Vocal : Prof. Mavelikkara Subramanian
Vocal Support : Gopikrishnan
Violin : M Chandrasekharan
Mrudangam : M T Rajakesari
Ganjira : Vyasa Vittala
List:
01. Unnai yand’ri vErA ( varNam) – kalyANi – Lalgudi Jayaraman
02. gaNapatE suguNanidhE – janaranjani – Harikeshanallur Muthaiah bhagavathar ( A,S )
03. nannu brOvu laLitA – laLita – Shyama Sasthry ( A,S )
04. katha SravaNa mADu – rItigauLa – Purandara Dasa ( A,S )
05. brOva bhAramA – bahudhAri – Thyagaraja ( A,S )
06. purahara nandana – hamIr kalyAni – Dikshitar
07. ika nanu brOva – bhairavi – Pallavi Sesha Iyer ( A,N,S,T )
neraval & swara @ ‘bhava sAgaramandu munigi vetala jikki’
08. pullAi janiykkarutO – rAgamAlika ( sahAna, madhyamAvathi?, Subha pantuvarALi) – Mavelikkara H. Ramanathan
09. mangaLam- saurAshtram/ madhyamAvathi – Thyagaraja
Extreamly pleasing and memorable concert by Prof Mavelikkara Subramanian yesterday at the MES Kalavedi, with some stupendous violin support by M Chandrasekharan and apt, restrained percussion play. Prof Mavelikkara Subramanian, recently retired from Swathi Thirunal college Trivandrum, hasn’t been featuring in Bangalore for a while. I remember he sang at the BTM cultural Academy couple of years earlier. With the typical unassuming character, easy mannerisms on and off stage, he enthralled the audience in the evening with some classy display of music. I am very impressed, especially the way he sang the kritis, with some nice takes ( lalita for example) and the clarity with which each sangati’s came out.
The horoscope of the concert was written with the varnam itself. Lalgudi varnam in kalyani received ample admiration among the listeners as well as the artists on the stage. MC requested him to explain to the audience about the kriti and the composer. Every thing after that came with a short alapana and some nice swarakalpana; every thing.
A beautiful short janaranjani , with equally eloquent return from MC started it all. The swara kalpana was just as great. Lalitha was another gem. After a good alapana, he started the kriti with “laLita.., laLitA.., brOvu laLita…” before singing the pallavi line in full. The impact was trmendous. Ritigaula kriti was a nice, clever pick. Dasa kriti, set to tune by R K Sreekantan, was very good. “Katha Sravana mAdu – hari..” had some nice sangati’s built in. He did the same kind of start for bahudhari as well at ‘bhArama, raghurAma’ before coming back to ‘brOva bhAramA”. This has been in practice, often as we hear this with many other artists. The return of MC for bahudhari was ‘out of the world’. He started it with the pallavi line of GNB kriti, before playing some exqusite phrases. A visibly moved vocalist, stretched himself and touched MC’s feet, in admiration.
Bhariavi main after a short filler came in grand fashion. Typical alapana with meticulous build up, mostly with the known phrases, though it gave few moments of ‘aha’ response through the audience. As we were contemplating a Swathi Kriti for main ( all the other major vaggeyakara’s are already featured in the concert), ‘ika nannu brOva’ came in as a pleasant surprise. Beautifully rendered kriti, with an appropriate neraval and kalpana swaras. I think, he somewhat, ran over time as MC had to leave the same evening, causing the neraval and kalpana swaras being rushed through to some extent.
Percussion in general was very good. Restraint and playing for the song was the key and the volume levels were very much in line with the rest of the artists. Hence, overall it was pretty good. The duo played a nice tani avartanam after the main.
Post main had only one song, again due to time pressure. A beautifully written song by Mavelikkara Ramanathan in ragamalika. The Sahana and Subhapantuvarali part of the ragamalika was very appealing. Concert was concluded soon with mangalam.
I am not going to stop ranting about this. Every alapana was of top class, the violin support was fabulous, as one expect with MC on stage. The measure and control of swara kalpana was very good. Brilliant concert.
Brain Drain 