Vivek Sadashivam @ Pranava Fine Arts, 14 July 2018

Vocal : Vivek Sadashivam

Violin : Aniruddha Bharadwaj

Mrudangam : Trichy G Aravindh

Ghatam : B S Raghunandan

List:

01 chalamElA ( varNam) – nAtakurinji – Adi – Rangaswamy Nattuvanar  ( O )

02 dEva dEva kalayAmi – mAyAmALavagauLa -Roopakam – Swathi Thirunal ( A,N,S )

neraval & Swara @ ‘jAtarUpa nibhacElA janmArcitam mamakhila’

03 brOva bhAramA -bahudhAri – Adi – Thyagaraja ( A,S )

04 vElum mayilumE – sucharithra – Roopakam – Koteeswara Iyer ( A-vocal)

05 rAma rAma rAma rAma, rAma ennirO – vasanta – Adi, tisra naDai – Purandara Dasa

06 akSayalinga vibhO – shankarAbharanam – mishra chAp –  Dikshitar ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @ ‘ badarI vanamula nAyikA sahita’

07 kaNDu dhanyanAdE uDupi krSNanA – behAg – Roopakam – Kamalesha Vittala

08 shLOkam ( nama:shivabhyAm nava yauvanAbhyAm) – sindhubhauravi

chandrashEkharA eeshA – sindhubhairavi – Anai Vaidyanatha Iyer

09 muddugArE yashOdA – kurinji – Adi – Annamacharya

10 tum bin mOri kaun khabar lE – mIrAbhajan

11 thillAna ( udana tadana tara dhIm ) – kAnaDa – Muthaiah Bhagavathar

12 thirupugazh ( kADi mODi vAdADu) – shankarAbharaNam – Arunagirinathar

13 mangaLam – saurAStram – Thyagaraja

Extremely pleasing concert by the young vidvans last evening at Sri Thyagarajan’s residence, under the Pranava Fine Arts. Heard his name during the initial ‘kalavanta’ days and a couple of his concerts in FM Amrutavarshini, made sure I attended this concert. The team put forward a commendable display with some top class music.

He started off with a brisk varnam, and gained momentum through the concert to an ever increasing audience as it progresses.  A detailed Mayamalavagaula of Swathi Thirunal, set the stage for all of them to come together on the stage. Less than a month back, few of us sat together with Vid. Tadeppalli Lokanatha Sharma , where he demonstrated this kriti in a fresh appealing approach.  Vivek, presented the Semmangudi format of the kriti, but I liked his nice little drift ( if I may say so) at the second ‘dEva’ ( that brought the memory of Sri Lokanatha Sharma’s discussion). Brilliant neraval at jAtarUpa and a fitting swaraprasthana, amply supported by the other artists.

The bahudhAri alapana was the best for me, Aniruddh was fabulous. Loved the initial few phrases he played. Brova bhArama as expected ( I am hoping some one will take sadAnanda tANDavam more often).  Aside:  ‘bAramA’ and ‘ragurAma’ aren’t appealing. Why can’t they sing bhArama and raghurAma with appropriate stress on the syllable. Kalpana swaras for bahudhAri again was super, with some nice patterns and clever shifts.

Two short fillers, one probably was a request, as the chit was seen being passed to him. He sang a short sucharitra alapana, and continued with vElum mayilumE without a violin response.

Grand shankarabharanam for the evening. He sang the typical alapana with good control and measure. Impressive passages, nice shift between octaves, longish ‘akara’ at higher registers. Everything was done with remarkable elan. Aniruddh played a much restrained alapana , I thought.  I did get the sense of akshayalinga vibhO, and I wasn’t wrong.  The kriti singing was ok, did not live upto the alapana he sang. But, he redeemed himself with another good neraval and the swaras in two speed, that followed. Percussion team played an active role in the evening and Aravindh was excellent through out. The duo played an elaborate tani avartanam.

As the audience voted for ‘thukkadas’ over a pallavi, there was a chain of short pieces to follow. He mixed them well, and some nice selection, which started with a nice little alapana of behag ( by both) before ‘kaNDu dhanyanAdE’. A shlOkam, a meerabhajan , a thillAna and thirupugazh before mangalam, says his impressive array of selection.

Very impressive concert by the young artists and wishing them all the success.

 

Revathi Sadashivam,KV Madhura,Soumya Ramachandran(Veena-Venu-Violin) @ Pranava Fine Arts , Oct 1, 2016

Veena : Revathi Sadashivam

Flute : K V Madhura

Violin : Soumya Ramachandran

Mrudangam : Ranjani Haridas

Morsing : Bhagyalakshmi Krishna

List:

01. mAtE malayadhvaja – khamAs – Muthaiah Bhagavathar ( O )

02. shrI mahAgaNapatim bhajEham – aThANa – Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar ( A-violin, S )

03.  sarasvati namOstutE – sarasvati – GNB ( A-all)

04. kanchadalAyadAkshi kAmAkSi – kamalAmanOhari – Dikshitar

05. kAmAkSi ambA (swarajati) – bhairavi – Shyama Shasthri ( A,N)

neraval @ ‘shyAmakrSNa sOdari?’

06. mInAkSi mEmudam dEhi – gamakakriya/pUrvikalyANi – Dikshitar ( A,S,T )

07. RTP – brindAvanasAranga – khanDa tripuTax2 kaLai , starts at +1/2 beat

pallavi line “Ishvari, mahEshvari, jagadIshvari kAmitArtha phaladAyaki

rAgamAlika svaras in ranjani,vasanta, rEvati

08. jayati jayati bhArata mAtA – khamAs – Subramanya Bharati

09. thillAna – dhanAshrI – Swathi Thirunal

10. bhAgyada lakSmi bAramma – madhyamAvati – Purandara Dasa

“Janani” was the theme – ‘the mother’ for the first concert in the new venue of Pranava Fine Arts and Thyagarajan. I understand, this was the 30th concert they were organising since moved to Bangalore. I had the privilege of attending many of them, and been on the receiving end of their hospitality.

The theme was apt for the first day of the Navarathri Festive Season. Vidushi Revathi Sadashivam did explain the theme, which of course, was in the predictable lines. Various forms of ‘the mother’ and the selection of kritis in line with those varied forms.

Concert itself was very well done. The coordination and sharing of various alapana and swaras were well done. The selection of kritis were brilliant. Different instruments and the respective vidushis excelled at different places. Revathi Sadashivam was brilliant with her bhairavi alapana and the beginning of the brindavana saranga. Soumya played a classy alapana for brindavana saranga, Vid Madhura had her excellence through purvikalyani.

Khamas daru varnam started off the evening proceedings. Atana kriti was also very well done, including the swaras that followed. Sarasvati was good, so was the quick kamalamanohari kriti. The concert came alive with the bhairavi. Beautiful alapana from Vid Revathi. Shyama Shasthri’s swarajati was again done well. The trio played a good neraval. There was no swaras if I remember right. Purvikalyani alapana ws lead by the flutist. Dikshitar’s magnum opus had to be the one, going by the theme. Two speed kalpana swaras between three artist were again very good.

The pallavi which followed arguably the best of the evening. Very good alapana ( especially the initial phrases of veena and the complete violin part) and a good tanam by Veena were treat to watch and listen. Nice pallavi line, impeccably executed trikalam ( again the violin lead the way to me) and swaras. Each artists chose one raga during the ragamalaika swaras, which they played in two repeats in two speeds.

Percussion team gave ample support and played a decent tani avartanam. To me there was the right balance among five instruments today, considering this is a house concert. Post pallavi had a couple of songs and a thillana to conclude a three hour concert.

 

 

Bhagyalakshmi Chandrasekharan , Veena Concert for Rasanveshanam @ Pranava Fine Arts 22 Feb 2015

Veena : Bhagyalakshmi Chandrasekharan

Mrudangam : Sri M Gururaj

List:

01  sAmi daya jUDa ( varNam ) – kEdAragauLa – Thiruvottiyur Thyagayya  ( O )

02  shrI mahAgaNapati ravatu mAm – gauLa – Dikshitar ( A,S )

03  kumaran tAL paNindE tudi – yadukulakAmbOji – Papanasam Sivan ( A )

04  saraswati namOstutE – saraswati –  N S Ramachandran ( A )

05  manasu karagadE svAmi – kAnaDa – Pranesha Vittala ( A )

06  sadAnanda bhakti – raghupriya – Koteeswara Iyer ( A , chitta svaras )

07  RTP  – kIravANi – khaNDa tripuTa  x 2 kaLai , +1 eduppu

tAnam in kIravANi, nAta, gauLa,Arabhi, varALi and shrI

pallavi line ‘ vANi gIrvANi kIravANi , vINApANi mAm pAhi ‘

rAgamAlika svaras in ‘madhuvanti , gurjari thODi, brindAvana sAranga , rEvati ‘

tani Avartanam

08  chinnam chiru kiLiyE – rAgamAlika – Subramanya Bharati

09  karuNai daivamE – sindhubhairavi –  Madurai Srinivasan ( O )

10  SrI rAma rAma rAma ( utsava sampradaya kriti) – nIlAmbari – Thyagaraja  ( A )

11  karuNa jaladhE – nAthanAmakriya – Thyagaraja

12  shLOkam ( mantra pushpam )

Beyond the familiar dozen or so of the popular and the crowd-puller artists -with all respect to them-, are a vast treasure of musical legacy and richness that are not reached beyond a few closed group. There are brilliant musicians of various schools, lineage and practice to be listened and appreciated. One of the basic principles of ‘Rasanveshanam’ is to go beyond the established names and seek out to these gems. It was in pursuit of one such idea that the names of the likes of Vid. Bhagyalakshmi Chandrasekharan cropped up. After successfully completing one year and five concerts, this small group of enthusiasts entered into the second year with a masterly concert yesterday at Sri Thyagarajan’s residence, jointly organised with his ‘Pranava Fine Arts’.

Personally, I have listened to vidushi Bhagyalakshmi Chandrasekharan on four previous occasions in the past two years. My admiration towards her music only grew each time I listen to her. The concert of yesterday was no different.To hold an instrumental concert, that too with no other accompaniment apart from the sole mrudanga , for nearly 3 hours itself is a commendable, transporting  every one in the audience to an entirely different world. Some intrinsic fingering techniques, two finger with two different and simultaneous shrutis, the ‘beyond the frets’ playing and near to the main bridge and many other playing styles which goes beyond my grasp of things.

A huge one hour fifteen minutes of Keeravani pallai, sort of, encompasses the entire music to me. The rest of the kritis, each were a gem, would be discussed around and along with the keeravani that she played yesterday. An elaborate alapana, both technical and melodious passages in keeravani was awesome. The tanam was even better. After a 4 speed tanam playing in the main raga, she switched to the ‘ghana panchama raga’ beautifully gliding from one to the other. Pallavi was again sung in detail with trikalam in both pallavi and svaras. The ragamalika svaras had even better things to offer starting from madhuvanti to gurjari thOdi ( very similar to shubhapantuvarali and I remember she clarifying the difference in an earlier concert) , ending with rEvati.

She started her concert with kEdaragauLa varnam before starting of on a journey which pinnacled at the Keeravani Pallavi. Each steps in the 3 hr journey was memorable. Short Gaula alapana before the Dikshitar composition and the svaras of gaula were class. The other thing I notices in her alapanas in general was the first few strokes and phrases were so impactful, they immediately brought out sounds of admiration from the listeners. Gaula, Yadukulakamboji, saravathi, kAnada and neelambari ; each were rich with ‘raga bhava’ in the initial take itself. Yadukula kamboji and kAnada were of special mention. She also played a detailed raghupriya alapana, which kept all of us guessing, before she herself came to our rescue. She said, she had added ‘chittasvaram’ for this composition, wondering whether we in the audience will approve the same. 42nd Melakartha , raghupriya isn’t very familiar but the chittasvaras were good.

Gururaj played very subtle through out the concert. We were asking him to accompany her during tanam, which he politely refused, indicating he would go with the decision of the main artist. She was too immersed in her music to take notice. He played a short tani avartanam in khanda triputa, keeping the overall serene mood of the evening intact.

Post main was even more melodious. the instrument literally sang chinnnanchiru kiliye , karunai daivame and the utsava sampradaya kriti. The short neelambari alapana was also very nice. She concluded her concert with the regular ( I heard her play this in most of her concerts) nAthanamakriya and the manthrapushpam ending with Om shanti, shanti shanti :

 

Vasudevan R at Pranava Fine Arts , 02 Aug 2014

Vocal : Vasudevan R

Violin : Shankar Rajan

Mrudangam : Vadiraj Bhat

List:

01. SLOkam ( Apadamapa hataram) – kalyANi  ( O )

vanajaksh0 ( varNam ) – kalyANi – Pallavi Gopala iyer?

02.  shakti gaNapatim bhajEham – nAta – Muthaiah Bhagavathar ( S )

03.  manavi chekonavayya – sarasAngi – Ramanathapuram Srinivas Iyengar

04. kalyANa rAma – hamsanAdam – Oothukadu Venkata Kavi  ( A )

05.  appa rAma bhakti – pantuvarALi – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @ trippaTalanu dIrchi kaNTi reppavalEnu gAchu mA

06. guruvAyUrappanE appan – rItigauLa – Ambujam Krishna ( A )

07. giripriyam gangAdharam – kadanakutUhalam – Muthaiah Bhagavathar

08. ambA nIlAmbari – nIlAmbari – Ponnayya Pillai

09. Azhi mazhai kaNNA – varALi – Andal thiruppavai

10. sarOja dalanEtri – shankarAbharaNam – Shyama Shastri ( A,t,S,T )

11. ayyanE vA appanE vA – sindhubhairavi –  TNS’ mother  ( short sketch )

12. pavitra gangE pAvana tungE – sindhubhairavi – Sudha Bhai

13. thillAna – basant – T N Seshagopalan

14. jaya mangaLam nitya shubha mangaLam –  Vijaya Gopala Dasa

Last time I heard him was almost 8 year ago. But I did attend a couple of the programs he organised under ‘Nadaloka’ – the morning concerts sans accompaniment called ‘prabhata sangeetham’ and recently a concert of his guru Sri Palakkad K S Narayanaswamy. That coupled with the invitation from Sri Thiagarajan who successfully conducts monthly concerts under Pranava Fine Arts since January this year, guided me towards Haralur road, instead of the inaugural concert of Gokulashtami Series at Unnati. While I do not know what was the impact there, I for one was very very pleased with the evening at Pranava Fine Arts. Sri Vasudevan presented a full three hour concert of very high standard along with his accompanying artists.

Starting bang on time at 4:00 ( and stopping as the clock strikes 7:00 – a feat worthy of emulation) with a fabulously sung slokam, the artists made their intention clear for the evening. Kalyani ata tala varnam followed with Muthaiah Bhagavatar’s kriti in Nata. Few rounds of fast paced kalpana swaras got every one in the groove. A short kriti in sarasangi came in before the first detailed alapana in hamsanadam. Shankar Raman echoed the main artist and hinted the pallavi line of the more popular kriti of Thyagaraja in his turn. However, to my pleasure, Vasudevan decided to sing kalyAnarama, a fabulous Oothukad kriti, and I had the TNS’ singing in mind.

Pantuvarali was grand. Beautifully orchestrated alapana with some brilliant ‘drutakala sancharas’ progressing brilliantly through out, made it memorable. Shankar Rajan was equally eloquent in his return. Appa rama bhakti came in its grandeur. I always like a pantuvarali or purvikalyani in the middle of the concert with a powerful neraval and kalpana swaras. So, it was. Neraval was very well constructed and the kalpana swara was structured around some interesting laya patterns to start with and ending with a TNS-style ( which I mentioned to him later), long rendering pivoting around the same swara phrase, making it very attractive. Shankar Raman was given a chance after the vocal effort to show his mettle which was done splendidly by the violinist. There was a mention of a short tani, and Vadiraj Bhat made the most of it, playing a spirited tani avartanam.

The next phase was filled with a flurry of short kritis, probably a short dampner on the build up. Ritigaula ( with a short noce alapana ) and a tricky and ultra fast giripriyam, an super slow neelambari in quick succession probably could have managed better. He had to add a varali to sort of nullify the effect, which was also not anything to worth mentioning.

The team quickly covered the lost ground with a grand shankarabharanam. Starting a bit patchy, the alapana grew from there in stature to a brilliant affair. His strong point of those ‘akara’ fast phrases were very impressive through out. Some breath taking passages at the higher octave added to the overall impact to the alapana. Shankar Raman did justice to the main artist with another classy alapana from his side. Vasudevan, clarifying it as not a ragam tanam pallavi, sang few rounds of tanam, starting at madhyama kala, and increasing the speed as it progressed.  A Dikshitar kriti or Shyama Shastri kriti was my expectation seeing the list, and Saroja Dalanetri it was. Kriti handled to its merits was pleasing to listen. Few sangati’s around ‘sAma gAna vinOdini’ gave me a hope for a neraval, but that wasn’t to come. The team played some marvelous kalpana swaras, this time converging at the Mani Iyer-popularised phrase, brilliantly executed. There was one more tani avartanam for Vadiraj Bhat, who accompanied brilliantly for the kritis.

Two sindhubhairavi pieces contributed to the post main affair. TNS’s thillana in basant ( I was thinking hamsanandi all the while) concluded the memorable evening before the mangalam. Very good concert, well supported by the accompanying artists( Shankar Raman was very good) through out and a great ambiance made it a good experience.