R Vasudevan @ Dommasandra Sri Guruvayurappan Temple, 07th Dec 2019

Vocal : Vid R Vasudevan

Violin : Shankar Rajan

Mrudangam : Phanindra Bhaskara

List

01 vanajAkSa (varNam) – behAg- Adi – T R Subramaniam

02 uNaraNAm alivennil – ShaNmukhapriya – Adi – Malabar Unnikrishnan (A,S )

03 guruvAyUrappanE appan – rItigauLa – Adi – Ambujam Krishna ( O )

04 padmanAbha pAhi – hindOLam – Adi – Swathi Thirunal ( A )

05 shrI bAlakrSNa pAhimAm – pUrvikalyANi – rUpakam – K C Keshava Pilla ( A,N,S )

neraval & swaras @ kAyAmbU niramArnniDum shObhana mrdu kAya bhArgavI nAyaka’

06 shLOkam ( vasudEva sutam dEvam ) – khamAs

santAna gOpAlakrSNam upAsmahE – khamAs – rUpakam – Dikshitar ( O,S )

07 pankaja lOcana – kalyANi – mishra chAp – Swathi Thirunal ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & Swara @ ‘ vrndAvanAnta krta vividha sukha vihArA

08 viruttam ( koDai pirainda Ur ++ ) – rAgamAlika – bEgaDa,sahAna, hamsAnandi, sindhubhairavi

ayyanE vA appanE vA – sindhubhairavi – Adi tisragati – Mother of Shri TNS

09 thillAna ( nAdru dhIm tanana dhiraNA ) – sindhubhairavi – Oothukkad

10 alarshara paritApam – suruTTi – mishra chAp – Swathi Thirunal

11 nI nAma rUpamulaku – saurAStram – Adi – Thyagaraja

shLOkam ( yOgIndrANAm ) – shrI

Very different set up for a concert. The small Guruvayurappan temple ( in a 20×30 plot ) at Dommasandra , on the Sarjapur Road, celebrate the Ekadasi festival every year which includes a concert on two days.  The elevated stage on the adjacent plot, facing the idol – lighted up with numerous lamps – and the listeners , braved the rain and cold ( it was rather chilling after a short spell of rain ) was seated down in the temple premise. The bells/chimes went off at random intervels, but it was adding to the overall musical ambience of the evening. However, the non-stop coming and going of the devotees , the occasional ‘swAmiyE sharaNam ayyappA’, the sudden hooting of the horn of the speeding vehicles were a bit disturbing, but was inevitable.

To the concert, which started 30 mins late as the accompanying artists were delayed due to the Saturday evening traffic, but we were more than compensated with some excellent music. The highlight of the evening indeed was the two special, rather not often heard compositions of two Kerala Composers, both were treated with some elan.

Shanmukhapriya composition of ( I was given to understand) Malabar Unnikrishnan and the Purvikalyani kriti of K C Keshava Pilla ; both were fabulous.  Detailed alapana for both. Shanmukhapriya started of at an interesting place. Typical fair followed. Good rounds of swaras too.  Purvikalyani was a lot more elaborate. The alapana was top class. I’ve heard the kriti before, but he did a commendable job. The longish neraval line was dealt impressively, especially the second phase of the neraval was awesome. So was the swaras.

Kalyani was the main. Looks like, it was one of the request, I guess. The early short phrases of kalyani was beautiful. Pankaja lochana was a safe bet. Beautiful composition. Grand neraval and some very tricky and intrinsic kalpana swaras. He did a similar complicated take in the khamas swaras too, which was a bit too much for the rest, I think. Shankara Rajan played very well. His alapanas for all three ragas were very good, so was the apt replies for the neraval and swaras.  Phanindra, struggled to maintain the  shruti in the open air and humid condition, but played well for the compositions and had a short tani avartanam for the kalyani kriti. Post main had a beautifully sang viruttam and a couple of  short kritis.

Very well planned and executed concert at the outskirts of Bangalore, suited to the occasion and the deity. Brilliant Poorvikalyani was the highlight for me.

 

Vasudevan Ram, Guru Utsava @ Ranjani Fine Arts, 21 Jul 2018

Vocal : Vid Vasudevan Ram

Violin : Anand Viswanathan

Mrudangam : Rakshit

List:

01 shLOkam ( guru brahmO gurur viSNO ) – kalyANi  ( O, violin return )

gaNapatE mahAmatE – kalyANi – Roopakam – Dikshitar  ( Ambi?? )

02 paripAlayamAm – rItigauLa –  Roopakam – Swathi Thirunal ( A )

03 viruttam ( en tAyum enakkaruL tantayum nI ) – kApi – Arunagirinathar ?

kArtikEyanai kaNNAra kANAvENDumE – kApi – Roopakam – Mayuram Viswanatha Shasthri

Shri Vasudevan presented the inagural concert of the 2 day long Guru Utsava of Ranjani Fine Arts. A short half an hour concert, which was planned beautifully. It is difficult to plan and control a short duration concert. You have to omit or miss more than what you could incorporate.

He started appropriately with the guru vandana shlokam, sang beautifully. Anand played a nice little alapana of Kalyani before the kriti. Nice idea of including the Guru and Ganesha in one piece. Another good alapana of reetigaula, with some innovative takes by Vasudevan, followed by Anand with a short reply. The time was running out and I could see Vasudevan was stepping up the tempo. Paripalayamam was sung at a pace faster than usual tempo.

A short viruttam from Kandar Anubhooti ( ?) before Mayuram Viswanatha Shastri’s composition to conclude the short but pretty nice concert.

 

Vasudevan R at Pranava Fine Arts , 02 Aug 2014

Vocal : Vasudevan R

Violin : Shankar Rajan

Mrudangam : Vadiraj Bhat

List:

01. SLOkam ( Apadamapa hataram) – kalyANi  ( O )

vanajaksh0 ( varNam ) – kalyANi – Pallavi Gopala iyer?

02.  shakti gaNapatim bhajEham – nAta – Muthaiah Bhagavathar ( S )

03.  manavi chekonavayya – sarasAngi – Ramanathapuram Srinivas Iyengar

04. kalyANa rAma – hamsanAdam – Oothukadu Venkata Kavi  ( A )

05.  appa rAma bhakti – pantuvarALi – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @ trippaTalanu dIrchi kaNTi reppavalEnu gAchu mA

06. guruvAyUrappanE appan – rItigauLa – Ambujam Krishna ( A )

07. giripriyam gangAdharam – kadanakutUhalam – Muthaiah Bhagavathar

08. ambA nIlAmbari – nIlAmbari – Ponnayya Pillai

09. Azhi mazhai kaNNA – varALi – Andal thiruppavai

10. sarOja dalanEtri – shankarAbharaNam – Shyama Shastri ( A,t,S,T )

11. ayyanE vA appanE vA – sindhubhairavi –  TNS’ mother  ( short sketch )

12. pavitra gangE pAvana tungE – sindhubhairavi – Sudha Bhai

13. thillAna – basant – T N Seshagopalan

14. jaya mangaLam nitya shubha mangaLam –  Vijaya Gopala Dasa

Last time I heard him was almost 8 year ago. But I did attend a couple of the programs he organised under ‘Nadaloka’ – the morning concerts sans accompaniment called ‘prabhata sangeetham’ and recently a concert of his guru Sri Palakkad K S Narayanaswamy. That coupled with the invitation from Sri Thiagarajan who successfully conducts monthly concerts under Pranava Fine Arts since January this year, guided me towards Haralur road, instead of the inaugural concert of Gokulashtami Series at Unnati. While I do not know what was the impact there, I for one was very very pleased with the evening at Pranava Fine Arts. Sri Vasudevan presented a full three hour concert of very high standard along with his accompanying artists.

Starting bang on time at 4:00 ( and stopping as the clock strikes 7:00 – a feat worthy of emulation) with a fabulously sung slokam, the artists made their intention clear for the evening. Kalyani ata tala varnam followed with Muthaiah Bhagavatar’s kriti in Nata. Few rounds of fast paced kalpana swaras got every one in the groove. A short kriti in sarasangi came in before the first detailed alapana in hamsanadam. Shankar Raman echoed the main artist and hinted the pallavi line of the more popular kriti of Thyagaraja in his turn. However, to my pleasure, Vasudevan decided to sing kalyAnarama, a fabulous Oothukad kriti, and I had the TNS’ singing in mind.

Pantuvarali was grand. Beautifully orchestrated alapana with some brilliant ‘drutakala sancharas’ progressing brilliantly through out, made it memorable. Shankar Rajan was equally eloquent in his return. Appa rama bhakti came in its grandeur. I always like a pantuvarali or purvikalyani in the middle of the concert with a powerful neraval and kalpana swaras. So, it was. Neraval was very well constructed and the kalpana swara was structured around some interesting laya patterns to start with and ending with a TNS-style ( which I mentioned to him later), long rendering pivoting around the same swara phrase, making it very attractive. Shankar Raman was given a chance after the vocal effort to show his mettle which was done splendidly by the violinist. There was a mention of a short tani, and Vadiraj Bhat made the most of it, playing a spirited tani avartanam.

The next phase was filled with a flurry of short kritis, probably a short dampner on the build up. Ritigaula ( with a short noce alapana ) and a tricky and ultra fast giripriyam, an super slow neelambari in quick succession probably could have managed better. He had to add a varali to sort of nullify the effect, which was also not anything to worth mentioning.

The team quickly covered the lost ground with a grand shankarabharanam. Starting a bit patchy, the alapana grew from there in stature to a brilliant affair. His strong point of those ‘akara’ fast phrases were very impressive through out. Some breath taking passages at the higher octave added to the overall impact to the alapana. Shankar Raman did justice to the main artist with another classy alapana from his side. Vasudevan, clarifying it as not a ragam tanam pallavi, sang few rounds of tanam, starting at madhyama kala, and increasing the speed as it progressed.  A Dikshitar kriti or Shyama Shastri kriti was my expectation seeing the list, and Saroja Dalanetri it was. Kriti handled to its merits was pleasing to listen. Few sangati’s around ‘sAma gAna vinOdini’ gave me a hope for a neraval, but that wasn’t to come. The team played some marvelous kalpana swaras, this time converging at the Mani Iyer-popularised phrase, brilliantly executed. There was one more tani avartanam for Vadiraj Bhat, who accompanied brilliantly for the kritis.

Two sindhubhairavi pieces contributed to the post main affair. TNS’s thillana in basant ( I was thinking hamsanandi all the while) concluded the memorable evening before the mangalam. Very good concert, well supported by the accompanying artists( Shankar Raman was very good) through out and a great ambiance made it a good experience.

 

Vasudevan @ Heritage Academy Koramangala 28 Oct 2007

Had been to the concert of Sri Vasudevan organised by Rama Seva Mandali , 5th Blk Koramangala at the Heritage Academy hall.  Here are the detais…

Vocal  : Sri Vasudevan

Violin  : Shankararajan

Mrudandam : S C Balakrishnan

Ganjira : Navin

01 viribONi  ( varnam )  – bhairavi – pachimiriyam adiyapayya

02 srI raghukula ( O,S ) – hamsadhwani – Thyagaraja 

03 entharA nI – harikAmbOji – Thyagaraja

04 aparAma bhakthi ( A,N,S) – panthuvarALi –  Thyagaraja     

neraval @ “tripa talanu“

05 vAncha thOnu – karNaranjini – Harikesanallur Muthaiah Bhagavathar

06 telisi rAma – pUrNachandrika – Thyagaraja

07 ambA nIlambari – nIlambari – Ponnaiah Pillai

08 pankaja lOchana  ( A,N,S,T )- kalyANi – Swathi Thirunal

neraval at ‘sundara tara rUpa’

09 ayyanE vA appanE vA – sindhubhairavi –  ?

10 thillAna – hamsAnandi – Swathi thirunal ?

11 mangaLam – sourAshtram

Started the concert very patchy, with lot of shruthi lapses, but gained confident as the concert progressed.  His body language also improved with his confidence.  Relatively unknown set of performers ( could be my ignorance) and a saintly looking vocalist, it was a decent affair, to sum it all.