Manda Sudharani @ Nadasurabhi, Indian Heritage Academy Hall 21 Sep 2014

Vocal : Manda Sudharani

Violin : Mathur Srinidhi

Mrudangam : B C Manjunath

Ghatam : Sukanya Ramgopal

Song list:

01. sharaNu siddhi vinAyaka – saurAshtram – Purandaradasa

02 chAla kallalADu konna – Arabhi – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘ ilalO sarivAralalO ‘

03  janani ninnuvinA – rItigauLa – Subbaraya Shasthri ( A,S )

04  bhuvanEshvariya – mOhanakalyANi – Muthaiah Bhagavathar ( A )

05  mAnasa sancararE – sAma – Sadashiva Brahmendra

06.  raghuvara nannu – pantuvarALi – thyagaraja ( A,N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘ manasuna nIki marulu konnAnu‘

07  pArvati ninnu nE – kalgaDa – Shyama Sasthri

08  RTP – madhyamAvati  chaturashra jhumpa in khanda gati

pallavi line ‘ mandahAsa vadana madhura vachana maNisadana ‘

swara in madhyamavati . No ragamalika swaras

tani Avartanam

09  vishvEshvar darshan kar – sindhu bhairavi – Swathi Thirunal ( short alapana)

10  thillAna – dhnAshrI – Swathi Thirunal

11  mangaLam – saurAshtram – Thyagaraja

I could not attend her concert yesterday and JP Nagar, and had planned to listen to her in either of the places. Yesterday’s miss necessitated my attendance here, skipping other lucrative options in the form of Sanjay Subrahmanyan at Malleswaram or Lalgudi siblings at R T Nagar. concert in all was good, despite her poor voice ( seems to be suffering a little) and the unexpected villain in the form of amplification ( it is very unusual here where the mike play spoil sport). In spite of these short coming, the concert was enjoyable.

Concert started with the vinayaka kriti of Purandara Dasa. The issue with mike started there. It went a bit out of control as soon as she started the Arabhi alapana. Multiple changes for the violin ( most of the issues were with the setting of violin) mike and cable did not solve the issue. In between a contact mike was planted on the violin to the discomfort of Srinidhi, which luckily did not stay there for long. Arabhi alapana thus went in these tussle. Kriti also started a bit coldly. However, she came back with some nice rounds of neraval and a breath taking rounds of kalpana swaras. That cracker of swaras also brought the team together, with Manjunath playing some exquisite percussion.

Reetigaula alapana was outstanding. She did have trouble going into the upper octave, but did play some moving phrases and some fast brigas. Srinidhi matched with a good return in his turn. Janani ninnuvina was good, but the swaras was even better.  A quick fast bhriga laden mohanakalyani alapana was nice, so was the violin return before the muthaiah Bhagavathar’s bhuvaneswariya. She played a short sama before the main.

Pantuvarali alapana was grand and typical. Improvising on the slow , deliberate phrases to some of the trademark passages and some innovative takes made it very pleasant and long. Raghuvara nike came with neraval and another rounds of marvellous kalpana swaras. She was phenomenal while singing kalpana swaras through out the evening.

There has to be a pallavi since she did not offer ther percussion the chance for their solo. Pallavi decision might have been prompted by the organisers who introduced Vid Manda Sudharani as a master of singing complicated tala pallavis. However, madhyamavati it was. Alapana was rather short with the standard madhyamavati takes, nothing great to talk about. But the tanam was grand. She with Srinidhi sang a memorable tanam. Pallavi was again structured around a complicate talam and nadai.She said, this can be considered as a trikala pallavi singing the pallavi line in three different speed for each phrase/word. There was a detailed trikalam, meticulously executed. Kalpana swara was limited to the main raga, with no ragamalika singing.

Manjunath and senior Sukanya Ramgopal played a delightful tani avartanam for a rather non-regular talam. Manjunath was very impressive with some intrinsic patterns that he initiated. The accompaniment in general was of top quality, despite the complain of the mike for violin. Post main was concluded quick with a couple of Swathi Thirunal kritis. A short alapana of sindhu bhairavi was interesting. In all, not the best of her concerts, but a decent affair.

 

Manda Sudharani @ Ramaseva Mandali , Fort Highschool 06 May 2014

Vocal: Smt Manda Sudharani

Violin : B U Ganesh Prasad

Mrudangam : J Vaidyanathan

Ganjira : B N Chandramouli

Song list:

01. sarasUDa ninne kOri (varNam) – sAvEri – Kotthavaasal Venkatrama Iyer  ( O )

02.  girirAja sutA tanayA – bangALa – Thyagaraja ( S )

03.  toLijanma manu – bilahari – Thyagaraja ( A,S )

04.  enta bhAgyamu – sAranga – Thyagaraja

05.  manasA manasAmarthyamEmi – vardhani – Thyagaraja ( A,S )

06.  rAja rAja rAjitE – nirOshTha – Muthaiah Bhagavathar ( O,S )

07.  padavi nI sadbhaktiyu – sALagabhairavi  ( N )

neraval @’thyAgarAja nutuDu SrIrAmuni tatvamu teliyani doka padavA’

08.  kripayA pAlaya shourE – chArukESi – Swathi Thirunal (A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @’tapaniya nibhachEla tuhinAmSu suvadana’

09.  annapUrNE viSAlAkshi – SAma – Dikshitar

10.  RTP – shaNmukhapriya – chaturasra tripuTa x 2 kaLai , samam eDuppu,  pUrvAngam in tisra naDai

grahabhEdam to ????

pallavi line : ‘ gAnalOla karuNAlavAla pAlaya, bhakta jana paripAla vara leelA ‘

swaras in shanmukhapriya, no rAgamAlika swaras

11.  SLOkam ( lOkAbhirAmam raNaranga dhIram) – behAg

bhaja bhaja pAyasa bhAvam – behAg – ??

12.  akaTi vELala – shubha pantuvarALi – Annamacharya

13.  thillAna – dhanASri – Swathi Thirunal

14. mangaLam – saurAshtram – Thyagaraja

It’s for the first time I am attending this vidushi’s live concert. My previous experiences of her music was a couple of TV telecasts. I am aware of her credentials and her capabilities and that was the inspiration to find time on a weekday to brave the rain and traffic to reach early for the concert. Except for her physical discomfort, which hampered the free flow of her music to some extend, the concert was fabulous. She does not have a voice that suit a play back singer. Added to that, she seems to be having trouble, suffering from a bad throat during the entire concert duration. That however, did not diminish the quality of the concert, giving us a highly satisfying evening. Another sholarly rendering, with some mesmerising   swaras and neravals.

After a short settling issue with the mike arrangements, the team quickly sang a varnam and a fast bangala kriti. Short round of swaras for bangala was interesting. Bilahari was the first alapana, albeit short. Toli janmamuna was decent, however the split swara singing ( in the same avartanam)  first part at tolijanma and the second at duduku was very appealing. Saranga filler wasnt anything special to mention.

She launched herself into another detailed alapana. We didn’t have to scratch our head for long identifying the raga, as the vidushi herself came to our rescue, announcing vardhani. Cant comment much on this as it isn’t a familiar ragam, however, it was interesting most of the parts. Ganesh Prsad did a commendable job too. Thyagaraja kriti was again new to me. She sang a few rounds of swaras as well.

Niroshtha was real class. Some outstanding rounds of swaras, with some clever distribution of the ‘eduppu’. Ganesh Prasad was brilliant in his returns here. Never heard such detailed kalpana swaras for niroshtha before. If this was a surprise, the salagabhairavi that followed had more in store for us. First, she sang the entire charanam ( all four ) , I’ve not heard this from anyone before. Added to that, she decided to sing a brilliant neraval for the complete 4th charanam line.

Charukesi alapana started around 8 ‘O clock. Alapana was rather short, did not create the impression for the main piece of the evening. Alapana from her as well as Ganesh Prasad was good. The kriti with neraval and kalpana swaras was pretty decent. Percussion team played out a good tani avartanam. In general, percussion was rather subdued. The amplification balance was on a lower side for the mrudangam, and I felt it took 3-4 kritis before it fell into the groove. Ganesh Prasad on the other hand was very impressive, his niroshtha the shanmukhapriya alapana and tanam were top class.

Pallavi was in the offing, looking at the time. Shanmukhapriya alapana by itself was ok, but for a clever grahabheda she did in the middle. I couldnt decipher the drift in the short time, hence cant identify to which raga she traversed. Tanam was long and very good, especially the return from Ganesh Prasad.  Though the pallavi was set to adi tala, there wsa nadai variation from the purvanga and uttaranga. There was the customary ‘trikalam’.  No ragamalika swaras, but she sang an outstanding shanmukhapriya swaras. A ‘looong’ swara prasthana, with all intricacies thrown in, were awesome.

Post main had a couple of pieces, and the dhanasri thillana. The behag kriti was new, and shubha pantuvarali version of akaTi vELala was interesting. Very good conert, despite her not being 100% fit, physically.