Aishwarya Vidya Raghunath @ Nadaloka, Heritage Academy Hall 02 Jun 2019

Vocal : Aishwarya Vidya Raghunath

Violin : Vaibhav Ramani

Mrudangam : Guru Raghavendra

List

01  nera nammiti (varNAm) – kAnaDa – aTa – Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar

02  shrI mahAgaNapatim bhajEham – aThANa – Adi – Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar ( O,S )

03  shankari shankuru – sAvEri – Adi tisra gati – Shyama Shasthry (A,N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘jambUpati vilAsini jagada manOllAsini’

04  rAnidi rAdu – maNirang – Adi – Thyagaraja ( A,S )

05  ghananaya dEshikha gAna rasikA – riSabhapriya – Adi – Koteeswara Iyer

06 mariyEmi kAvalenu – kannaDa – Adi – Ambujam Krishna

07 evari mATa – kAmbOji – Adi x 2 – Thyagaraja (A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @ ‘ bhakta parAdhInudanucu parama-‘

08 dEvakI nandana nanda mukundana – mAND – Adi – Purandara Dasa

09 sindhu taraN siya sOch haraN – sindhu bhairavi – Adi – Tulsidas

10 nI nAma rUpamulaku – saurAStram – Adi – Thyagaraja

shLOkam ( mangaLam kOsalEndrAya) – saurAStram

She sang a very good concert yesterday. Both sAvEri and kAmbOji are top class.

A tribute concert , remembering four titans whose birth centenary is celebrated this year – Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar, Ambujam Krishna, D K Pattammal and S Rajam. This year is also the death centenary year of Ramanathapuram ( poochi) Srinivasa Iyengar.

The selection of kritis, thus, are carefully chosen with the theme in mind. Nice job done.

Saveri was grand. Super start of the alapana. Fabulous neraval. Especially the place she chose to do the neraval. Shyamakrishna sOdari would have bored me to death.

The manirang after that sAveri was , if I may borrow the expression from my boss, …  ‘nO mmAA’. She should have sung the alapana for the next, rishabhapriya. Again, liked the way she sang ‘ghananaya dEshikha’ , properly.

Good kAmbOji alapana. Again, a grand neraval, nicely done. Good rounds of swaras too.

Accompaniment was of good through out. Energetic Guru Raghavendra and an ever evolving Vaibhav Ramani.  Guru Raghavendra showed a lot of anticipation and barring a few occasional exuberance ( or lack of restraint) he was commendable yesterday.

 

 

 

K S Narayanaswamy , Nadaloka @ Indian Heritage Academy 10 May 2014

Vocal : Palakkad K S Narayanaswamy

Vocal support : P K Goutaman

Violin : Annapoorni Subramanian

Mrudangam : Anoor R Dattatreya Sharma

Song List :

01.  sAmi nI tODi (varNam) – pantuvarALi – Rangaswami Nattuvanar  ( short sketch)

02.  gOpAlaka pAhimAm – rEvagupti – Swathi Thirunal ( S )

03.  nAdasudhA rasambilanu – Arabhi – Thyagaraja ( A,S )

04.  marivErE gati – Anandabhairavi – Shyama Sasthry ( A,S )

05.  mAmava sadA janani – kAnaDa – Swathi Thirunal ( A )

06.  pAhiAm SrI rAjarAjESwari – janaranjani – Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer

07.  rAmA nI samanamevvaru – kharaharapriya – Thyagaraja ( A,S,T )

08.  mAyA gOpabAla – kApi – Mahakavi Kuttamath ?  ( O )

09.  thillAna ( Dhim nanana tillillana tillana )- brindAvani – Balamuralikrishna

10. mangaLam – saurAshtram – Thyagaraja

11.  madhyamAvathi raga sketch

Many years ago, I heard Sri Palakkad K S Narayanaswamy in a short concert, organised by a resident association part of their Vinayaka Chaturthi. I was so impressed that day, as he presented a pristine, chaste concert on that day. The vachaspati is still fresh in my mind. That probably, helped me to decide on attending this concert, among another three-four equally tempting options. I was out on the road and managed to reach just in time for the concert. Which also means, I missed the earlier event of the evening in which a Music CD ‘nAdasudhArasam’ was released.

Sri K S Narayanaswamy,  one of the torch bearer of the Semmangudi bani, presented another pleasing concert. The right measurements in which he sang each alapana, the kalpana swaras with the stamp of the bani and the precision with which each sangatis were sung were the hallmark of the concert yesterday. May be due to the nature of his singing, this wasn’t an energetic exhilarating affair. It was very sedate, probably too sedate for a regular concert. The low level of the hall amplification added to the subdued affair. Adding to it, there was no neraval to get me excited.

Concert started with a rather obscure varnam, followed with the revagupti kriti. He sang few rounds of swarams too. Quickly launched to a short arabhi alapana. Nadasudharasam was very good, so was the crisp rounds of kalpana swarams. Anandabhairavi alapana was top class, taking us through some beautiful passages. So was the kAnaDa alapana. A quick janaranjani came in as a filler, a much needed reprieve after many slow songs. Kharaharapriya was main with a detailed alapana, very majestically rendered. Kriti was equally elegant, with all the sangatis were very moving. I was expecting the neraval, as he did not sing neraval for any of the earlier kritis. There was a quick one-two on the stage between the violinist ( who is his daughter) and the artist and to her visible displeasure ( and a reassuring nod from the disciple who was accompanying him)  he started the kalpanaswaras, which was very good. Dattatreya Sharma, who did his best to liven up the proceedings, played out a good tani avartanam. His percussion support was of high standard. Post main was rather short, consisting a kApi kriti and a thillana. In the chaotic and noisy scene of carnatic music, listening to such concerts are very refreshing indeed.

I did buy the CD, which was released earlier in the evening, sung by the same team on the stage, post the concert. Listened to it over last evening and today morning and I can recommend the same to every one who is interested in listening to this vidvan.

 

Lecture Concert on Veena by B Sivakumar for Nadaloka @ Heritage Academy Hall July 01, 2012

Veena : Vid B Sivakumar

Veena Suport : Priyadarshini

Mrudangam : Sudarshan Chakravarthy

Theme : Technical Beauty relevant for Classical Music through Veena.

This is not complete recollection of the evenings affair. To my shame, I reached the venue very late, and have no clue on what was done before my arrival. However, here is a short report of what was transpired before my arrival at the venue.

http://www.rasikas.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=19512

As I entered the hall, he was explaining the nuances of raga bhairavi comparing it with kharaharapriya. Playing both the ragas subsequently, the arohana and avarohana and the minute gamakas of both the ragas, he must have been trying to confirm what he had been performing earlier. He mentioned to the students in the audience, that these nuances and the oscillations of the swaras can be mastered only through learning 5-6 kritis in each of the raga. In Carnatic tradition, the importance is always to the kriti and exploration of the raga is done through the compositions.  In Hindustani, he added, the importance is on the creativity and to a lesser extend to the compositions.

1. vAncha tOnu nA – karNaranjani – Muthaiah bhagavathar

Begada

After a short karNaranjani, he explained the raga bEgaDa. He says, there are two opinions on this raga, as it derived from mElakarta 28 or from 29, which could be due to the use of swara ‘ni’. To master bEgaDa, one has to know where to use ‘kaishiki nishada’ and where to use ‘kAkaLi nishAda’. Demonstrating these differences through some swara patterns, he clarified the use of both the nishada in bEgaDa.

Before taking up the composition in bEgaDa,  he played the bEgaDa swaras from the navaragamalika varnam.

2. anudinamu – bEgaDa – Ramanathapuram Srinivasa Iyengar ( A , S)

On a question about the oscillations deployed at the madhyamam, apart from the nishada usage, he explained that if you observe and listen carefully to the stalwarts like Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Tanjavur Kalyanaraman or Ramnad Krishnan, you can hear the ‘kampitam’in ‘ma’.  Usage of ‘deergha kampitam’ is common in bEgaDa, he said, mimicking ( in a good sense) the ‘ni ni da pa… ma ma ga ri..’ phrases.

Mayamalava gaula

Explaining further on the beauty of hte gamakas in carnatic music, he decided to explain it through Mayamalavagaula. According to him the process of mastering Mayamalavagaula is in 4 phases for the Veena students. The first phase is the skeletal arohana and avarohana. In the second phase, students learn to use the oscillating notes in the arohana and avarohana. For mayAmaLavagauLa, sa, pa and ma are constant and ri, ga, da and ni are oscillating notes. ri is sung almost like ‘sari sari’ and da as ‘pada pada’ and ni as ‘sani sani’. Madhyama is not prominent and many compisitions in this raga treat ma, with minimal use.

In the advanced stages of learing the students learn to pull the strings and play. With this technique, you can improve the continuity and can play longer with a single stroke.

3. nidhi chAla sukhamA – kalyANi – Thyagaraja ( A,S,T )

4. gOvardhana giridhara – darbari kAnaDa – Narayana Theerthar

5. karEdaru bAra bArade? – ?? mAND – Kamalesha Dasa

6. thirupugazh – bhAgEshri

7. mangaLam – saurAshtram – Thyagaraja

My regret is that I was not able to reach the venue on time. He was very good. His explanations and the demonstration were very good and simple. The concert itself was very good ably supported by his desciple and the percussionist. 

Note: If there are any technical mistakes in the above write up, they are only because of my inability to understand the explanation properly, given my un-trained background in music.

 

Delhi Muthukumar at Nadaloka Prabhatha Sangeetham

Vocal : Delhi V Muthukumar

List:

01 senthil vAzh murugayya (varNam) – hamIr kalyANi – T R Subramaniam ( O )

02 slOkam ( vakratuNDa mahAkAya) – malahari ( O )

        panchamAtanga mukha – malahari – Dikshitar ( S )

03 lakshaNamulu gala – sudha sAvEri – Thyagaraja ( A,S )

04 santhAnamanjari shankari – santhAnamanjari ( sucharita ) – Dikshitar ( A )

05 sabhApatikku – AbhOgi – Gopalakrishna Bharathi    ( started at kripAnidhi..)

06 slOkam ( udyatbhAnu sahasrakOTi ) – pUrvikalyANi ( O )

       mInAkshi mE mudam dEhi – gamakakriya ( pUrvikalyANi) – Dikshitar

07 ennakaDa  hAyisuvuthu  ninnA bhAra ? – nIlAmbari – Purandara Dasa

08 ulaka pasu pAsa thondam – hamsAnandi ?- Arunagirinathar

09 Slokam ( sarvamangaLa mAngalyE) – madhyamAvati

Sunday morning, hardly around 20 people to listen, no violin no percussion to divert your attention. Vid Delhi V Muthukumar made the one hour a memorable experience. Prabhathasangeetham sans accompaniment is now getting into its second year, I guess. I had been for a couple of them earlie. This was a very unique experience today. He did present in a typical concert format and I would have been ok even if it wasn’t so. Fromthe varnam, a slokam and ganesha kriti in malahari, a hardly heard kriti of Thyagaraja in Sudhasaveri, awesome slokam in Purvikalyani, a neelambari before the end. May be the setting was pristine, however I think he did a fabulous job in just over 1 hr.