Shreekantham Nagendra Shastry @ Ananya Sangeethotsava 09 May 2013

Vocal : Shreekantham Nagendra Shastry

Violin : Nalina Mohan

Mrudangam : Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma

Morsing : Bharadwaj Sathavalli

List:

01.  SLOkam ( SukLAmbaradharam) – kalyANi

vanajAkshirO ( varNam) – kalyANi – Rakti Veera saami pilley ( S )

02.  varAlandu kommani – gurjari – Thyagaraja ( A,S )

03.  sujana jIvana – khamAs – Thyagaraja

04.  indukA I tanuvunu – mukhAri – Thyagaraja  ( A )

05.  dorakuaA ituvaNTi sEva – bilahari – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S )

neraval & Swara @ ‘rAmabhrahma tanayuDau‘

06.  tripurasundari nApai – amrutavarshiNi –  Lalitadasar

07.  inta telisiyundeditu ? – kIravAni – khaNDa chApu – Tanjavur Ponnaiah Pillai  ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & Swara @ ‘ Orva vashama bAdha sarvEsha daya lEdA, sarvAparAdhamula kshaminchira’ ?

08.  irabEku haridAsara sanga – sAlagabhairavi – Purandara Dasa

09.  Oh my lovely lalanA ( english javali) – kharaharapriya – Karur Shivaramaiah

10. kayou SrI gauri – SankarAbharaNam – Basappa Sastry

Keeravani and Simhendramadhyamam is there to follow me through out this series. The equilibrium has to be maintained. If it was Sinhendramadhyamam the day early, it has to be balanced with a Keeravani today. That makes it 3 Keeravani and 3 simhandramadhyamam in this season ( of the 10 concerts I attended). But, this time it was a new kriti, I had never heard of and that is a reprieve.

I had to attend this after my excitement with the last concert of him at the Ram Mandir. I may not be as excited today, but my admiration for this artist is only growing. Just a look at the list ( do it again) reveal the stuff this man is capable of. Barring 2 kritis or so, most of them were either new or rarely heard. I say two for Khamas and Bilahari. You may add the Kalyani varnam. But wait, the varnam was sung in full. He sang ‘sahitya’ for the chittaswara as well or it was sung more like a ‘padavarNam’, which again is a first time listening for me.

This time the surprise package was the short, interesting alapana of gurjari. While I spent my time guessing, one could know it was a janya of Mayamalavagaula, until the kriti was sung. He added a few rounds of fast swara at the end of the kriti which was good.Sujana Jivana was also sung at a leisurely pace.

Mukhari alapana came soon. It started off very weel, but lost the steam in between. I did not enjoy the later part of the alapana. He was visibly not keeping well. He was somewhat distracted and the atmosphere was very stuffy as he was sweating profusely. Whatever, both mukhAri and the later keeravani alapana was ordinary. But the kriti that was chosen was a welcome change. I’ve not heard this kriti in a concert before. One ws waiting for the neraval to start, but he decided to skip all and stop.

Bilahari was treated much better. Alapana was decent, short neraval and the longer kalpana swara were very good especially his masterly ‘eduppu’ at various places. The rest of the crew were ready for the same. Another short not heard kriti came in as filler.  Keeravani alapana as mentioned earlier was again a dampener, there was a lack of energy in the alapana. He again surprised all with the selection of another rare piece, supposedly of Ponnaiah Pillai. The long neraval line was interestingly done, and as always his swara singing was top class with all those intricate patterns.

Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma with the junior percussionist gave a brilliant tani avartanam in khanda chapu. Some of his muktais and mohras, were visibly and verbally appreciated by the veteran artist who were in the audience. The percussion was, as expected with him in control, was very good.

Post main had more surprises in hand. A ‘lovely’ javali, composed by Karur Shivaramaiah, in English for the Mysore Court spread a lot of smiles around, before concluding the evenings concert with the Mysore State Anthem composed by Basappa Sastry. I was later told that Rbindranatha Tagore was inspired by this piece and composed many kritis in similar style ( notably Ananda Loke). A good concert ( notwithstanding his illness), with an outstanding selection of kritis. I will remember this concert on that count.

 

Shreekantham Nagendra Shastry @ Sree Rama Mandir, Malleswaram 4th May 2013

Vocal : Shreekantham Nagendra Shastry

Vocal Support: Anoop Krishnan

Violin : Satyaprakash

Mrudangam : Anirudha Bhat

List:

01.  SLOkam ( SukLAmbaradharam) – harikAmbOji

unDEdi rAmuDu – harikAmbOji – Thyagaraja ( N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘tamasAdi guNa rahituDu‘

02.  jAnaki ramaNa – suddha sImantini – Thyaharaja ( A,S )

03.  manasA eTulO – malayamArutam – Thyagaraja ( A,S )

04.  endendu ninna pAdavE – rAgamAlika ( mOhanam, nAtakurinji , nIlAmbari) – Purandara Dasa

05.  kaNDa jUDumi – vAchaspati – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @ ‘ sItAtO palki jUchinanta pulakAnkituDai’

06.  ranganyAtakE bAranE anganA maNiyE ( jAvaLi) – chenchurutti – ?? ( O )

07.  lAli lAliyani yuchEdarA – harikAmbOji- Thyagaraja

08.  mangaLam srI rAmunaku – vasanta – Mysore Sadashiva Rao

mangaLam kOsalEndrAya – madhyamAvati

A fabulous concert. He is one artist I was planning to attend a live concert for a long time, and I realise the loss is mine after attending this concert.Everything he sang yesterday was top class. The alapana, the way he choose and presented neraval lines, the appropriate splitting of the words, the very innovative singing of swara and its placement, the selection of ragam and the amount of detailing he gave to each of them were showing his class.

The concert hall was empty when we reached, with 7-8 people wandering about. Anoop remarked that his Guru joked about this saying only Sree Ramachandra will be there to listen apart from the artists. However, the hall gradually filled in with around 60-70 people as the concert progressed. The downpour helped in this cause as those who came in did not leave half way through the concert.

He started the evenings proceedings with the harikamboji kriti,  one not often heard in the concert circuit. The overall amplification in the hall took a while to stabilise, after few corrections, as the clarity was missing. But it improved towards the neraval and swara. Surprise pack of the evening was the alapana of sudha simantini. I was a bit skeptical about the violinist to reproduce the same brilliance. I noticed a reluctance in him, but a nudge from Sastry prompted him to do his bit. He did a commendable job. The kriti was preceded with few rounds of kalpana swaras.

Malayamarutam alapana was built in short phrases, making time for the violin to replicate the same. The entire alapana progressed through shortish phrases, which was pretty nice. As expected it was manasa etulo, and against my wish, there was no neraval at ‘kalilo rAjasa’, but he sand an elaborate round of swara alternating with his sishya on stage. A dasar pada in ragamalika came in before the main. Vachaspati alapana was grand, and he gave equal amount of time to Anoop to complete the second part of the alapana, which he did commendably. The guru gave him ample chances during the concert ( every neraval and swara were alternating between them) and regularly appreciated him. Satyaprakash, who did some fantastic accompaniment for the evening gave another brilliant alapana for vachaspati. It had to be kanda judumi, and the kriti was nice. Interestingly, instead of singing neraval at ‘alanADu’, he chose to sing at ‘sItAto palki’, which was very well thought out ( insted of palki jucinanta’ to give a complete meaning) and was outstanding. Befitting the neraval , kalpana swara was equally brilliant. However, as Keerthi noticed, the entire concert had kalpana swara sang at the middle or higher tempo.

Anirudha Bhat who was apt in his percussion through out the concert, gave a good tani avartanam. Post main had a beautiful javali in chenchurutti. The short , one minute, raga alapana he sang before the javali was mesmerising. Another not heard kriti ( to me) of thyagaraja came before the conclusion of the concert with the Mysore SadashivaRao’s mangalam.  Brilliant concert.