Vocal : Sukanya Prabhakar with Sumana Vedant ( daughter )
Violin : T S Krishnamurthy
Mrudangam : C Cheluvaraju
Ghatam : M Gurumurthy
Thematic Concert on Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar
List :
01 shLOkam ( shrIvidyAm jagatAm dhAtrIm) – hamsAnandi
shrImad chAmuNDEshvari (varNam) – hamsAnandi – Adi -Veena Venkatagiriappa ( S )
02 gam gaNapatE namastE – durvanki – tishra triputa – Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar
03 shrI jAlandharamAshrayAmyaham – gambhIranAtta – Adi – Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar ( A,S )
04 shLOkam ( shrIranga mangaLa nidhIm karuNA nivAsAm ) – kalyANavasantam
shrI ranganAtha pAhimAm – kalyANavasantam – mishra jhampa- Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar
05 sadAshivam upAsmahE – sarasAngi – Adi – Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar ( A,N,S )
neraval @ sadguru rUpadharam shankaram
swaras @ sarasAngArdhanArIshwaram
06 amba shrI rAjarAjEshwari – bhOgavasanta – Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar ( S )
swara @ ‘vikAra rahita vimalEshwari’
07 RTP – kIravANi – chaturashra triputa , 2 kaLai 1/2 Eduppu
pallavi line ‘shrI jayachAmarAja bhUpAlam smarAmi namAmi’
Swaras in kIravAni , no rAgamAlika swaras
tani Avartanam
08 shLOkam ( kara charaNa krtam vA kAyajam karmajam vA) – nAtHanAmakriya
shiva shiva shiva bhO – nAtHanAmakriya – mishra jhampa – Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar
09 shrI madyadukula vAridhi – rAgamAlika – Mysore Vasudevachar ( sang as shLokam)
10 mangaLAm – saurAshtram / shrI – Thyagaraja
Absolutely fantastic concert yesterday evening by the Vidushi. I am so very happy that I decided to attend this over the venue just across the road. I was expecting a typical concert of compositions of the Royal Composer of Mysore, accompanied with necessary commentary. What was so good was the way she separated the discussion on the composer and the concert itself. She spent the first 15-20 mins on the composer and some of the intricacies of his compositions before getting into a full fledged concert.
She started with a brief introduction of the Royal Composer. Mysore royal family had been great connoisseurs of art and culture for many generations ( I guess she mentioned JCW was the 25th Wodeyars of the clan). Artists from various part of the country were invited and encouraged to perform and learn. Born on 18th July 1919, he was the ‘adopted son’ ( there are some legends about this so called curse of the Mysore family) of Nalwadi Krishnaraja. He was introduced to music and culture at an early age. But he was more interested in Western Music and was an expert in playing Piano. It was much later he was interested in Carnatic Music. He learnt both Veena and Vocal under Veena Venkatagiriappa, later continued his training under Mysore Vasudevachar.
Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar has composed 94 kritis in total. Only kritia, no varnam, no thillana, no javali, no jati swara or any other forms of composition. All 94 are in Sanskrit, in which he was proficient, and were in 94 different ragas. He has created a few ragas and composed in those , eg durvanki, bhOgavasanta. He was a ‘srividya upasaka’ under the guidance of his guru, Sri Siddhalinga Swamy. All his composition as this as his ‘mudra’.
All his compositions have madhyamakala sahitya and rAgamudra, an inspiration from Dikshitar, and very well incorporated chittaswaras. He has also used a large variety of tala for his compositions ( 35 in total ) including a few complex ones like sankIrNa triputa anf khaNDa mathya. 64 of these compositions are on Goddess (dEvi) in various forms. 11 on Ganesha, 15 of them on Lord Shiva and 4 on Lord Vishnu.
To the concert….
She started her concert with a varnam ( first time for me) composed by his guru, Veena Venkatagiriappa. A 2 kalai, vilamba varnam in hamsAnandi, leisurely paced. Very interesting. The duo sang few rounds of kalpana swaras in the same speed.
Durvanki raga composition, probably only one in that raga, was the Ganesha kriti. His familiarity with western music probably influenced him here, as durvanki is a janya of shankarabharanam. She said the raga can have some similarity to sAma or mAND in some prayoga.
Gambheeranatta composition, popularised by MLV, was sung next. Daughter seemed to have nudged the mother with few takes of alapana, as Vid Sukanya took over from there and presented a short nice alapana. There was some rounds of impressive swaras too. Kalyanavasantam kriti was very nice. I loved the shloka she sang before the kriti.
Sarasangi was very detailed. Elaborate raga shared by the pair. Daughter was very very impressive with some absolutely beautiful phrases. However, it was sri Krishnamurthy blew me away. What a stupendous alapana he did. Outstanding stuff. Nice kriti, amazing neraval at sadguru roopadharam and equally classy kalpana swaras at the rAgamudra. This probably was THE BEST part of the evening.
As expected ( I was sure that she will sing this in the evening), she talked about bhOgavasanta. She said, until last evening she was thinking this is the only composition in this raga. Apparently, there is one composition by Periyasamy Thooran and one more ( she mentioned the name of some swamy, I couldn’t register the name). There was no alapana this time, she merely sang the mUrchana before singing the kriti. I think, I’ve heard her singing a detailed alapana for this kriti in a Radio concert. But, there was some crispy swaras at ‘vikAra rahita vimalEshwari’
I was expecting a big kriti of Wodeyar as the main, but she chose to sing a pallavi composed for this occasion. Nothing innovative or worth a word of the pallavi line, though. Keeravani alapana was again pretty nice. Violin was good too. He did a fleeting sojourn to hEmavati(?) as grahabhEdam in his turn. I could see the artists glancing at the clock and nodding at each other. Tanam was short, Krishnamurthy played some delectable movements. There was no trikalam and the swaras were limited to the main raga, without any ragamalika exposition.
Post the customery felicitation and she sang the popular ( by MS) nathanamakriya composition followed by a ragamalika composition by Vasudevachar , in praise of Wodeyar. They sang it as shLOkam, and not as composition. Pretty good, nonetheless.
Few things impressed me last evening. One, the young vidushi. Vid Sukanya and Sumana sang in tandem, sat together and shared, be it the alapana, neraval or kalpana swaras, among them. Sumana sang brilliantly through out. Two, Vid T S Krishnamurthy. He was brilliant through out the evening. His sarasangi alapana will remain in my memory for a very long time. Three, the way she presented the theme. She did not present it as a JCW compositions concert, but included the compositions of two of his gurus who shaped and formed the musical tastes of the Raja Composer. The pallavi created for the occation. The way she sang shlokam’s before the compositions. There were three in total, and I love them coming in concerts. Cheluvaraju is the apt choice for such concerts. His non interfering way of playing mrudangam made a lot of sense. The essence of music is not submerged in the enthusiastic percussion noise here. Even his tani avartanam was a subdued affair.
Let me repeat, an amazing concert. It will remain in memory for a while.
Brain Drain 