Pattabhirama Pandit @ Srirama Seva Mandali, Koramangala on 18-Apr-2016

Vocal : Pattabhirama Pandit

Violin : TKV Ramanujacharyulu

Mrudangam : K U Jayachandra Rao

List:

01. shrI patE nI pada – nAgasvarALi – Thyagaraja ( Short Sketch, S )

02. parama pAvana rAma – pUrvikalyANi – Ramanathapuram Srinivasa Iyengar ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @’kanakAmbaradhara karuNAnvita sura’

03. viDalAjaturA – janaranjani – Thyagaraja

04 RTP – thODi – chaturashra triputa, +1 eDuppu

pallavi in rAgamAlika ‘thODi, bilahari, rEvati’

pallavi line ‘ dAsharathE karuNApayOnidhE, ina kula tilakA ‘

rAgamAlika swaras in thOdi, bilahari, rEvati

05 rAma rAma rAma sItA tAma ennirO – tilang – Purandara Dasa

06 kaNDu dhanyanAdE – behAg – Kamalesha Vittala Dasa’  ( A )

07. jagadodhAraNa – kApi -Purandara Dasa

08. mangaLam – saurAStram – Thyagaraja

shLOkam ( mangaLam kOsalEndrAya) – madhyamAvati

Seldom we witness a concert were the second item is taken up as main. Well, I am excluding TMK from this. That lifts the expectation high and it would be a huge task for the artists to sustain the same vigour and standard through out the rest of the evening. Yesterday’s concert of Pattabhirama pandit was one such. What an opening and the first half he had. Beautifully started the concert with a nagasvarali piece after humming through a short alapana in such a moving way. Shripate nee pada was sung very well. He and the team also extended it with some splendid swara patterns. Brilliant start. He soon launched into a classical purvikalyani. Few faster intial phrases moved away to some outstanding passages at the slow speed middle and lower octaves. After a few deliberations he switched the gear with faster akara phrases initially in the lower octaves moving to the higher one. Some breath taking alapana came in at high, full of exquisite combinations and full throated singing. Top class stuff. Ramanujacharyulu was equally brilliant in his turn, largely playing around the same theme and a few improvised takes. Parama pavana rama, was a treat. Very elaborate neraval, at kanakambaradhara was very well done. Kalpana swaras sung at the end was the pinnacle of the performance yesterday. The team jelled well presenting some outstanding swaras. Jayachandra Rao was excellent here. The team was so moved, that Ramanujacharyulu , upon completion of his return, wanted to play along for another rounds before closing down. Unexpectedly, tani was indicated and expectedly Jayachandra Rao played a fitting tani avaratanam.

Having completed only 2 kritis so far, there was an anticipation for a pallavi and I was praying it to be anything other than Keeravani. There was a short janaranjani kriti before pallavi. Thodi it was, but wasn’t one that you talk home about. A fast alapana with few twists and turns came in two spurts, not really impressive. Violin return trid to restore some parity but it was very short to really make an impact. Tanam however was far better.  Both the artists played some delectable rounds of tanam. Interestingly pallavi was sung in 3 ragams. There was no trikalam or any structural intricacies in pallavi execution. Ragamalika swaras followed the same pallavi pattern.

Behag kriti was beautifully sung. A short alapana preceding it was good too. Jagadodharana, which brought in the memory of his legendary guru, was ok. And that ended the concert.

Pattabhirama pandit sang very well. The purvangam of the concert was awesome, and some of those dwindled out as the concert progressed towards the second half. He would have got into the time pressure, and adjusted pallavi to fit into the overall schedule. Very good concert, would have been outstanding with a small tweak in the planning.

 

Pattabhirama Pandit @ Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan 29th March 2014

Vocal : Pattabhirama Pandit

Violin : Mysore M Nagaraj

Mrudangam : Arjunkumar

Ganjira : Guruprasanna

List :

01.  chalamEla jEsi ( varNam) – nAtakurinji – Rangaswamy Nattuvanar ( S )

02.  srIpatE nIpadA – nAgasurAvali – Thyagaraj ( S )

03.  kannulAra kaNTi – dhanyAsi – Walajpet Venkataramana Bhagavathar ( A,N,S )

neraval @ ‘rAmakrishNa hari hariyani nAmakIrtanam sEyucu’

swara @ ‘ hari hariyani’

04.  paridAnamichitE – bilahari – Patnam Subramanya Iyer ( A,N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘ rokkamichutakunE mukkaNTi celikAnu

05.  tanayuni brOva – bhairavi – Thayagaraja  ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @’ vatsamu veNTa dhEnuvu canunO‘

06.  maru bAri ( javaLi) – khamAs – Dharmapuri Subbarayar

07.  SLOkam ( nArAyaNa nAma pArAyaNam) – behAg

kaNDu dhanyanAdE uDupi krishNana – behAg – Kamalesha Vittala

08.  thilAna ( tAnOm tana ta dhiraNA ) – parAs – Ramanathapuram Srinivasa Iyengar

09.  mangaLam – saurAshtram – Thyagaraja

SLOkam ( mangaLam kOsalEndrAya )  – madhyamAvathi

Until yesterday afternoon, I did not know about this concert. If not for the insistence of Pramod, I would have skipped this. For one, I am not too eager to listen to yet another keeravani ( my luck with PRP is that everytime I attend it will be keeravani in one form or other – kaligiyunte or a pallavi ), similar to the kAmboji and TVS ( this has been improved of late). So, I made up my mind that if it is keeravani again, I will walkout ( not physically, but mentally from the concert). All my apprehensions were removed by the artist with a refreshing concert, ably accompanied by the stalwarts in their own instrument.

The gate of BVB was guarded by large number of police and red-light cars. The kincha auditorium was aptly decked up and the area was scattered with few overly dressed ( for a carnatic concert) gentlemen and a red-carpet pathway. One of them was eager to invite us to few of the front seat reserved for VIPs. Something was amiss. Governor Bharadwaj’s name was flickering on the screen. We had to escape immediately and find the right hall. Some one requested to to be seated for ‘at least five minutes’. That would have been a different kind of music. But the good sense prevailed and we escaped to the ‘actual concert hall’. It wasn’t better here either. As usual, we were seated at the last row ( third from the front) when the concert started after a lot of issues with the amplification. It was getting late, and the artists decided to begin. PRP was humming natakurinji for fifteen minutes, so was Nagaraj. A brisk varnam extended to few rounds of swara was with very awkward setting of amplification. High on percussion and zero on violin.

At this stage, PRP took a clever decision. Looking at the number of people in the audience, he requested all to move front near to the performers and removed all the mic and amplification. Given the state of affairs, that would have been the best solution. The concert from then continued san artificial enhancement of voice and instruments. PRP does not have a strong booming voice, hence at the early stages it was a bit difficult to listen to him. However, as the day withered and darkness grew outside, the general sound levels also reduced and the concert was much more enjoyable from that point.

On his part PRP gave a splendid concert. Detailed and brilliant alapanas for both dhanyasi and bhairavi with equally classy returns from Nagaraj was very pleasing. The neravals for dhanyasi, bilahari ( albeit very short) and bhairavi) were very good and the kalpana swaras in general were top class. Interestingly, the turn of Nagaraj was extended through the prompt by the singer, to some great effect. Anchoring around ‘ga pa da’ for dhanyasi, he sang some excellent extensive swaras repeated brilliantly by Nagaraj. A similar attempt was tried for  bhairavt, at ‘pa da, ma’  to a much lesser effect.

Percussion with Arjunkumar and Guruprasanna as expected was very active. Probably a bit restraint would have made it more appropriate. Especially for the bhairavi piece, where he sang with such bhava, the percussion was at times not carrying the same cause. However, the duo played a classy tani avartanam. Post main had a javali and his ‘guruvandana’ slokam following a devarnama which was very impressive. Concert ended with a paras thillana before the mangalam.

Despite the poor attendance, and a mic-less performance, the concert was very good.

 

Pattabhirama Pandit @ Sri Rama Lalita Kalamandira 07 Jan 2011

Vocal :  Pattabhirama Pandit

Violin : T K V Ramanujacharulu

Mrudangam : V Krishna

Song list:

01  sAmi ninnE kOri ( varNam ) – SrI  – Karur Devuda Iyer

02  rAma nannu brOvarA – harikAmbOji – Thyagaraja

03  Azhimazhai kaNNA – varALi – Andal ( thiruppavai)   ( A,N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘ vAzha ulagilinil peydiDA nAngaLum’

04  annapUrNE viSalAkshi – SyAma  – Dikshitar

05  RTP – kIravANi – chaturasra triputa , 2 kaLai

rAgam & tAnam – kIravANi

pallavi in  kIravANi , bhairavi, kalyANi, bhavAni ?,  shivaranjani , nIlAmbari

pallavi line ‘ mAdhava sOdari sundari manOnmaNi kIravANi*    ( replacing with the appropriate raga name)

swara in kIravANi ( no ragamalika swaram)

05b   tani Avartanam

06   bhOgIndra shAyinam – kuntaLa varALi – Swathi Tirunal

07  slOkam ( nAdA dhim nArAyanAkhyam ) – madhuvanti ?

sarvam brahmamayam –  madhuvanti ?- Sadashiva Brahmendra

08  thillAnA – dhanASri – Swathi Thirunal

09  mangaLam – saurAshtram & madhyamAvati – Thyagaraja

Another beautiful concert at the closing of this years Sankranti Festival at Sri Rama Lalita Kalamandira. The elaborate Keeravani pallavi will be one that stood out in the evening. The pallavi, executed brilliantly, had every thing one could ask for. A four layer alapana alternating between the singer and violinist, detailed and elaborated tanam, and pallavi in 5 raga malika. Each were brilliant in its own way.  TKV Ramanujachryulu was remarkable during tanam, Pallavi, set to chaturasra triputa with a different edupu ( he said 17 counts, before he started, not sure though) and he moved from one raga to the next smoothly and effortlessly, followed to a lesser extend by the violinist. The choice of ragas where also very good, except may be the neelambari.  Krishna, last minute replacement for Arjunkumar, played a subdued support until then came alive during pallavi and was brilliant supporting the main artist.

Concert started with the Sri Ragam Varnam and after a quick hari kamboji came the varaLi alapana. Andal thiruppavai, azhimazhai kanna we rendered leisurely. Neraval and swara were very well performed, ably supported by the violinist.

Pallavi took most of the time in the concert, which lasted 2:30 hrs, before he concluded the concert with a guru vandana slokam followed by Sarvam brahma mayam, and the dhanasri thillana of Swati Thirunal.

While the list does not show many items, being sung, the elaborated palavi made up for all the rest. A very good concert by Pattabhirama Pandit.

 

Pattabhirama Pandit , Ramanavami Concerts Fort School Grounds April 15, 2008

Vocal : Pattabhirama Pandit

Violin : TKV Ramanujacharyulu

Mrudangam : Arjun kumar

Ganjira : B N Chandramouli
Concert Song list:

01 vanajAkshi (varNam) – kalyANi – Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar

02 jaya jaya jAnaki kAntha – nAttai – Purandara Dasa ( S )

03 vADErA daivamu – pantuvarALi – Thyagaraja  ( A,N,S )

neraval & swara @ dhAtru vinutuDaina tyAgarAjuni

04 mOkshamu galadA – sAramati – Thyagaraja

05 dattAtrEya – ranjani – Mysore Ganapati Sachidananda ( A )

06 viDajAlathura – janaranjani – Thyagaraja

07 kaligiyunTe – kIravANi – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & Swara @ “bAguga shrI raghu rAmuni padamula”

08 nAmorala kimpavEmi – dEvagAndhAri –  Thyagaraja

09 viruttam ( narAyaNa nAmam…) – kApi

jagadOdhAraNa – kApi – Purandara Dasa

10 thillana ( tom tom tadara) – pUrNachandrika ?-

11 mangaLam – saurAshtram – Thyagaraja

Pattabhirama Pandit’s concert stood out for his enthusiasm through out the evening. His alapana for Ranjani and keeravani were brilliant. May be because of the excitement there were few shruthi lapses and missing swaras. Overall it was a good concert. Ramanujacharyulu was superb at many places, especially during alapana of keeravani. Arjunkumar, as usual was good through out.