S Sowmya @ Kanchi Mutt, Malleswaram 30 Sep 2017

Vocal : S Sowmya

Violin : Charulatha Ramanujam

Mrudangam : H S Sudheendra

List:

01. pancmAtanga mukha – malahari – rUpakam- Dikshitar ( S )

02. bAlE bAlEndu bhUSaNi – rItigauLA – Adi – Thyagaraja ( A,S )

03. annapUrNE vishAlAkSi – sAma – Adi – Dikshitar

04. ekkAlathilum unnai maravAmalirukka – pUrvikalyANi – Adi x 2 -Thiruvarur Ramaswami Pillai ( O )

05. jAlandhara supIThastHitE – valaji – rUpakam -Muthaiah Bhagavathar ( A,N,S )

neraval & swara @ bhavarOga nivAriNi , bhaktajana paripAlini

06. sudhA mAdhurya bhASaNa – sindhurAmakriya – Adi – Thyagaraja ( S )

07. pArvati ninnu nE – kalgaDa – Adi tisranaDai –  Shyama Shasthri

08. sarasvati anniye – kharaharapriya – Adi – Papanasam Sivan ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @ ‘inchOl? shukapANi aLikula vENi’

09. himagiri tanayE – shudha dhanyAsi – Adi – Muthaiah Bhagavathar

10. karuNa jUDu ninnu nammina – shrI – Adi – Shyama Shasthri

11. mangaLam – saurAStram – Thyagaraja

On the ‘Vijayadashami’ day, one was expecting a concert mostly on the theme of devi, and there was no surprise there from Vidushi Sowmya, who presented a good concert at the ‘Kanchi Mutt’ yesterday. She was struggling a bit with her voice and it was evident in the initial part of the concert. It started off well with the malahari composition and the next two three pieces weren’t making any impact, apart from some spirited attempt from the accompanying artists.

Ritigaula alapana wasn’t any great to talk about, and despite one of my favorite kriti in that raga, and her attempt to sing in a very slow tempo, it did not make a lasting impact. Both annapurne and ekkalathilum was further dampened the evening.

However, it changed with valaji. Nice impressive alapana with some beautiful phrases, even bettered by Charulatha in her attempt, was the change in the tide. The corridor of malayamarutam/valaji is always tricky for me, but I got it right here. There was only jalandhara to sing. While the composition isn’t with any great lyrical beauty, it is very appealing musically. Neraval was superbly done, so was the kalpana swaras that followed. Charulatha excelled in her turn, with Sudheendra chipping in brilliantly. Two short kritis in quick succession came in, both were very impressive for their selection. Few rounds of swaras for sudha madhurya was nice.

Kharaharapriya alapana was grand. It started beautifully and despite loosing steam ( and voice a bit) in the middle she ended with some mesmerising phrases. Charulatha was again did a class act in her turn. I was trying to recollect a ‘devi kriti’ in kharaharapriya as the alapana was going on, could come up with ‘bhArati dEviya’ , the Purandara Dasa composition set to tune in kharaharapriya. Saraswathi Anniye was not in my mind and it was a pleasant surprise. Very well presented, nice detailed neraval and some impressive swara prasthana made it worth the effort. Sudheendra in a new appearance was doing a great job through out the concert, also presented a decent tani avartanam.

Post main was quickly wound up with himagiri tanaye and Shyama Shasthri’s Sri ragam composition. A good concert with the theme. Modest first half and pretty good second half , if I may say so.

 

S Sowmya @ Sree Ramaseva Mandali, Fort School Grounds 05 May 2016

Vocal : S Sowmya

Violin : Charulatha Ramanujam

Mrudangam : H S Sudheendra

Ghatam : Giridhar Udupa

List :

01. vanajAkSirO (varNam) – kalyANi – Ramanathapuram Srinivasa Iyengar ( S )

02. alakalalla lAdaga – madhyamAvati – Thyagaraja (S )

03. mAyUranAtham anisham bhajAmi – dhanyAsi – Dikshitar ( A )

04. manavinAlakinca rAdatE – naLinakanti – Thyagaraja ( S )

05. amba mInalOcani Ashrita – nAyaki – Mayuram Viswanatha Shasthri ( A )

06. vandE sadA padmanAbham – navarasa kannaDa – Swathi Thirunal

07. RTP – SaNmukhapriya – khaNDa triputa x 2 , +1.5 Eduppu

pallavi line ‘shrI rAma raghuvarA sadA mAmpAhi

tani Avartanam

rAgamalika swaras in ‘valaji, sunAdavinOdini ? , rEvati , surutti

08 bAgilenu teredu – rEvati – Kanaka Dasa

09. chaliyE kunjan mE – brindAvan sArang- Swathi Thirunal

10. mangaLam – saurAshtram

inally rain gods were happy and lashed the city. So was the musical showers at the Mandali last evening. Sowmya, whom I am listening live after a long gap, presented a scholarly concert in not so comfortable environment. Her voice seems to have lost some power and there was mild strain at higher octaves, but she sang very well within her limitations.  What impressed me immensely was the selection of kritis, not often ones in common ragas.

Kalyani varnam, vanajakshirO of Poochi Iyengar was a bright start, adding a few rounds of Kalpana swaras. A unexpected madhyamavati, a rather obscure kriti ( these days at least, not withstanding the MDR rendition available) was very well received. She did made few points regarding this kriti at the end, bringing references to the meaning ( mild movement of the lock of hair in the forehead of Lord Rama in breeze, musically represented by the composers in some flowing sangatis). She also mentioned the way MDR sing those sangatis bringing out the subtle beauty of the composition.

A classy dhanyasi alapana came in next. Long, elaborate and bringing out the shear beauty of the raga. Charulatha played an equally good alapana in her turn. Again, the selection of the kriti was highly appreciable. The only recent reference of some one singing mAyUranAtham is by Vid.Vijay Siva. One was hoping for a neraval and few rounds of swara , but she decided otherwise. She did amends with the next one, where she sang some mesmerising swaras, which also brought in thunder showers to the location. First signal came in with a stream falling on to  my right hand. Soon, there was multiple drops around, including a few on stage directly impacting Charulatha. She shifted two steps behind (from forward short leg position to squareleg) and Sowmya , who was already singing very close to the mike, inched forward a little. Few vessels ( basins) brought in and placed on stage for capturing the water. The whole melee took a short while, and finally the team moved to the right readjusting themselves to most suitable positions. The team on stage, were generally in good humour and not complaining.

Once settled, the concert resumed with a fabulous nAyaki alapana.Another not much heard kriti of Mayuram Viswanatha Shasthry was presented. A short navarasa kannada composition paved way to the main.Shanmukhapriya alapana was decent, but the tanam that followed was probably the best of the evening. Outstanding piece of singing by Sowmya with an equally brilliant violin support. Good pallavi line,deploying ‘swarakshara’ in the uttarangam ( sa da ma pa). Interesting trikaalam, where instead of the usual half speed ( 2 tala cycle) and multi speed ( two pallavi cycle in same tala cycle), she did 2 tala cycle and 3 tala cycle for pallavi.

Sudheendra and Udupa was in good form. Sudheendra probably was a little too excited through out the day. The duo played an entertaining tani avvartanam. Sowmya continued the pallavi with ragamalika swaras post the tani avartanam. Post main was again nothing noteworthy. But the concert despite the unforeseen circumstances was still a top class one.

 

S Sowmya , Gokulashtami Series, Unnati Centre, 10 Aug 2014

Vocal : S Sowmya

Violin : R K Sriramkumar

Mrudangam : J Vaidyanathan

Ganjira : anirudh Athreya

Song list :

01. chalamEla ( varNam) – nAtakurinji – Rangaswamy Pillai ( S )

02.  bAlakrishNan pAdamalar – dhanyAsi – Papanasam Sivan ( S )

03.  Ela nI dayarADu – aThANa – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘ rArA dEvAdidEvA , rArA mahAnubhAva ‘

04.  bhOgindra shAyinam – kuntaLavarALi – Swathi thirunal

05. O jagadambA -Anandabhairavi – Shyama Shasthri ( A,S )

06.  brOva bhAramA – bahudhAri – Thyagaraja ( S )

07.  hannu bandidE – hindOLam – Purandara Dasa

08. RTP – harikAmbOji – khaNDa tripuTa x 2 kaLai , started at 1.5 ( 3rd beat) after samam

pallavi line ‘ srIkrishNam bhaja tE sadA, unnata padavi vrjarE manasA ‘

rAgamAlika swaras in ‘rEvati, ?, surutti

tani Avartanam

09.  srI mAdhava vAsudEva – behAg – Papanasam Sivan

10. bhajarE yadunAtham – pIlu – Sadashiva Brahmendra

11. thillAna ( tAm tAm udanitOm tananam) – khamAs – Patnam Subramanya Iyer

12. mangaLam – saurAshtram – Thyagaraja

Another top quality concert at the series at Unnati. S Sowmya and the team presented a very well coordinated concert yesterday. A cleverly selected kritis on the occasion of Gokulashtami and a rather surprising pallavi are some of the highlights of the evening. All the participants played very well and I am particularly impressed with young Anirudh Athreya on the Ganjira. She sang kalpana swaras for almost all the kritis until the main, each of them delivered with class.

Started 10 mins late on a Sunday evening, she started off with the natakurinji varnam adding a few rounds of swaras. I’m listening to Balakrishnan pAdamalar after a long time, and she sang the swaras pretty well. Athana was the first alapana and she started off with a bang ( many appreciative tch tch around) and progressed nicely. RKSK did one better in his turn taking off from where she left. An interesting neraval ar rA rA devadideva , was fabulous. Another elaborate Anandabhairavi alapana came soon after a filler. It was ok, not something that would blew me away. O jagadamba was good, and so was the ultra slow kalpana swaras that followed. Probably to shift the tempo she quickly sang an super fast bahudhari and an even faster fireworks of swaras. It was very impressive, nonetheless. Another slow devarnama followed soon after.

Harikamboji alapana was grand. I am never good at identifying with this, but after a few internal negotiations, I settled at the right place. Expecting a ‘dinaMaNi vamsha’, I was a bit surprised when she started her tAnam. There hadn’t been many instances of a pallavi in harikAmbOji, an MDR and one from Chittoor Subramanya Pillai are two that I’ve heard of. Tanam was good. Pallavi was cleverly coined, adding the ‘organiser’ mudra incorporated. Brilliant trikalam  for an intrinsic ‘eduppu’ was executed to perfection by all. There was no elaborated ragamalika swaras. She did a sweeping one stretch swaras in the final round briefly shifting from revati to surutti ( one more in the middle) and handed over the reign to the percussion. J Vaidyanathan and Anirudh Athreya was top class in accompanying. The duo played out a decent tani with no noisy riots.

Post main had a couple of short songs and a khamas thillana. Nothing to talk home about. A very enjoyable concert and a bonus surprise of the harikamboji pallavi.

 

S.Sowmya , Indiranagar Sangeetha Sabha 9th July 2011

vocal : S.Sowmya

Violin : Nalina mohan

Mrudangam : Neyveli Narayanan

Ganjira : K V Gopalakrishnan

Songlist:

(likely to have missed the varnam)

02  tulasi dalamulache – mAyAmALava gauLa – Thyagaraja ( N,S)

        neraval & swara @ ‘sAkEtapura vasuni srI rAmuni’

03  ranjani niranjani – ranjani – G N B ( A,N,S )

        neraval & swara @ ‘ kanchadala lOchani kAmAkshi’

04  annapUrNE viSAlAkshi – SyAma – Dikshitar

05  ODi bArayya vaikuNThapati ninna  – bhairavi – Purandara Dasa ( A,N,S )

         neraval & Swara @ ‘ nODi muddADi mAttADi santOSa kUDi’

06  mA kELarA – ravi chandrika – Thyagaraja

07  dEvi brOva samayamidE – chintAmani – Shyama Shastri

08  RTP – SankarAbharaNam – khanda triputa 2 kaLai ( one beat after samam)

        pallavi line : rAjamAtangi pAvani paripUraNi ratnabhUshaNi manOnmaNi’

        ragamalika swaras in behag, rEvati , ———, surutti , Sankarabharanam

08b   tani Avartanam

09  kAdalennum tIvinilE radhE radhE – khamAs ?? –  Subramanya Bharati ?

10  ADum chidambaramO – behAg- Gopalakrishna Bharati

11  thillAna ( nadru dru tom dru ) – ?? – BMK ??

12 mangaLam – saurAshtram

Expecting the concert to start at 6:00pm, I reached by 5:45. By then the concert had already started and I presume, she had sung a varnam. We seated as she was starting mayamalavagaula. The first thing I noticed was the evident strain in her voice. This continued till the end, by on the whole she managed it very well.  Tulasi dala mulache had neraval and swara ( neraval at saketapuravasuni was interesting). The first alapana case at ranjani and I thought this was better of the rest in terms of alapana, despite a power interruption in the middle. GNB krithi was sung well with neraval at kanchadala lochani with nice set of swaram.

After the filler , she started a detailed alapana in bhairavi. The beginning and the initial stages were very good, but I thought it lost the steam in the middle. Having said that, the surprice choice of Purandara Dasa krithi was a welcome change and she did a good neraval and swara for the main piece of the day.

Pallavi was in the offing, since she did not give time for a tani avartanam after bhairavi. A couple of kritis, chintamani kriti to cover all the trinities, and a fast paced mA kELara wasnt really necessary. Sankarabharanam alapana also started beautifully, and was decent.  But, the tanam was superb and was acknowledged by the applauses from the audience ( this probably was the only occasion where the audience reacted in the middle). Pallavi with theusual trikalam was done well. Ragamalika swarams came in a continuous one take form, with no separate violin reply. 

Neyveli Narayanan and KV Gopalakrishna did a good tani, shortish though. They were very impressive through out and showed a lot of coordination and understanding. Nalina Mohan was adequate, and I particularly liked her return swara singing for the bhairavi.

Post main had a couple of tamil kritis and a thillana. Overall a good concert with some good selection of krithis.

 

S.Sowmya , Nadasurabhi Music Festival , 24 Nov 2010

Vocal : S.Sowmya

Violin : Mysore Srikanth

Mrudangam : Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma

Ghatam : Sukanya Ramgopal

Song list ( partial) :

( I assume, I missed the first 3)

03  rAmA nI samAnamevvaru – kharaharapriya – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S)

neraval & swara @ ‘ paluka palukulaku tEnelOluku mATalADu’

04  rAma rAma rAma rAma, rAmA ennirO – vasantha – Purandara Dasa

05  pArvathi ninnu nE – kalgaDa – Shyama Shastri

06  SrI venkaTa girISam – surutti – Dikshitar ( A )

07  intha prabbhuva kAnenO – mOhanam – Vijaya Vittala Dasa

08  mInAkshi mEmudam dEhi – gamaka kriya – Dikshitar ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @ ‘ madumadamOdita hRdayE sadayE mahAdEva sundarESapriyE’

09  bAgilanu theredu  – rEvathi – Kanaka Dasa

10  thIrAtha viLayAttu piLLai – rAgamAlika –  Subramanya Bharathi

11  mangaLam – saurAshtram – Thyagaraja

I reached the venue during the kharaharapriya alapana. Rama Ni Samana was good with detailed neraval and swaras.. For once, I thought this was the main and I reached late. After a couple of small krithis, surutti alapana started. While I wasn’t greatly impressed, the krithi was rendered very well.  Dikshitar’s master piece Minakshi mEmudam was the main piece of the day. I thought the alapana was brilliant so was the neraval.

Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma was very good through out and so was the rather short tani avartanam. Post main included a Kanakadasa krithi, makring respect to the poet on his birthday.