Vocal : Vid Saketharaman
Violin : Vittalarangan
Mrudangam : Vijay Natesan
Ghatam : Vashappilli Krishnakumar
List :
1 mAyAtIta svarUpiNi – mAyAmALavagauLA – Roopakam – MD ( O,N,S )
neraval & swaras @ ‘mAyAmALavagauLa dEshamuna’
2 mA jAnaki – kAmbOji – Adi – Thyagaraja ( O )
3 mAmava sadA janani – kAnaDa – roopakam – ST ( A,S )
4 ambA nIlAmbari – nIlAmbari – Adi x 2 – Ponnaiah Pillai ( A )
5 tAyE tripurasundari – shudha sAvEri – khanda chAp – Periyasami Thooran
6 pAlincu kAmAkSi pAvani – madhyamAvati – Adi x2 – Shyama Shasthri ( A,N,S,T)
neraval & swaras @ ‘kAntamagu peruponDitivi kAruNyamUrtivai jagamu’
7 karuNai deivamE karpagamE – sindhubhairavi – Adi – Maduri Sreenivasan (O)
8 shree jagadeeshwari durga mAtA – Ahirbhairavi- Adi – Lalgudi Jayaraman
9 thillAna (tana dhimta dhimta dhirana) – mAND – Lalgudi Jayaraman
10 mangalam – saurAStram – Adi – Thyagaraja
shLokam (sarvamangaLa mAngalye) – madhyamavati
It is always nice to catch up on a concert or two while you are in your home town. The setting is different, the ambience is different and the audience are different from those of Bangalore. Hence it is interesting to see the artists choice of kritis and ragas and the reaction from the listeners. It is becoming very predictable here in Bangalore.
Saketharaman and the team did a commendable job. Nice selection of devi kritis from various composers ( including the thillana and the mangala shlokam , to his credit) , with appropriate elaboration and mixing it up well.
Fantastic start with the mayamalavagaula. Elaborate neraval at the ‘ragamudra’ and few rounds of swaras in the second speed was the perfect beginning one could ask for. The entire team and the listeners were energized. Small humming of kAmbOji gave high expectations. Ma Janaki came in little forcefully , like the cricket ball skidding on the surface and rushing to the batsman. It was rushing to you, and despite all those beautiful sangatis it was hard to appreciate. I generally observe this at times in his singing.
A beautiful kAnaDa alapana came in next. Full credits to both the lead singer and the violinist here. As expected it was mAmava sadA janani, which he started at sadA janani ( swarAkshara ??) a couple of repeats before singing the complete pallavi line. The swaras were even better. I like kAnaDa in its mandrasthAyi and madhyasthAyi sancharas. He loitered around in these two octaves for a while with a lot of phrases pivoted around ‘gA,gA’, which was immensely enjoyable.
Another little gem of nIlambari alapana. To add to the feel of the raga, he even reduced his singing volume to some mesmerizing effect. Ponnaiah Pillai’s composition was nice too. TayE tripurasundari put the concert back in its original mantle after a slow neelambari. I like the chittaswaras here ; one of the top10 in the carnatic compositions in my opinion.
Madhyamavati main. Somehow the alapana of Saketharaman did not impress me much. He had a lot of ideas and interesting phrases, it lacked coordination. Little bit of ‘to and fro’ feeling. On the otherhand, Vittalarangan played a brilliant alapana, systemically progressed phrases, covering most of the aspects making it a wholesome affair. However, Saketharaman covered more ground than lost with a classy neraval and swarakalpana for Palinchu kAmakSi. The percussion duo, played an excellent tani avartanam. Vijay Natesan and Krishnakumar played very well through out the concert. They were brilliant while accompanying for the kriti, especially after mA jAnaki. Vittalarangan was superb through out the evening, with his sweet sounding violin and measured follow of the main artist.
Post main compositions too were on devis. The Ahirbhairav composition of Lalgudi is not something we hear often in concert. Concert concluded with the mAND thillana before the mangalam.
Brain Drain 