T V Shankaranarayanan @ Surabharathi 02 Jan 2016

Vocal : T V Shankaranarayanan

Violin : C N Chandrasekharan

Mrudangam : C Cheluvaraju

Ghatam : Srishylan

List:

01. shLOkam ( gajAnanam bhUtagaNAdi) – Arabhi

vighnEshvara shubha kAraka – Arabhi – Tulaseevanam ( S )

02. sakala graha bala nInE – aThANa – Purandara Dasa ( starting at anupallavi)

03. bhuvanEshvariyA – mOhana kalyANi- Muthiah Bhagavathar ( A,S )

04. abhaya varadE shAradE – hindOLam – Indira Natesan ( A,S )

05. venkaTa ramaNA – latAngi – Papanasam Sivan ( A,N,S )

niraval & svara @ ‘alamEl mangai maNALA, ambujanAbha dayALA’

06. intha sowkhya – kApi – Thyagaraja ( A,S,T )

07. viruttam ( vandAy manam pugazhndAy ?? ) – hamsAnandi

shrInivAsa tiruvenkaTa – hamsAnandi – Papanasam Sivan

08 eppO varuvArO – jOnpuri – Gopalakrishna Bharathi

09. Western styles notes

10. mangaLam – saurAshtram / madhyamAvathi –  Thyagaraja

The last concert I heard a couple of months back at Ranjani Fine Arts was one of the best for me in 2015. That memory still linger as I decided to attend this concert at the last moment. This does not match upto the expectation set by the previous one, but was another good concert by the senior musician.  The virtuosity and energy continued here, but the selection of ragas and the songs were from the staple list of a TVS concert. The hindolam piece probably was an exception and that was the only one, I missed in predicting.  As soon as he started the alapana of mohanakalyani, latangi, kapi or the viruttam, it was easy to predict what is coming next. From that point, this concert did not give any high. But, what he sang was true to his stature and what one expect from his concert. Not a moment of dullness, always pleasant to watch and listen.

Starting with the gajananam sholkam, deliberating on various words building the mood and atmosphere for the evening, it rolled in smoothly with the Arabhi kriti of Tulaseevanam. He started the athana kriti at the anupallavi at ‘ravichandra budha neene’ to some good effect. Mohanakalyani was the first alapana, fairly detailed and typical sangatis. CNC did his bit of improvisation in his return. It had to be bhuvanesvariya. He sang some brilliant swaras at the end, which probably one of the high point of the concert.

A shortish hindolam alapana was nice. It was clear he is not singing samaja vara gamana or rAmanukku mannan as the phrases deployed mostly sounded towards shudha hindolam ( I could be wrong). Indira Natesan’s kriti was a pleasant surprise. Another impressive rounds of swaras came in.

Another detailed latangi alapana, decent but nothing extra ordinary to talk about. Venkata ramana was to be the choice. An elaborate neraval at ‘alamel mangai’ was classy. Another high point of the evening. Some of the impressive sangatis and styling around ‘alamel angai’ was very very good. A second speed kalpana swaras followed in his typical style. I was thinking this would be the main as is the standard timing at the Surabharathi. At 8:35 pm, he started kApi alapana. Slowly building up from the short phrases to some impressive hindustani-ish sangatis ( he mentioned during the alapana that though kApi is considered as a janya of Kharaharapriya, it has more appeal if we do some mishra prayogas similar to hindustani style). CNC did almost similar phrase in his return. Intha sowkhya was sung beautifully, a bit faster than normal. There was no veraval but another classy rounds of kalpana swaras in two speed. Cheluvaraju played adequately through out the evening played an impressive tani avartanam with Srishylan.

Post main was again the standard list. Eppo varuvaro and the notes has to be there, to the waiting audience. I thought some one requested that. A decent crowd at the beginning of the concert by then slimmed to a handful count by the time the concert was over.

Another typical concert of TVS with most of the regular songs and ragas.

 

Chitraveena Ravikiran @ Surabharathi 1st Jan 2016

Chitraveena : N Ravikiran

Violin : Vittala Rangan

Mrudangam : H S Sudheendra

List:

01. vAtApi gaNapatim bhajE – hamsadhwani – Dikshitar ( O,S )

02. mAyamma yaninE – Ahiri – Shyama Shasthri

03. maNavinAlakinca rAdadE – naLinakAnti – Thyagaraja ( S )

04. nIdu charaNamulE – simhEndramadhyamam – K V Srinivasa Iyengar (A , S )

05.  brOchEvAravarurA – khamAs – Mysuru Vasudevachar ( started at anupallavi)

06. sarasija bhava jAyE – kalyANi – Oothukkadu Venkata Kavi  ( A,N,S,T )

niraval & svara @ ‘karavara dhrita vInAsahitE sujana hitE’

07. rAgi tandIrO – nAthanAmakriya – Purandara Dasa

08. mangaLam – saurAshtram / madhyamAvati – Thyagaraja

New year concert and if this is going to be the measure, I am sure to have a great year of music. Sri Ravikiran ( I wouldn’t say the team) played a very good concert at the Surabharathi yesterday. Ravikiran ,especially was in his sublime form, through out the alapana and kalpana swaras.

Concert started, post the Samstha’s ‘Vishnu sahasra nAmam’and ‘guru vandanam’ just before the 7:00 pm with a brilliant vAtApi. Speaking in Kannada, Ravikiran made a remark that he will introduce the kriti and raga post the recital, allowing us to have our joy of identifying them. Vatapi swaras were top class, so was some of the sangatis around ‘pranaa svarupa’. Vittalarangan rose to the occasion with credible responses. Ahiri that came after was the dampener of the evening. Some thing was amiss. It could possibly be the over enthusiastic response from Sudheendra to a slower than usual playing of Ravikiran. Somehow,it sounded 3 people are playing 3 different kritis. But the tempo was quickly restored with the Nalinakanti kriti with another impressive rounds of kalpana swaras.

Simhendramadhyamam was the first alapana of the evening. Very stylish and measured alapana from Ravikiran which included a teaser of ‘grahabhedam’ to Bouli, lasted for a single or two phrases only. He also had a longish ‘un-plucked’ ( if I may use the expression) playing which received with a lot of positive response from the audience. He repeated the same feat during the kalyani alapana, which again was very impressive. Nidu charanamule was good with some intrinsic kalpana swaras. He later explained, this kriti was wrongly attributed to Thyagaraja, because of the ‘mudra’ but was another of those dubious ones.

Starting at the anupallavi, the  next ‘brOchEvA’ was the other highlight of the evening. Undoubtedly,this was the pinnacle of the emotive beauty of the evening. HE played mesmerisingly here.

Main kalyani alapana was rather short and I thought he is planning a two phase alapana for a grand pallavi. However that wasn’t the case. Even the violin return was very short. He said, he is planning to sing a Oothukkadu composition on Saraswathi. Describing two choices ( OVK has composed two kritis in Kalyani on Devi) he decided to go with ‘sarasija bhava jAyE’in adi talam tisra gati. Kriti was good, neraval was very well done ( sang the line once) and had a majestic , fitting elaborate swara prasthana at the end.

Vittala Rangan played commendably through out the evening. Most of the time followed the complicated swara parlays of the Maestro with aplomb, played good return alapanas and played along well for the kritis.  H S Sudheendra did not have one of his best day in the field. Even the tani avartanam was a bit long and along the same patterns. One could even see Ravikiran joining  with ‘konnakkol’-ish sing along during tani. Post main had time for one dasarnama before the mangalam.

I am attending alive concert of Sri Ravikiran after a very very long time. Good concert to start the year.