Venu-Veena-Violin @ Odukathur Mutt 26 Feb, 2017

Violin : H K Venkatram

Flute : G Ravikiran

Veena : Aswin Anand

Mrudangam : Karaikkudi Mani

Ganjira : Guruprasanna

List:

01 pArvatipatim praNaumi satatam – hamsadhwani – Dikshitar ( S )

02 tyAgarAja yOga vaibhavam – Anandabhairavi – Dikshitar  ( O )

03 shObhillu saptasvara – jaganmOhini – Thyagaraja

04 shiva shiva shiva enarAdA – pantuvarALI – Thyagaraja ( A-veena,N,S )

neraval&svara  @ Agamamula nuDiyinci

05 dattAtrEya trimUrtirUpa – ranjani – Ganapathi Sachidananda ( A – Flute)

06 svararAga sudhA – shankarAbharaNam – Thyagaraja ( A,S,T )

07 shiva darushana namagAyitu – madhyamAvati – Purandara Dasa

08 thillAna – mOhanakalyANi – Lalgudi Jayaraman

09 mangaLam – saurAStram – Thyagaraja

My first concert for the year, and I mentioned this to Sri H K Venkataram, as I met him before the concert. Expectation was huge with Sri Karaikudi Mani on percussion. I’m definitely pleased in the end.  Some beautiful music from the trio with an expected percussion upliftment from the maestro.

Started late from the announced time, after an impressive dance performance and around twenty minutes of tweaking the various system to perfection. Sri Karaikudi Mani wasn’t happy with his instrument tuning despite that, and made a switch to a different one during the concert. Concert started with a brisk hamsadhwani, which I initially thought was ‘ vande anisham aham vArana vadanam’, but was corrected by the artist. Some cracking swaras followed after the kriti presentation. A sedate Ananda bhairavi and a quickfire shobhillu came in in quick succession.

Aswin Anand played a brilliant pantuvarali alapana before a predictable shiva shiva shiva enarAda. Neraval at agamamula and good rounds of svarams to conclude the first detailed piece. Ravikiran played a short and nice ranjani followed by ‘dattatreya’, written by Ganapathi Sachidananda ( who, infact was the Guru of Karaikudi Mani) and was set to tune and popularised by KVN.

Venkatram played an elaborate shankarabharanam , in the more familiar and time tested patterns. Couple of impressive takes or ‘aha’ moments in a well conceived alapana. I was expecting an ‘akSayalinga vibhO’ or ‘sadAshivam upAsmahE’ , befitting the occasion, but they chose to play ‘swararaga sudha’ instead. There was no neraval but the swaras that followed was fabulous. Some nice laya variations for the ‘old time favourite’ patterns was very appealing. I thought Karaikudi Mani came into the fore at the Shankarabharanam. Some of his finger works for the kriti were mesmerising. As expected and eagerly awaited, the tani avartanam was of shear beauty. What variations and structures that was brought out by the master, which was duly complied with by the supporting artist in ganjira. Class act.

Sri Karaikudi Mani spoke at the felicitation time, which he usually avoid. He mentioned being part of the very first Venu-Veena-Violin conert around 35 years ago featuring N Ramani – Venkataraman and Lalgudi Jayaraman. He also spoke about the ‘mridanga shaileshwari temple‘ in Kerala, the only temple any where in the world for a percussion instrument. He said, the temple is not known to many people and he on his part is trying to offer a ‘golden mridangam’ to the temple and seek the blessings of the rasikas.

Concert concluded with a devarnama and a thillana. The first concert for me in 2017 and I am definitely very happy

 

Revathi Sadashivam,KV Madhura,Soumya Ramachandran(Veena-Venu-Violin) @ Pranava Fine Arts , Oct 1, 2016

Veena : Revathi Sadashivam

Flute : K V Madhura

Violin : Soumya Ramachandran

Mrudangam : Ranjani Haridas

Morsing : Bhagyalakshmi Krishna

List:

01. mAtE malayadhvaja – khamAs – Muthaiah Bhagavathar ( O )

02. shrI mahAgaNapatim bhajEham – aThANa – Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar ( A-violin, S )

03.  sarasvati namOstutE – sarasvati – GNB ( A-all)

04. kanchadalAyadAkshi kAmAkSi – kamalAmanOhari – Dikshitar

05. kAmAkSi ambA (swarajati) – bhairavi – Shyama Shasthri ( A,N)

neraval @ ‘shyAmakrSNa sOdari?’

06. mInAkSi mEmudam dEhi – gamakakriya/pUrvikalyANi – Dikshitar ( A,S,T )

07. RTP – brindAvanasAranga – khanDa tripuTax2 kaLai , starts at +1/2 beat

pallavi line “Ishvari, mahEshvari, jagadIshvari kAmitArtha phaladAyaki

rAgamAlika svaras in ranjani,vasanta, rEvati

08. jayati jayati bhArata mAtA – khamAs – Subramanya Bharati

09. thillAna – dhanAshrI – Swathi Thirunal

10. bhAgyada lakSmi bAramma – madhyamAvati – Purandara Dasa

“Janani” was the theme – ‘the mother’ for the first concert in the new venue of Pranava Fine Arts and Thyagarajan. I understand, this was the 30th concert they were organising since moved to Bangalore. I had the privilege of attending many of them, and been on the receiving end of their hospitality.

The theme was apt for the first day of the Navarathri Festive Season. Vidushi Revathi Sadashivam did explain the theme, which of course, was in the predictable lines. Various forms of ‘the mother’ and the selection of kritis in line with those varied forms.

Concert itself was very well done. The coordination and sharing of various alapana and swaras were well done. The selection of kritis were brilliant. Different instruments and the respective vidushis excelled at different places. Revathi Sadashivam was brilliant with her bhairavi alapana and the beginning of the brindavana saranga. Soumya played a classy alapana for brindavana saranga, Vid Madhura had her excellence through purvikalyani.

Khamas daru varnam started off the evening proceedings. Atana kriti was also very well done, including the swaras that followed. Sarasvati was good, so was the quick kamalamanohari kriti. The concert came alive with the bhairavi. Beautiful alapana from Vid Revathi. Shyama Shasthri’s swarajati was again done well. The trio played a good neraval. There was no swaras if I remember right. Purvikalyani alapana ws lead by the flutist. Dikshitar’s magnum opus had to be the one, going by the theme. Two speed kalpana swaras between three artist were again very good.

The pallavi which followed arguably the best of the evening. Very good alapana ( especially the initial phrases of veena and the complete violin part) and a good tanam by Veena were treat to watch and listen. Nice pallavi line, impeccably executed trikalam ( again the violin lead the way to me) and swaras. Each artists chose one raga during the ragamalaika swaras, which they played in two repeats in two speeds.

Percussion team gave ample support and played a decent tani avartanam. To me there was the right balance among five instruments today, considering this is a house concert. Post pallavi had a couple of songs and a thillana to conclude a three hour concert.