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.

 

Krishnakumar, Sankranti Music Festival @ Sri Rama Lalita Kala mandira 01 Jan 2019

Vocal : K Krishnakumar

Violin : B K Raghu

Mrudangam : Bangalore V Praveen

Ghatam : G Omkar Rao

Theme  :  Tribute to the legendary singer and composer Sri Balamuralikrishna

List :

01 vEsAriti nIvE ( tAna varNam ) – khamAs – Adi – Balamuralikrishna

02 gAna sudhA rasapAna niratam – nATa – Adi – Balamuralikrishna ( O,S )

03 brhadIshvara mahAdEva – kAnaDa – Roopakam – Balamuralikrishna ( A )

04 mangaLa dAyaka mAmava sad?guru – Arabhi – Adi – Balamuralikrishna ( O )

05 khatilaka vamshA tilaka vikhyAtA – raghupriya – Adi – Balamuralikrishna ( A )

06 hanumA anumA O manamA – sarasAngi – Adi – Balamuralikrishna

07 sharaNam tava caraNam – pantuvarALi – Adi – Balamuralikrishna ( A,N )

neraval @ rAkA sudhAkara bimbAnanE sad-kAmavardhini sAmaja gamanE

08 OmkAra kAriNi – lavAngi – Adi – Balamuralikrishna  ( O )

09 RTP – vAcaspati – tishra tripuTa x 2 kaLai , samam eDuppu

pallavi line : vAgpatim vAcaspatim vandE varagurum

tani Avartanam

10 anu kAlavu cintE jIvake – ??  – Adi – Purandaradasa

11 anila taraLa (yA ramitA vanamAlina ) – durga – Adi – Jayadeva

12 pibarE rAmarasam – Ahirbhairav -Adi – Sadashiva Brahmendra

13 thillAna ( nAdru dru dhIm tanana tOm ) – Ahirbhairav –  Balamuralikrishna

14 mangaLamu gaNanAtHa – sindhubhairavi – Khanda chap – Balamuralikrishna

——————-

* Tribute concert to Balamuralikrishna by one of his senior disciple.

* Highlights : Raghupriya alapana, the swaras he sang for nATa,  a fabulous neraval for kAmavardhani with some nice takes around the rAgamudra.

* Special pallavi for the occasion. Very well executed, especially the tAnam and trikalam. No ragamalika swaras but the vachaspati kalpana swaras were truly top class.

*BMK’s mangalam on Vinayaka was beautiful.

*Solid percussion support. Praveen was in some form.

 

 

Sanjay Subrahmanyan @ Spring Festival , Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira at Gayana Samaja, 06 Feb 2018

Vocal : Sanjay Subrahmanyan

Violin : S Varadarajan

Mrudangam : Neyveli Venkatesh

Morsing : Bhagyalakshmi Krishna

List:

01. celimi kOri( varNam ) – gauLa – Adi – Veena Kuppiyer?

02. kanu koNTini – bilahari – Adi – Thyagaraja ( S )

03. ninnuvinA marigaladA – rItigauLA – Adi tisragati – Shyama Shastry ( A,N,S )

neraval & svara @ ‘ shyAmakRSNanuta bhakta paripAlanamu sEyuTaku’

04. annai jAnaki vandALE – sAvEri – Adi x 2 – Arunachala Kavi  ( A )

05. entha cheluvagE magaLu – yAgapriya – Adi – Purandara Dasa ( A )

06. shrI subrahmaNyAya namastE – kAmbOji – Adi  x 2 – Muthuswamy Dikshitar ( A,N,S,T)

neraval & svara @ vAsavAdi sakaladEva vanditAya’

07.  mAlOn maruganai ( viruttam) – SaNmukhapriya – Arunagiri Nathar

sharavaNabhava enum – SaNmukhapriya – Papanasam Sivan

08. RTP – jaganmOhini – mishra naDai

pallavi line ” ‘shivakAma sundari amba vandaruL, tandaruL’

rAgamAlika swaras in mukhAri, kalyANi, rEvati and dEsh

09 lALisidaLu maganA – dEsh – Purandara Dasa

10. mangaLAm – saurAStram – Thyagaraja

Yet again, despite reaching ahead of time, braving the evening traffic, I had to be contend with the ‘Balcony seat’. May be next time, I would take half a day leave and reach by 3:00 pm or so. The seats were largely occupied by the handbags and kerchiefs than human beings. So, alternately, I would send a proxy an hour early with my hand-kerchief. Is ‘denzo’ listening ? 5:45pm was the starting time and one would expect him to start at samam. But yesterday there was an ‘atheetha eDuppu’ by about 2 mins.

One couldn’t ask for more. 5 elaborate alapana, one master class of kAmbOji with a real heavy composition, a pallavi, a rare vivAdi in the mix. A fabulous evening of enriching music. A short gauLa varnam to start ( too short even to notice ; it got over in 3 mins) and a bilahari that followed, were just warm up stuff.  The game shifted with the reetigaula. He always sings that well, but I was super impressed with the return by Varadarajan. Good neraval and svaras to add to the brilliance. I have to say the same for sAvEri alapana too. Very good, and again Varadarajan was special here. Annai Janaki vandale was a surprise.

He started a vivAdi alapana and as we were deciphering the raga ( by successive elimination method  from gAngEyabhUSani to calanATa), he came to our rescue by announcing yAgapriya. 31st mELam, mostly known for Dikshitar’s kalAvatim kamalAsanayuvatim ( kalAvati as it is called in Dikshitar’s school – not to be mistaken with the other kalAvati of ‘ennaDu jUtunO’) . Impressive alapana especially from Sanjay followed with a dEvarnama. I notice this trend in his concerts for the last 3-4 years in Bangalore, where he sing one of the Dasa kritis upfront with an alapana and neraval / svara in almost all the concerts, not restricting them to the post main section, which I appreciate.

No fillers, as he started a classy kAmbOji alapana. I predicted a Dikshitar composition to follow and here comes ‘ShrI subramaNyAya namastE’. Awesome stuff by him and Varadarajan as they presented it with all its grandeur. Outstanding neraval, fitting kalpana swaras ( percussion was left wanting at times) for one  hell of an affair. Tani avartanam, to my pleasure was much subdued and done very well, a welcome change from him.

When he started the viruttam, I thought we are not likely to have a pallavi. But soon he started the alapana of jaganmohini. After a grand kAmbOji, this couldn’t have bettered the impact on me. But, it was good nonetheless with some impressive ragamalika swaras especially the rEvati ( Varadarajan again steel my applause) and dEsh which is extended to the dEvarnama lAlisidaLu maganA.

For a change, the organisers did not want to interrupt. Upon Sanjay’s indication he came on to stage and made very  short proceedings of thanking the artists and announced the next days program. One saw Sanjay, contemplating and physically warming up and was thinking of a viruttam or thillAna to come which wasn’t there.

These days, it is very rare to get five detailed alapanas in a concert without compromising on other aspect of music. This calls for him planning and structuring the concert impeccably. If one has to make a template and tick the appropriate squares , this concert would have all those covered.  One wonder, how he manages to do this day after day, every concert across all the parts of the world.

 

Dr R N Srilatha , Sankranthi Music Festival, SRLK Mandira, 08-Jan-2016

Vocal : Dr R N Srilatha

Violin : Mathur Srinidhi

Mrudangam : C Cheluvaraju

Ganjira : ASN Swamy

List:

01. sarasUDA ( varNam) – sAvEri – Kothavasal Venkatarama Iyer

02. mahAganapatim bhajEham – amritavAhini – Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar ( O,S )

03. mIna lOchanA brOva – dhanyAsi – Shyama Shasthri ( N,S )

neraval & swara @’ambA- gAna vinOdini  nI samAnamu jAgAna gAnanamma’

04. manasA shrI rAmuni – mAraranjani – Thyagaraja ( A,S )

05. parama puruSa jagadIshvara – vasanta – Swathi Thirunal

06. mAmava mInAkSi rAjamAtangi – varALi – Dikshitar ( A,N,S )

neraval & Swara @ ‘ shyAmE shankari digvijaya pratApini’

07.  RTP – sAvEri – chaturashra jhumpa x 2 kaLai +1/2 eduppu

pallavi line ‘navanIta chOra shrIkrSNa mAm pAhi’

rAgamAlika swaras in sudhasAvEri , karNAtaka sudha sAvEri ??

tani Avartanam

08. pUrvajanmadinda nA mAdita  – madhuvanti- Purandara Dasa

09.  sAramaina mAtalenda (jAvaLi) – behAg- Swathi Thirunal

10.  thillAna ( tAm tAm tAm udani tOm tananam) – khamAs – PAtnam Subramanya Iyer

11. mangaLam – saurAStram / madhyamAvati – Thyagaraja

Music from the Rudrapatnam lineage is always very pleasing,more over I wanted listen to her live concert for a while after hearing a few radio concerts. Fearing the friday evening traffic, I left office early only to reach the venue well in advance to be the first person in the audience, which gradually build up as the concert progressed. As expected very soothing music, few rare pieces and some impressive display of her caliber.

Amritavahini kriti of JCW was the first surprise for me, hearing for the first time in a concert. Few rounds of impressive swaras followed. Shyama Shasthri’s dhanyasi kriti was ok, but she did a commendable job with the neraval. Largely hovering around gAna vinOdini -ambA, with a few stretch of the complete line, was very good and fairly well treated. Good round of kalpana swaras too.  First alapana of the day was for mAraranjani. I was fairly convinced it to be sarasAngi and Patnam kriti was lingering in mind, but it was one mELa lower at mAraranjani. Srinidhi’s alapana was beautiful.  The kriti and the swaras were very well rendered. A short vasanta kriti of Swathi Thirunal came in as a filler.

Varali alapana was just ok, good but not anything to rave about. IT was done in detail by both the artists. Mamava meenakshi was a good choice and it picked up from here very well. Neraval for the short line was impeccable, and so was the two speed swara prasthana continued.

Saveri was back as the main as is the old practice. Very good alapana in two phases. Tanam was even better, both Srilatha and Srinidhi playing some exquisite phrases, very moving. Nothing great about the tala or the pallavi line, except that she had a rather funny but very cute way of pronouncing krSNA. Well executed trikalam before the swaras. Ragamalika swaras were sung in only two which I guess were sudhasaveri and karnataka shudhasaveri.

Newly coveted ‘gAna kala bhUSaNa’ Cheluvaraju was in his usual self. He and ASN Swamy played a good tani avartanam. Post felicitation were reduced to a devarnama, a jAvali and a thillana before mangalam.  Devarnama in madhuvanti(?), was very good.

Very good concert. Mararanjani made my day.

 

Abhishek Raghuram , RLKM Spring Festival @ Gayana Samaja 06 Feb 2015

Vocal : Abhishek Raghuram

Violin : Charulatha Ramanujam

Mrudangam : Anantha R Krishnan

Ganjira : Guruprasanna

List :

01  karuNimpa ( varNam ) – sahAna – Thiruvottiyur Thyagayya ( O )

02  duDukugala – gauLa – thyagaraja ( O )

03 entarANi tanakenta pOni – harikAmbOji – Thyagaraja ( A )

neraval & swara @ ‘ shESuDu shivuniki bhUsuDu lakSmaNa’

04  aparAdhamula nOrva samayamu – rasAli – Thyagaraja ( A,S )

05  sogasu jUDa taramA – kannaDagauLa – ThyagarAja ( S )

06 talli ninnu nera – kalyANi – Shyama Shasthri ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @  ‘shyAmakrSNa paripAlini shUlini ‘

07  jAnakI ramaNa dasharatha nandana – kApi – Vanamali Jeeyar ( A )

08  sakhi prANA (jAvaLi)- chenchurutti – Dharmapuri Subbaiyer

09  vishvEsvar darshan kar – sindhubhairavi – Swathi Thirunal ( A )

This man apparently told the organisers that he may not be able to sing beyond two and half hours as he had to take the train back the same night. But, the music that out poured yesterday carried ‘itself’ ( and him) to  more than 3 and half hours, made him cancel his train ticket and decide to fly back the next morning. That to me sums up the concert.

Some exquisite harikamboji, path setting rasali alapana, and new realms of kalyani and the culminating sindhubhairavi were made the Friday evening effort through the traffic and the early departure from office, worthwhile. Raising to the occasion the supporting artists made their immense contribution to the overall effectiveness of the concert. Charulatha deserves a special mention.

Slow start with the sahana varnam was quickly compensated with some brilliant display of his usual self in the gaula pancharatna kriti. Dudukugala is the only pancharatna kriti I like to listen to in a concert. Probably too much of ‘goshti gana’ mulled my enthusiasm towards pancharatna kritis. MDRs Nata and Sri singings are definitely an exception. Back to Gaula, I had been requesting few artists to sing a longer version of the gaula kriti with 7-8 mins of alapana and some rounds of fitting kalpana swaras. A wish, pending to be fulfilled.

He sang a short alapana of harikamboji, did not give time for violin to replay, but started a couple of ‘enta rANi’ lines in the right wordsplit before expanding to the full pallavi line. The alapana and the kriti has not much to talk about, but the neraval that followed was shear brilliance. Very very long with all that one can ask for in hari kamboji came in during the fantastic neraval with the rest of the crew chipping in to match his exuberance. A similar feat extended to the kalpana swaras. Pure blitz.

A pleasant rasAli alapana came next. Being not too familiar with this ragam, we had to wait until he started the kriti to close in on rasali. Heard Rudrapatnam Brothers siging it in detail once, and TVS in another occasion. Both the vocal and violin alapana was impressive. Few rounds of kalpana swaras were added. A fast filler in kannada gaula with a super fast swaras came in before the main.

Kalyani alapana started off in an unfamiliar terrain to me. A typical fair from Abhishek, extending and exploring the possibilities with in the raga and his voice range. Because it is kalyani, It is all the same to me :-). However, Charulata in her turn played much more sedate kalyani. More traditional, or should I say familiar, phrases and movements. Very impressive indeed. There was a short commotion before she started her turn. A few in the audience raised to leave and a momentary displeasure could be scanned in her face. This did not impact the overall crowd situation as more were standing out to get in and occupy the vacant seats.

Yesterday, being the remembrance day of Shyama Shasthri ( died on the 6th Feb, 1827), it was nice on his part to select one of his masterpieces as the main kriti on the concert ( having sang only Thyagaraja kriti until then). Another classy neraval came in at the predictable line. However, I was a bit uncomfortable with the word splits at times, when he sang ‘Shya – makr – SNapa -ripA-lini shoo – lini. He ‘shoo’ed away this soon with some imaginative phrases. On a lighter vein, the ‘shoo’ he did before repeating ‘shUlini’  looking towards Anantha brought some smile. The kalpana swaras, if I may use some adjectives, out of the world. Awesome and one of the best I’ve listened for a long time. He did a clever ‘graha bheda’ during the kalpana swaras.

There is always an unspoken understanding and reading of the mind between Abhishek and Anantha. There is always the right anticipation on the percussionists part on what the main singer is going to do and he seems to be ready for the same. Guruprasanna was as always in his best self. The tani avartanam started a bit low key, but got the attention with the second phase onwards.

A short , nice alapana in kApi gave pleasant jitters through the spine. It was 9:10 and the singer had just announced his cancellation of train ticket. He probably is planning to sing a pallavi. But, it did not last long. He started immediately the ‘Janaki ramana’ kriti without the violin return. Melodious Chenchurutti Javali came in before another gem of a sindhu bhairavi. He sang a 3-4 min alapana before singing the Swathi kriti with some fabulous treatment. One of the best rendition of this , in my listening experience. There was bit of confusion and hesitation as he decided to conclude. There was no mangalam and audience for a while was looking perplexed, before realising it was over.