Sanjay Subrahmanyan @Gayana Samaja, Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira Concert, 23rd Feb 2020

Vocal : Sanjay Subrahmanyan

Violin : S Varadarajan

Mrudangam : Neyveli Venkatesh

Ghatam : N Guruprasad

Morsing : B Rajashekhar

List :

01 kAmajanaka ripuguNA – gauLA – Adi – Swathi Thirunal

02 rAmA ika nannu brOva rAdA – sahAna – rUpakam – Patnam Subramanya Iyer ( S )

03 EkAmranAtHam bhajEham – gamakakriya / pUrvikalyANi – Adi x 2 – Dikshitar ( A )

04 kOri sEvimparArE – kharaharapriya – Adi – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S )

neraval & Swaras @ ‘( paramAtmuni haruni) kOri sEvimparArE kOrka lIDEra’

05 ambara cidambara – janaranjani – Adi – Muthu Tandavar

06 kaLabEDa kolabEDa – gOpikAtilakam – khaNDachAp – Basavanna ( A )

07 RTP – nATakurinji – caturashra tripuTa , 2 kaLai , 2 aksharam eDuppu

pallavi line ‘ nATTaikurinji enbAr siraindu engaLadu’

rAgamalika swaras in nATa, kurinji, sAma , navarasa kannaDa and jOg

tani Avartanam

08 nArAyaNa tE namO namO – bihAg – Adi – Annamacharya

09 viruttam ( tIrthakaraiyinilE ) – rAgEshrI

ninnayE rati enru – rAgEshrI – mishra chAp – Subramanya Bharathi

10 kaLilO hari smaraNa – kApi – Adi – Muthaiah Bhagavathar

11 nI nAma rUpamulaku – saurAStram – Adi – Thyagaraja

The concluding concert of the long Annual Festival of Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira, scheduled after almost a month after the series. And what a way to finish.  Sanjay ( and the team) once again gave a fitting finale to the festival, to an overflowing audience.  This being the weekend of Shivarathri, there were many compositions on Shiva in the menu.

Beautiful start with the gauLa composition of Swathi Thirunal, nice rounds of swaras for sahana. Hearing the poorvikalyani/gamakakriya composition for the first time from Sanjay – alapana was very good.  Kharaharapriya alapana was in a different terrain. Some of the not so usual phrases, and he also ended with some stylish hop-skip-jump mode. Kori sevimparare ws classy. Neraval at the pallavi line,  a couple of times he ‘prefixed’ the last lines of the charanam. Liked it. Good swaras too. Ambara chidambara, I think, was set to tune by Sanjay himself in janaranjani.

When he started gOpikatilakam, the hopes went high. I thought he is taking this up as main and predicted Shudhananda Bharathi’s  ‘Ananda naTanam’ or so to follow. The alapana was for 7-8 minutes and he chose to sing the Basavanna Vachana, instead. Beautiful lyrics, dense in meaning.. one needs to give credit to the artist to bring such gems to the forefront.

When he started the Natakurinji alapana, I was dividing the remainder of the time to fit in a main and a pallavi.  Long alapana and as is his wont, a fabulous tanam. Parring the main artist, Varadarajan played exceptionally well through out the evening. Stanard setting for a pallavi, but he did try  trikalam or something of that sort. Again, as expected some memorable ragamalika. The 4-5 minutes of jOg, indeed stole the show. I guess, it is jog from the short ‘pramadavanam’ like phrase played by Varadarajan.

Tani Avartanam started with Venkatesh playing out the entire ‘phase one’ on the thoppi side. Guruprasad, who was the star of the evening, couldn’t fall behind, unbuttoned himself and played out his turn with ‘closing the aperture’ of the mouth of the Ghatam with his body, to an outstanding result. Now, Rajashekhar had to measure up and he did the same by blowing / without using his fingers for the same take. In fact, he was deploying the same technique for larger part of the evening, blow into the instrument rather than plucking. Noisy conclusion to the tani avartanam, overall excitement and decibel increase as well as the swaying of heads prevailed. But there was thunderous applause and a few cat-calls. All is well which appeals to the audience.

Quick formalities by the organiser ( used up 2-3 mins maximum) before Sanjay concluded with 2-3 short pieces. It had already over 3:15 hrs since the start.

 

Sanjay Subrahmanyan @ Nadasurabhi Annual Festival, 1st Nov 2019

Vocal :  Sanjay Subrahmanyan

Violin : S Varadarajan

Mrudangam : Neyveli Venkatesh

Morsing : Bhagyalakshmi Krishna

List

01 valaciyunna mAnini (varNam) – amrtavAhini – mishra jhumpa – Koranadu Natesa Pilai

02 viruttam ( pallANDenru pavittiranai ?) – nATa

pallANDu pallANDu – nATa – Adi – Alwar ( S )

03 idi samayamu brOva rAdA – nATakapriya – rUpakam – Mysore Vasudevachar ( A )

04 nIvErA kuladhanamu – bEgaDa – mishrachAp – Thyagaraja ( A,N )

neraval @ ‘tyAgarAja vara hrdaya nivEsha’

05 calamElarA sAkEtarAmA – mArgahindOLam – Adi – Thyagaraja ( S )

06 pAhimAm shrI vAgIshvari – kalyANi – Adi x 2 – Swathi Thirunal ( A,S,T )

07 entha cheluvage – yAgapriya – Adi – Purandara Dasa

08 RTP – AbhEri – tishra tripuTa , 2 kaLai , 2 aksharam atheetha eDuppu

pallavi line ‘ varuvAi varuvAi mayilmIdinilE, vaDivEluDane’

rAgamAlika swaras in sahAna, SaNmukhapriya, nATakurinji, darbAri kAnaDa

09 thillAna (tarita jhaNuta dhim) – darbAri kAnaDa – mishra chAp – Tanjavur Kalyanaraman

10 ugabhOga ( suttu nadiya kaNDE ) – durga – Purandara Daa

kaNDEnA uDupiya krSNarAyanna – ? – mishrachAp – Purandara Dasa

11 nI nAma rUpamulaku – saurAStram – Adi – Thyagaraja

Another day in office, as they say. Another robust performance by Sanjay and team. You start the concert late, you end the concert late ( 9:40 pm) ; no compromise on the concert time. 3+ hrs with no breaks in between, as always.

Kalyani and Abheri, were picked the top slots as main and pallavi.  But, to me it is the bEgaDa that stole the show.

As is his wont, yet another gem of a varnam from the hidden treasures. It kept all of us guessing, until he revealed the details. I’ve not heard this before, nor heard of this before.  Thus the concert started on a positive note. Nice viruttam, and the Alwar’s pallandu pallanud pallairathandu in nATa. He sings it often. Liked the extended sangatis in the line ‘mallAnDa thOl maNivaNNA’. Nata swaras are always liked. I thought he stretched the boundaries a bit during that longish second speed swara prasthana. It was lovely, though. Natakapriya was ok. Mysore Vasudevachar’s idi samayamu, was good.

Here comes the begada. Nice teasing start, playing with the audience. One sneak preview with a couple of revealing notes, back to those short syllables, with Varadarajan playing along. I was linking it with the ‘thiranottam’ in kathakali.  Behind the curtain, you see the crown approaching. The artist does not appear, but stay behind  with measured movements supported by percussion. Suddenly the two hands holds the curtain, brings it down by a couple of inches, by now you see the crown and fairly know who is behind, and no, he does not appear, but takes the hands off and goes back. You wait for another 2-3 minutes before he makes his appearance in full glory ( see here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP4Dz9uoK9c). Slowly, the begada emerged in full glory and how ! An outstanding alapana. From the beautiful slow start with ultra short phrases, albeit teasingly indulging one, to some high energy higher octave takes, it was shear brilliance. To me, this made the day.  Neevera  kuladhanamu, sang in a a leisurely speed, a bit slower than that I’m familiar with, but it made a lot of sense. The only neraval of the day at tyagaraja vara hrdaya nivesha was again very good.

A quick chalamelara before the main with few rounds of faster swaras. A grand kalyani. Again with some impressive early singing, some nice folkish intrusion in the middle ( repeated by Varadarajan) high pitched, quick quirky phrases and all that. All said and done, it was kalyani. Impressed with the selection of the composition, as I was expecting a Dikshitar kriti or the ‘kallu sakkare kolliro’ being the Rajyotsava Day. Pahimam shrI vAgIsvari of Swathi Thirunal. Huge composition with a lot of ‘toungue twisters’, complex lyrics with a lot of composite words.  Amazed how one manage to remember this. Read this charanam below without a stumble and call me 🙂

shArade kacapAshaviDaMbita ruciratarAsitanIrade
nijapatIkamalajanirupamatarasukhakaraNavishArade
sphuTataradhavaLamavilasitamukurashakalapaTalIrade vinutanArade
dAruNAdhikarapAtakAvaLidAraNaikanirate subhAshhiNi
sArasagarbhadaLAyatalocanapuuritabhaktamanorathavallarI
vAraNakuMbhamadApahakucayuga-
bhAravinamrak.rshodari mAmaka-
karapada mukha samakaraNa nikaramapi
caraNa yuga bhajana paramiha kuru tava ||1||

There was no neraval, even the kalpana swaras were a hasty affair, done in single speed. Percussion team stepped up. Venkatesh played some nice patterns, especially the variations of speed were beautiful. Morsing, if present, is a star of the tani avartanam. Bhagyalakshmi was there in the zone, receiving a lot of applause. In general, Venkatesh was very good yesterday. Varadarajan as always were superb.

Abheri pallavi with a nice alapana. His tanam is always special. Despite some of the unpleasant sounds he incorporated, tanam was exquisite. Pallavi , possibly taken from the Bharatiyar composition was very good with the eduppu and talam. Little attempt of trikalam, with some nice variations within the pallavi line, with Venkatesh catching most of them.  Ragamalika swaras were conclued with a classy darbari kanada. He stopped, waited for the audience responses to die down and started the thillana in the same ragam. Concert concluded with a devarnama on the Udupi Krisha. Begada, fullstop.

 

Sanjay Subrahmanyan @ Gayana Samaja, Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira – Spring Festival 06 Feb, 2019

Vocal : Sanjay Subrahmanyan

Violin : S Varadarajan

Mrudangam : Neyveli Venkatesh

Ganjira : K V Gopalakrishnan

Morsing : B Rajashekhar

List :

01 ninne kOriunnAdirA (varNam) – Ahiri – aTa – Tarangampadi Panchanada Iyer

02 tappaganE vacunA – shuddha bangALA – Roopakam -Thyagaraja ( S )

03 AnandAmrtakarSiNi – amrtavarSiNi – Adi – Dikshitar ( A,S )

04 ItanIga vAsudEvanu – nATakurinji – Roopakam – Kanakadasa ( A )

05 attaruNam abhayam – bhairavi – Adi – Papanasam Sivan ( N )

neraval @ ‘ uttamap- piravi aLittAy UnamillAda uDalum aRivum koDuttAy’

06 dAsharathE dayA shAradhE – kOkilapriya – Adi x 2 – Thyagaraja ( A,S,T )

07 nannu brOvumaNi ceppavE – kalyANi – mishra chAp – Bhadrachala Ramadasu

08 RTP – suruTTi – chaturashra tripuTa x 2 kaLai , 5 aksharam eDuppu

pallavi line  : ‘putiyatOr ulagam seivOm, pOriDam ulagathai saipOm’

rAgamAlika swaras in dhanyAsi, bEgaDa and gOpikAtilakam

09 riNa madanuta paripAlaya –  behAg – Adi – Swathi Thirunal

10 ugabhOga ( sutta nadiyE kaNDE ) – pahADi ?

kaNDEnA uDupiya krSNarAyanna – pahADi ?? – Mishra chap – Purandara Dasa

11 rAmanai bhajitAl – mAND – Adi – Papanasam Sivan

12 nI nAma rUpamulaku (mangaLAm) – saurAStram – Adi – Thyagaraja

;———————-

*WHAT.A.CONCERT it was. The concert of the year for me. One of the best in the recent times.

* Everything was a gem. Nothing more to say.  Four super class alapana. I loved the amrutavarshini and kokilapriya alapana.

*Fabulous pallavi, very detailed. Mesmerizing ragamalika, especially the begada and gopikatilakam.

*I guess, Sanjay himself has set the Devarnama to tune. It was very appealing.

*shudha bangala swarams.. to me there are 3 references to shudhabangala. Madurai Mani Iyer for Rama bhakti samrajyam, Semmangudi for Tappagane and Nedunuri for toLi nE jEsina. But this was very good, especially the swaram that he sang yesterday.

* I am also liking him singing kannada compositions up in front and a new one this time. Commendable.

 

Sanjay Subrahmanyan @ Sree Venugopala Krishnaswamy Temple, Malleswaram 20 Jan 2019

Vocal : Sanjay Subrahmanyan

Violin : S Varadarajan

Mrudangam : Neyveli Venkatesh

Ganjira : Alathur Rajaganesh

List:

01 entO prEmatO nE (varNam) – suruTTi – Adi – Thiruvottiyur Thyagayya

02 ee vasudhA nI vaNTi deivamu – sahAna – Adi – Thyagaraja ( S )

03 shrI krSNam bhajarE – rUpavati – Roopakam – Dikshitar

04 enduNDi veDalitivO – darbAr – mishrachAp – Thyagaraja ( A )

05 dEva dEva jagadIshvara – pUrvikalyANi – Adi – Swathi Thirunal ( N )

neraval @ ‘ dArida magadha mahIpa yadUttama ‘

06 mA ramaNan umA ramaNan – hindOLam – Roopakam – Papanasam Sivan ( A,S )

07 eduTa nilicitE – shankarAbharaNam – Adi x 2 – Thyagaraja ( A,S,T )

08 hE gOvind hE gOpAl – paTdIp – Roopakam – Surdas

09 harivAsarada upavAsada – sindhubhairavi – Adi – Purandara Dasa

10 viruttam ( tIrtHa karayinilE ) – bhAgEshrI

ninnaiyE ratiyenru – bhAgEshrI – Roopakam -Subramanya Bharathi

11 viruttam ( UraNi manOnmaNi ) – kAmbOji,bhImplAs?, behAg, SaNmukhapriya?,madhyamAvati

karpagamE – madhyamAvati – Adi – Papanasam Sivan

12 nI nAma rUpamulaku ( mangaLam) – saurAStram – Adi – Thyagaraja

—

*This was the concert ‘postponed’ from September.

*As usual another classy concert. Very interesting set of compositions.

* No pallavi, hence I would have preferred another neraval today. Neraval for Poorvikalyani was awesome.

*Brilliant alapana of Darbar, hindolam ( Varadarajan was fabulous) and Shankarabharanam.

*Lovely sahana swaras and the shankarabharanam.

*Expected ( hoped) him to sing ‘yArE ranganA yArE krSNana’ for hindOlam, for the occasion and the location 🙂

*Brilliant tani avartanam, especially from Venkatesh.

 

Sanjay Subrahmanyan @ Nadasurabhi Annual Festival , 04 Nov 2018

Vocal : Sanjay Subrahmanyan

Violin : S Varadarajan

Mrudangam : Neyveli Venkatesh

Ganjira : G Guruprasanna

List :

01 inta parAkEla namma ( varNam) – kunTaLavarALi – Adi – Calcutta K S Krishnamurthy

02 sUrymUrtE namOstutE – saurAStram – Chaturashra dhruvam – Dikshitar

03 sakala bhuvana nAyaka – kEdAram – Roopakam – Papanasam Sivan ( A,S )

04 shrI vaTukanAtha shiva samjAta – dEvakriya – mishrachap – Dikshitar ( A,N )

neraval @ ‘shakti sahita bhakti vihita dEva dEvakriyA ‘

05 kaligiyuNTE gada – kIravANi – Adi x 2 – Thyagaraja ( A,S,T )

06 jaladhisutA ramaNEna – calanATa? – Adi – Swathi Thirunal

07 maneyoLagADO gOvinda – shrIranjani – Adi – Purandara Dasa

08 RTP – harikAmbOji – mishra tripuTa, 2 kaLai , 1/2 Eduppu

pallavi line :  ‘ nI bhaktiyuDan tODutta pAmalaikkiNaiyuNDO, subramaNya bhAratiyE’

rAgamAlika swaras in ranjani,dhanyAsi, kadanakutUhalam, kanakAngi

kriti : pAmAlaikkINai uNDO – harikAmbOji – Adi – Papanasam Sivan

09 ettanai kOTi inbam – dEsh – Adi – Subrahmanya Bharathi

10 apadUruku lOnaitinE (javaLi ) – khamAs – ?? – Pattabhiramaiah

11 viruttam ( UraNi manOnmaNi ) – mOhanam, sAvEri, AbhEri , behAg

karpakAmbikai nI allavO – behAg – roopakam – Papanasam Sivan

12 kuru yadunandana ( nijagAda sA yadunandanE ) – sindhubhairavi – Adi – Jayadeva

13 mangaLam – saurAStram – Adi – Thyagaraja

Two weekends in row, Sunday evenings are spent in the company of Sanjay and his team, and how he made both a memorable ones. Two splendid concerts. The only regret for me is that on both the weekends, Arsenal had to content with a draw and single points each 🙂

Some one commented after the concert that ‘kaligiyunte’ is the only kriti she was familiar with. I know it was an exaggeration but it shows the kind of selection he did for this concert.  The kuntalavarali varnam was a first time for me too, his Guru’s which had the ‘ragamudra’ cleverly incorporated. Very sedate, slow saurashtram , very moving. In general, the entire concert was singing mostly slow tempo kritis, especially in the first half of the concert.

Nice kEdAram alapana by both and mildly surprised with the Papanasam Sivan’s composition, as I probably was expecting MDR’s tyAgarAja gurum ashraye. Nice rounds of kalpana swaras as well. But the ‘piece de resistance’ of the evening to me was the dEvakriya. Fabulous alapana, again, slow and moving phrases. I’ve heard him sing devakriya before, but this was superb. Shri vatukanatha, of Dikshitar was very good and a grand neraval at the ‘dEva dEvakriya’ line. Awesome. He left me wanting for more, and if that is a measure of a good singing, here is one.

Keeravani alapana started with some delectable phrases. 5-6 years ago, I remember him singing this at Unnati.  To me, every one sings keeravani, the same way and I remarked after that concert that I was happy that there was some freshness in that alapana. Yesterday too, I liked the way he parlayed (sorry for that expression) the whole alapana. Brilliant. Kaligiyunte was good, but a little disappointed when he skipped the neraval. But, boy how did he compensate for that and more with a great swaras. The early phases were the traditional slow speed, with typical laya innovations and his usual change in sangatis. The second speed was very ‘Mani iyer’ influenced ‘sarva laghu’ style of singing. He was in some form by now. Interestingly, there was no exhilaration on his part , but the excited percussion support at time was very intrusive and wasn’t adding to the listening pleasure. The tani avartanam was good.

He sang two short kritis in quick succession before Pallavi. I would have been happy if he had skipped one and did a neraval for keeravani. Harikamboji was the pallavi raga, though it took a while to register. From the responses by many ( as seen on the social media), I wasn’t the only one who was scratching the head.  The opening sequence of the alapana, was teasing and flirting around shankarabharam and later kamboji. Tanam, as usual, was very good.  Pallavi line was, from the composition of Papanasam Sivan in the same raga. After the ragamalika swaras, he sang the kriti in full.

Post main was some of his usual list.  Javali was very nice. The rgamalika viruttam before the behag kriti was the highlight of the post main section. An ashtapadi, probably the only fast paced kriti in the concert, concluded a concert. Another enriching concert, with many not often heard compositions, by Sanjay, yet again.