variety in all aspect. He sang each of them to some good impact. Classy hindOLam and bilahari alapana. Impressive takes on dhanyAsi alapana, albeit to a lesser attractiveness. Fabulous neraval for bilahari and simhendra madhyamam. However, not so great for dhanyasi, probably he chose a wrong place. Brilliant swara singing through out, especially with faster tempo , which looks like his forte.  Nice picks of Ahiri and navarasa kannada compositions.

Post main was very well thought through and delivered. The days when post main is usually concluded with two or three pieces with a customary devarnama, it is encouraging to see young vidvans like Bharat Sundar is giving it some considerations. The jAvaLi, viruttam, bhajan and tirupugazh were very well sung. Beautiful stuff.

The accompanying artists, did a fabulous job, especially Sri Neyveli Skandasubramanian. M R Gopinath was very good in his returns, especially the bilahari alapana. Tani Avartanam was good, with mrudangam taking the lion’s share of the proceedings.

 

Bharat Sundar @ Sri Rama Seva Mandali, Fort School , 10 Apr 2017

Vocal : Bharat Sundar

Violin : Mathur Srinidhi

Mrudangam : S Ashok

Ghatam : B R Ravikumar

List:

01 evaraNi nirNayincirira – dEvAmrtavarSiNi – Thyagaraja

02 marivErE dikkevaru – latAngi – Patnam Subramanya Iyer ( N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘monarimpa vinavE nI varada venkaTEshvara ‘

03 sharaNam sharaNam enrAnE – saurAStram – Arunachala Kavi ( A )

04 ninnADa nEla – kannaDa – Thyagaraja ( O,S )

05 koluvai unnADe kOdaNDapANi – bhairavi – Thyagaraja ( A, N, S, T )

neraval & swara @ ‘ toLi karmamanaga jUtamu rArE ‘

06 rAmanai bhajitAl – mAND – Papanasam Sivan

07 venkaTAchala nilayam – sindhubhairavi – Purandara Dasa ( A )

08 mangaLam – saurAStram / surutti – Thyagaraja

This was the second concert of the evening. I reached while Ritwik Raja was having an elaborate neraval for munnu rAvaNa. Both Bharat Sundar and Ritwik Raja were awarded this years Yuva Puraskar by the Mandali. Good choices and my congratulations to both the recipients.

Bharat Sundar’s concert started on a low key but steadily progressed very well. Like all the youngsters, he too had his inclination towards speed. If he had dropped the speed by a pint or so, this would have been more appealing.

He did not have cracker of a start. evarani was a dampner, some how it did not really impressed me. Had he started at anupallavi, it might have made some impact. Then came the  Latangi Express, fast neraval and faster kalpana swaras. Hmm.

Now he did a wonderful thing. Started alapana for Saurashtram. Despite being on a faster side, I liked it. One, no one sing saurashtram alapana these days. Second, he chose a kriti which isnt heard even if some one takes up saurashtram in a concert. Good job. Commendable.  Another fast paced Kannada kriti came, but I will let it pass.

Bhairavi was main. Long alapana, lot of fragmented intelligent phrases. Some fantastic passages creating aha moments. But, I am yet to recover from the previous days effect created by Abhishek at Seshadripuram. So, there. Koluvai Unnade again, second day in succession. Again, retention power to blame.  Having said that, Bharat Sundar sang a tremendous neraval at toli karmamanaga followed up with a decent kalpana swaras. Bangalore Brother S Ashok, this time on stage with Mrudangam played an impressive tani avartanam with Ravikumar. Percussion was on a lower volume level, but did accompany neatly through out.

By now, he was settled. I liked the next couple of pieces the best. Ramanai Bhajital was very good. The sindhu bhairavi alapana to me was the best of the evening. Mathur Srinidhi , who was having an excellent day added to the main artists alapana with his own impressive play.

Very talented youngster, excellent musical ideas. I am sure I will listen to many more of his concert in the years to come.