S Aishwarya , M S Subbulakshmi 98th birth anniversary concert, Sri Jayarama Seva Mandali, Jayanagar 19th Sep 2014

Vocal : S Aishwarya (great grand daughter of MS )

Violin : R K Sriramkumar

Mrudangam : H S Sudheendra

Ghatam : Srishylan

song list:

01  shLOkam ( Om nama praNava) – Shankaracharya

nArAyaNa tE namO namO – rAgamAlika – Annamacharya

02  manavi nAlaginca rAdatE – naLinakAnti – Thyagaraja ( A )

03  aparAdhamulanniyu – latAngi – Patnam Subramanya Iyer ( A,N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘krpajEsi nA manavAlaginca’

04  bhOgindra shAyinam – kuntaLa varALi – Swathi Thirunal

05  akshayalinga vibhO – shankarAbharaNam – Muthusvami Dikshitar  ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @ ‘badarIvanamula nAyakI sahita’

06  mein hari charaN kI dAsi – Meera bhajan

07  jagadhOdhAraNa – kApi – Purandara Dasa

08  bhAvayAmi gOpAlabAlam – yamunAkalyANi – Annamacharya

09  viruttam ( chediyuga?)

shrInivAsa tiruvenkata – hamsAnandi – Papanasam Sivan

10 hE nutAn – bengALi song – Rabindranatha Tagore

11  kurai onrum illai – rAgamAlika -C Rajagopalachari

12  maithreem bhajata –  – Chandrasekhara Saraswathi

13  mangaLam – saurAshtram – Thyagaraja

The aura of Smt M S Subbulakshmi is everlasting. The number of music enthusiasts thronged the Sri Jayaramaseva Mandali is the testimony to the fact that the music lovers continue to cherish the music and the charisma of the legendary singer. The love, respect and admiration is bestowed upon her is unparallelled and I can’t foresee any other musician to match her in the near future. A friday evening is not the most suited concert attendance day for me. Difficult to leave office in time to reach at the start, maneuvering the snarling traffic makes me think twice. Yesterday was no different. For once, I thought of skipping, but that would make the 5th break of my promise to Ceinu to attend her concert. So, I decided to attend, thinking that I would be able to catch the concert in the midway through. The place was easy to reach, but it took nearly 15 mins to find a place to park and walk back to the auditorium.

The hall at the ground floor was packed and people were crowding at every possible opening ( window, the doors, steps etc) like the blue BTS bus during peak ours. I strained my neck and had a quick glance, but could only see a screen and the telecast of the speeches. Quick query got me to the first floor hall, and the situation there was worse than that of the ground floor. The power of the brand MS ( I am saying this with utmost respect) is thus understood by me. Caught a glimpse of ARVenky in a distant corner and I fought my way through the crowd and found a reasonable place to stand and listen and observe the proceedings. Nearly 7:00 pm almost an hour behind the announced time, but for once I wasn’t complaining.

To the concert, as that is what matters. It wouldn’t be surprising to hear and read comments and opinion comparing the great grand daughter to her legendary ancestor. On look at the list will make you state this as  “a typical MS song list”, and people attended remarking “reminded me of MS Amma”, fitting tribute to the legend etc. 100% in agreement with all those. In a single sentence, I could summarise this as an ‘honourable salute to the most loved voice of carnatic music by some one who showed all the credentials to be the flag bearer of her music”.

She started with the Snakraracharya shLOkam ‘Om nama praNava” before starting the ragamalika kriti nArAyaNa tE naMO naMO, stirring the memories of her great ancestor. Short naLinakanthi alapana before the thyagaraja kriti came in. Her tempo ( kAla pramANam) to me was very pleasing, bit more leisurely way of singing. A detailed , grand alapana of latAngi marked the day for me. Brilliantly constructed showing her mettle as a grownup musician, she made her arrival in style. Kriti was rendered brilliantly with an awesome, elaborate neraval. An equally fitting kalpana swaras, with some intricate swara patterns to some fantastic effect. The senior accompanying artist, all in admiration and support, chipped in encouragingly. This was the best moments of the concerts.

A kuntalavarali filler came in before the main, not in the typical aggressive on your face high speed singing, but sedate and more pleasing rendition of the kriti. Shankarabharanam was the main, probably planned for the occasion. Grand alapana, she effortlessly traversed all the octave. Very well organised and progressed phrases, rich in voice and deep modulation. She used her vocal capabilities to the best use in the alapana, receiving immediate responses from the listeners.  Akshayalinga vibho isn’t an easy one to sing. It was very brave on her part to attempt this. She sang the kriti very well, breezed through all those grueling sangatis with ease, sang a decent neraval. Had a couple of minor difficulties during the early phases of the kalpana swaras, probably from exhaustion by the towering effort, but quickly gathered herself back to complete a commendable swara-prasthana.

Post main largely was pleasing to the MS Amma aficionados. A meera bhajan, bhavayami gopala balam, the Tagore’s poem in Bengali, a request from the side for ‘kurai onrum illai’ and maithreem bhajata all immortal favorites of MSS and the rasikas.

This is the first time, I am attending a full concert of Aishwarya. I’ve had listened to her on a few other occasion where one only get to know how good she sings. But its only in such a full concert does we get to know her capabilities and her stature in the learning graph. She indeed has scaled very high and have grown into a very capable concert singer. With a performance like this, she should have made her great grand mother watching and blessing her from the above, very very proud.

 

Sankaran Namboodiri , Sri Jayarama Seva Mandali, Jayanagar 18th Dec 2011

Vocal : M K Sankaran Namboodiri

Violin : C N Chandrasekhar

Mrudangam : M T Rajakesari

Ghatam : M A Krishnamurthy

List:

01  gajavadana pAlisO – hamsadhwani – Adi – Vijaya Dasa  ( S )

02  rAgi tandirA – Ahir bhairav/chakravAkam? – Adi – Purandara Dasa  ( S )

03  pAhimAm pArvati paramESwari – mOhanam – rUpakam – Dikshitar ( A,S )

04  chalamElarA – mArga hindOLam – dESAdi – Thyagaraja ( S )

05  paridAnamichitE – bilahari – khaNDa chapu – Patnam Subramania Iyer ( S )

06  rAma nAma pAyasakE – AbhEri – tisra gati – Purandara Dasa

07  himAchala tanaya – Ananda bhairavi – Adi – Shyama Sastry ( S )

08  sadAmatin dalatu – gambhIra vANi – Adi – Thyagaraja

09  tanayuni brOva – bhairavi – Adi x 2 – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S,T)

        neraval & swara @ ‘ vatsamu veNTa dhEnuvu canunO vAridamunu’

10  krishNa murAri bhavabhaya hari – Saibhajan –  ??

11  rAdhikA krishNA rAdhikA – vAsanti ? – Jayadeva

12 kanDEnA gOvindana – mAND – Purandara Dasa

13  kshIra sAgara – dEvagAndhAri – Thyagaraja 

       ( started at anupallavi)

14  dEva bandA namma ranga banda – bhAgEshrI ?? – Purandara Dasa

15  thillAna ( dhim tana ta dhim tana ) – pahADi – LGJ

16  SLOkam ( srI vidyA shiva vAma bhAga )  – madhyamAvati

        mangaLam – saurAshtram – Thyagaraja

Sankaran Namboodiri gave another very good concert yesterday at SrI Jayarama Seva Mandali auditorium.  The elaborate Bhairavi and the chain of swara singing for most of the initial kritis were the highlights of the evening. He also chose to sing large number of Dasa compositions, which I thought was very apt for a non-Karnataka singer to do while perforning here.

Starting with a couple of kannada kritis ( rAgi tandirA was a bit awkward to sing so early in the concert), with some good round of swara’s set the tempo of the concert, getting the accompanying artists into the groove.  His first alapana of mOhanam came with some nice phrases,  and an intersting choice of Dikshitar kriti. While the kriti may not be a great one, it was interesting none the less. The swara that followed was appropriate and good.

A chain of various kritis followed before the main, each rendered pretty well and added with few round of swarams for most. The Gambhiravani kriti and the Anandabhairavi kriti stood out from the list. Ideally, I would have preferred lesser number of compositions at this stage, and another Alapana and a neraval.

The main bhairavi was brilliant, to say the least. After a couple of minutes, where I thought he wandered around, it settled into one superb alapana of Bhairavi filled with some great passages , traversing all three octave. Chandrasekhar was subtle and very emotive in his return adding to the overall effect of the alapana performed by the vocalist. Tanayuni brova ( what a welcome change!) came with all its grandeur with a brilliant neraval and some spellbinding kalpana swaras. Brilliant piece.

The percussion was good through out the concert.  Rajakesari and MA Krishnamurthy gave a spirited tani avartanam ( but was longish to my comfort ) adding to their already good show during the evening.

Post main was rather long, which seems to have included a couple of requests ( like the ksheerasagara, showing his mettle at the higher octave repeating 4-5 times at ‘tAraka rAmA’).  He concluded the concert with a thillana in pahadi.

Sankaran Namboodiri gave a very good concert yesterday. Look at the list above, it has all that variety that was needed.  Another alapana and a neraval is all I could have asked for, dropping a couple of kritis from the list.  But, that do not take away the good work he did last evening..