TNS Krishna at Nadasurabhi, 15th Sept 2019

Vocal : TNS Krishna

Violin : B Raghuram

Mrudangam : H S Sudheendra

Ghatam : Sukanya Ramgopal

Thematic Concert on the Compositions of Harikeshanallur Muthaiah Bhagavathar

List

(reached late)

03 vaLLI nAyakanE – SaNmukhapriya – Adi – HMB ( A,N,S )

neraval & Swaras @ ‘talli tanri guru deivamu nIvani ‘

04 mAnamu kAvalenu talli – sahAna – rUpakam – HMB ( A )

05 krpAnidhE krpAjaladhE – hamsanAdam – mishrachAp – HMB ( A )

06 sharaNam vijayasarasvati mAyE – vijayasa saravavati – Adi – HMB ( O )

07 manadirkkisainda maNALan – shankarAbharaNam – Adi x 2 – HMB ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & Swaras @ samarasa sharavaNan sadguNa bOdhan’

rAgamalika swaras in ‘nATa, gauLa, Arabhi, varALi, karNaranjani, ………., malayamArutam, shivaranjani, pashupatipriya, …….., hamsAnandi, shrI

08 sArasa daLa nayane – sAramati – Adi – HMB

09 thillAna ( dhIm tare nare nare dhiraNA) – hamsAnandi – Adi – HMB

10  mAvUr valam – sindhu bhairavi  – Adi tishra gati – HMB ( O )

11 mangaLAm bhavatu tE mAtanga vadanA – pantuvarALi – khaND chAp – HMB

Many things were notable in this concert.  One, fabulous selection of compositions, with a method and reason for each of them. Two , not  repeating the often chewed cud ( As we see in many such thematic concerts) , and often bringing out the niceties of the compositions , by means of highlighting them and explaining.

A cracker of a shankarabharanam. Very good alapana, super selection of a kriti , not heard this before in a concert. Years ago, his father and guru ( one and only TNS) gave a special thematic on Muthaiah Bhagavatar,  shankarabharanam as main with ‘sahaja guna rAmachandra’. Son, picked another not often heard gem. I loved it.

He did a lot more to the main. Neraval was grand. Nice wordplay around bOdhan, guNabOdhan, sadguNa bOdhan. In fact he closed the kriti ( before starting the neraval) with ” maNALan, isainda maNALan, manadirkkisainda maNALan ” , to some good effect.

The kalpana swaram had some good ‘swarakshara’ landing at ‘sA,mA -rasa’, which he deployed in quite a few rounds. I thought that was very intelligently and imaginatively done.  There was also a flurry of ragamalika swaras.

This wasn’t done as a lec-dem concert, but he added a bit of snippets for few of the compositions. The sahAna kriti ( a master piece of shri TNS) , had a unique start at mA, unlike most of teh popular sahana compositions, and this also has mA as one of the pivotal note. I think, most of his alapana were around this, and hence refreshing. He said, the hamsanadam kriti of Muthiah Bhagavatar, was composed in the older tradition of the raga.  I remember Shri TNS singing a detailed alapana of vijayasaraswati, years ago during Nadasurabhi Annual Festival ( around 2007/08) and some one from audience asked for the name of the raga as all of us were scratching our heads. He responded by asking us to wait until the kriti starts, which will answer our queries.

Even the post main section was cleverly conceived. A beautiful sAramati , thillAna , the sindhubhairavi kriti on kALi were all impressive. As is his wont ( or one can expect from him) , the mangalam was also was a nice pick.

Despite reaching late , after a stupendous ‘thayambaka dual’ at Indiranagar, I loved every bit of it. I reached during the shanmukhapriya kriti, which followed by a energetic neraval and swara.  The supporting artists gave ample support.

 

Sumitra Nitin @ Ranjani Fine Arts, 26th Nov 2017

Vocal : Sumitra Nitin

Violin : Sowmya Ramachandran

Mrudangam : R S R Srikanth

Ganjira : Kiran Kumar

Theme : Triveni, Shyama Shastry compositions

List:

01 mAyamma yani nE – Ahiri – Adi x 2 – Shyama Shasthry

02 parAkELa nannu paripAlimpa – kEdAragauLa – Adi – Shyama Shasthry ( A,S )

03 pAravti ninnu nE – kalgaDa – Adi tisra nadai – Shyama Shasthry ( A )

04 ninnE nammi nAnu – thODi – mishra Chap – Shyama Shasthry ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @ kAmAkSi kancadalAyadAkSi’

05 kAmAkSi lOkasAkSiNi – madhyamAvati – Trishra triputa – Shyama Shasthry

 

Priyashri Rao @ Ranjani Fine Arts , 26th Nov 2017

Vocal : Priyashri Rao

Violin : Sowmya Ramachandran

Mrudangam : R S R Srikanth

Ganjira : Kiran Kumar

Theme : Triveni, Compositions of Muthuswami Dikshitar , 1hr Concert

List:

01 shrI nAtHAdi guruguhO – mAyAmALavagauLa – Adi – Dikshitar ( S )

02 chandrashEkharam sadA bhajEham – mArgahindOLam – Adi – Dikshitar

03 SaDAnanE sakalam arpayAmi – khamAs – Adi – Dikshitar ( A )

04 mAmava paTTAbhirAma – maNirang – mishra ChAp – Dikshitar

05 mInAkSi mEmudam dEhi – gamakakriya/pUrvikalyANi – Adi x 2 – Dikshitar ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @ ‘madhurApuri nilayE maNivalayE ‘

 

 

Chithra Srikanth @ Ranjani Fine Arts , 26 Nov 2017

Vocal : Chithra Srikanth

Violin : Sowmya Ramachandran

Mrudangam : R S R Srikanth

Ganjira : Kiran Kumar

Theme : Triveni, Compositions of Thyagaraja , 1hr Concert

01. shrI gaNapatini – saurAStram – Adi – Thyagaraja

02. rAju veDala – thODi – Roopakam – Thyagaraja ( A,S )

03. rAma rAma nI varamu – Anandabhairavi – Adi – Thyagaraja

04. nAradamuni veDalina – pantuvarALi – Adi , tishra gati – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @ ‘nArAyaNa nAmamulanu pArAyaNa moralincucu’

05. daNDamu bettEnurA – balahamsa – Adi – Thyagaraja

 

 

Sukanya Prabhakar @ Gayana Samaja 23rd Apr 2017 Thematic Concert on Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar

Vocal : Sukanya Prabhakar with Sumana Vedant ( daughter )

Violin : T S Krishnamurthy

Mrudangam : C Cheluvaraju

Ghatam : M Gurumurthy

Thematic Concert on Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar

List :

01  shLOkam ( shrIvidyAm jagatAm dhAtrIm) – hamsAnandi

shrImad chAmuNDEshvari (varNam) – hamsAnandi – Adi -Veena Venkatagiriappa ( S )

02 gam gaNapatE namastE – durvanki – tishra triputa – Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar

03 shrI jAlandharamAshrayAmyaham – gambhIranAtta – Adi – Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar ( A,S )

04  shLOkam ( shrIranga mangaLa nidhIm karuNA nivAsAm ) – kalyANavasantam

shrI ranganAtha pAhimAm – kalyANavasantam – mishra jhampa- Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar

05 sadAshivam upAsmahE – sarasAngi – Adi – Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar ( A,N,S )

neraval @ sadguru rUpadharam shankaram

swaras @ sarasAngArdhanArIshwaram

06  amba shrI rAjarAjEshwari – bhOgavasanta – Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar ( S )

swara @ ‘vikAra rahita vimalEshwari’

07 RTP – kIravANi – chaturashra triputa , 2 kaLai  1/2 Eduppu

pallavi line ‘shrI jayachAmarAja bhUpAlam smarAmi namAmi’

Swaras in kIravAni , no rAgamAlika swaras

tani Avartanam

08 shLOkam ( kara charaNa krtam vA kAyajam karmajam vA) – nAtHanAmakriya

shiva shiva shiva bhO – nAtHanAmakriya – mishra jhampa – Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar

09  shrI madyadukula vAridhi – rAgamAlika –  Mysore Vasudevachar ( sang as shLokam)

10 mangaLAm – saurAshtram / shrI – Thyagaraja

Absolutely fantastic concert yesterday evening by the Vidushi. I am so very happy that I decided to attend this over the venue just across the road. I was expecting a typical concert of compositions of the Royal Composer of Mysore, accompanied with necessary commentary.  What was so good was the way she separated the discussion on the composer and the concert itself.  She spent the first 15-20 mins on the composer and some of the intricacies of his compositions before getting into a full fledged concert.

She started with a brief introduction of the Royal Composer. Mysore royal family had been great connoisseurs of art and culture for many generations ( I guess she mentioned JCW was the 25th Wodeyars of the clan). Artists from various part of the country were invited and encouraged to perform and learn.  Born on 18th July 1919, he was the ‘adopted son’ ( there are some legends about this so called curse of the Mysore family) of Nalwadi Krishnaraja. He was introduced to music and culture at an early age. But he was more interested in Western Music and was an expert in playing Piano. It was much later he was interested in Carnatic Music. He learnt both Veena and Vocal under Veena Venkatagiriappa, later continued his training under Mysore Vasudevachar.

Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar has composed 94 kritis in total. Only kritia, no varnam, no thillana, no javali, no jati swara or any other forms of composition. All 94 are in Sanskrit, in which he was proficient, and were in 94 different ragas. He has created a few ragas and composed in those , eg durvanki, bhOgavasanta. He was a ‘srividya upasaka’ under the guidance of his guru, Sri Siddhalinga Swamy. All his composition as this as his ‘mudra’.

All his compositions have madhyamakala sahitya and rAgamudra, an inspiration from Dikshitar, and very well incorporated chittaswaras. He has also used a large variety of tala for his compositions ( 35 in total ) including a few complex ones like sankIrNa triputa anf khaNDa mathya.  64 of these compositions are on Goddess (dEvi) in various forms. 11 on Ganesha, 15 of them on Lord Shiva and 4 on Lord Vishnu.

To the concert….

She started her concert with a varnam ( first time for me) composed by his guru, Veena Venkatagiriappa. A 2 kalai, vilamba varnam in hamsAnandi, leisurely paced. Very interesting. The duo sang few rounds of kalpana swaras in the same speed.

Durvanki raga composition, probably only one in that raga, was the Ganesha kriti. His familiarity with western music probably influenced him here, as durvanki is a janya of shankarabharanam. She said the raga can have some similarity to sAma or mAND in some prayoga.

Gambheeranatta composition, popularised by MLV, was sung next. Daughter seemed to have nudged the mother with few takes of alapana, as Vid Sukanya took over from there and presented a short nice alapana. There was some rounds of impressive swaras too. Kalyanavasantam kriti was very nice. I loved the shloka she sang before the kriti.

Sarasangi was very detailed. Elaborate raga shared by the pair. Daughter was very very impressive with some absolutely beautiful phrases. However, it was sri Krishnamurthy blew me away. What a stupendous alapana he did. Outstanding stuff. Nice kriti, amazing neraval at sadguru roopadharam and equally classy kalpana swaras at the rAgamudra. This probably was THE BEST part of the evening.

As expected ( I was sure that she will sing this in the evening), she talked about bhOgavasanta. She said, until last evening she was thinking this is the only composition in this raga. Apparently, there is one composition by Periyasamy Thooran and one more ( she mentioned the name of some swamy, I couldn’t register the name). There was no alapana this time, she merely sang the mUrchana before singing the kriti.  I think, I’ve heard her singing a detailed alapana for this kriti in a Radio concert. But, there was some crispy swaras at ‘vikAra rahita vimalEshwari’

I was expecting a big kriti of Wodeyar as the main, but she chose to sing a pallavi composed for this occasion.  Nothing innovative or worth a word of the pallavi line, though. Keeravani alapana was again pretty nice. Violin was good too. He did a fleeting sojourn to hEmavati(?)  as grahabhEdam in his turn. I could see the artists glancing at the clock and nodding at each other. Tanam was short, Krishnamurthy played some delectable movements. There was no trikalam and the swaras were limited to the main raga, without any ragamalika exposition.

Post the customery felicitation and she sang the popular ( by MS) nathanamakriya composition followed by a ragamalika composition by Vasudevachar , in praise of Wodeyar. They sang it as shLOkam, and not as composition. Pretty good, nonetheless.

Few things impressed me last evening. One, the young vidushi. Vid Sukanya and Sumana sang in tandem, sat together and shared, be it  the alapana, neraval or kalpana swaras, among them. Sumana sang brilliantly through out. Two, Vid T S Krishnamurthy. He was brilliant through out the evening. His sarasangi alapana will remain in my memory for a very long time. Three, the way she presented the theme. She did not present it as a JCW compositions concert, but included the compositions of two of his gurus who shaped and formed the musical tastes of the Raja Composer. The pallavi created for the occation. The way she sang shlokam’s before the compositions. There were three in total, and I love them coming in concerts.  Cheluvaraju is the apt choice for such concerts. His non interfering way of playing mrudangam made a lot of sense. The essence of music is not submerged in the enthusiastic percussion noise here. Even his tani avartanam was a subdued affair.

Let me repeat, an amazing concert. It will remain in memory for a while.