Nityashree – loud and not clear

Attended Nityashree’s concert at Ford High School, part of Ramanavami concert series yesterday (Fri eve), on a rain soaked evening. The commute from Hebbal to Chamrajpet cutting across the city was very interesting .. its almost like the Tour-de-Bangalore. Barring the insentive drivers and jams at every other feet, it was an interesting drive. Thanks to Kumar for being my pilot.  I would have been had an extended tour of Bangalore otherwise. The drive took 90 mins (around 20 km) nevertheless and I just got there just in time for the concert.

The concert started with a heavy Kalyani varnam and couple of brisk kritihis following it. There were few rare pieces (atleast I have n’t listened to them yet) .. like Mahadadi deva namo in Atana, Neelot palamba bharare, a very fine Ritigowla by Dikshitar. Even the main piece (Naa jeevadhara) was quite a not a common Bilahari piece that I have heard. I have heard DKP sing in some tape, very eloborate.  Quite recently I heard it in Marghazi Maha Urchavam (JayaTV), … very fine presentation (see below in video post).  The thukadas were very popular, beaten to death by Nityashree herself in several albums and concerts. The last (but one) piece, O Rama nee namam was a beautiful piece. I have listened to Madura Somu’s rendition when I was very small and I still remember his rendition. I have n’t really heard this since .. thanks to Nityashri for picking this up.

The audio was overly loud, esp for Gatam that pierced ears to uncomfortable levels. Its too sad sound adjustment is not given importance that affects the overall experience. Most of the bhavam was lost in the noise. The pakavadyams were very dominating.

Song list:

1. Vanajakshi, Kalyani Varnam, Ada, Pallavi Gopala Iyer
2. Paraku neekelara, Kiranavali, Adi,Tyagaraja
3. Raghuvara ninne, Panthuvarali (Kama vardhani), Adi, Tyagaraja
4. Mahadadi deva namo, Atana, Purandaradasa
5. Neelot palamba bhajare, naari Ritigowla, Dikshitar
6. Bala krishnan padhamalar, Dhanyasi, Adi, Papanasam Sivan
7. Ramadootham bhjajeham, Sri
8. Naa jivadhara, Bilahari, Tyagaraja
9. Ragathil sirandha ragamedhu, Ragamalika
10. Tirupathi venkatar ramana, Bowli (?)
11. Kaana kanvendum, Abheri
12. O Rama nee namam, Purvi kalyani, Bhadrachala ramadas
13. Mangalam

I think Iam getting hang of the roads  now. I could get back home without getting lost!

 

Related Links:

• O Rama Nee namam: Madurai Somu rendition
• Neelotpalamba Bajare, TMKrishna renditon (also an excellent example of fine accompaniment)

Sheshadripuram Apr’09 concert Schedule

Apr 4 – G.Ravikiran-vocal
Apr 5 –nagamani shrinath-vocal
Apr 6 – L.V.Mukund-flute
Apr 7 – vidyabhushana –vocal
Apr 8 – kasaravalli sisters-vocal
Apr 9 – S.kasturi rangan –vocal
Apr 10- B.K. Anantharam & A.Amit Nadig-flute duet
Apr 11-hyderabad brothers-vocal
Apr 12-Mysore M.R.Sudha
Apr 13- mysore chandan kumar(flute) &rafique khan (sitar) –jugalabandi
Apr 14-T.S.Pattabhiram pandit-vocal
Apr 15-vani sateesh-vocal
Apr 16-Dr.Suma sudheeendra-veena
Apr 17-ranjani&gayatri –vocal
Apr 18-prince rama varma-vocal
Apr 19-kadri gopalnath-saxophone
Apr 20-amrita venkatesh-vocal
Apr 21-TNS Krishna-vocal
Apr 22- manasi Prasad-vocal
Apr 23-maharajapuram s ramachandran-vocal
Apr 24-gayatri venkata raghavan-vocal
Apr 25-O.S.tyagarajan
Apr 26-violen trio-laludi shrimati brahmanandam,shri GJR Krishnan And vijayalakshmi
Apr 27-mambalam sisters-vocal
Apr 28-T.M.Krishna-vocal

(this is the only place I see TMK scheduled to sing this season in Bangalore)

Source: kpjayan’s blog

Also in Ugabhoga Google site.

Indiranagar Sangeetha Sabha – Purandara Award Felicitation to Dr.Balamuralikrishna

Indiranagar Sangeetha Sabha – Purandara Award Felicitation to Dr.Balamuralikrishna

11th April , 2009 , 6:00 pm

Followed by

Vocal :  Saralaya Sisters

Violin : Mullaivasal Chandramouli

Mrudangam : Malakkaveri Balaji

Ghatam : S N Narayanamurthy

Source: kpjayan’s blog

Also in Ugabhoga Google site.

Bangalore Gayana Samaja Ramanavami concerts schedule

Bangalore Gayana Samaja for Ramanavami ,  6:30 pm

4 apr 09 Dr.N Ramani and party – flute
5 apr 09 Trichur V Ramachandran – vocal
6 apr 09 maharajapuram Srinivasan – vocal
7 apr 09 Dr.Suma Sudheendra- veena
8 apr 09 T V shankaranarayanan-vocal
9 apr 09 Lalgudi GJR Krishnan(violin) and SP Ramh(veena)
10 apr 09 Mysore Nagaraj and Manjunath-violin duet
11 apr 09 papanasham Ashok Ramani – vocal
12 apr 09 S rajalaxmi – veena

Source: kpjayan’s blog

Also in Ugabhoga Google site.

71st Sree Ramanavami Concerts schedule

Source: http://kpjayan.wordpress.com/upcoming-concerts-in-bangalore/

Also in Ugabhoga google site.

71st  SREE RAMANAVAMI CELEBRATIONS ,  Sree Rama Seva Mandali

April 3, 2009  till  May 10, 2009

Fort High School Ground

Concerts at 6:30 pm unless specified.

03 Apr Fri   –  Kadari Gopalnath ( Saxaphone) / Kanyakumari / B.Harikumar/N.Amruth / B.Rajasekhar

04 Apr Sat – Bombay Jaishree & Party

05 Apr Sun – K J Yesudas / Nagai Muralidharan / Tiruvarur Bhaktavatsalam / Vaikom Gopalakrishnan

06 Apr Mon – T V Sankaranarayanan / Nagai Muralidharan / Srimushnam Rajarao / Dayanand Mohite

07 Apr Tue – Praveen Godkhindi  ( Hindustani Flute) / Rajendra Nakode

08 Apr Wed – Mambalam Sisters & Party  ( 7:00 pm)

09 Apr Thu – M S Sheela / Nalina Mohan / Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma / Srishylan

10 Apr Fri – Hyderabad Brothers / Nagai Sriram / K V Prasad / Dayanand Mohite

11 Apr Sat – Bangalore S Shankar / TKV Ramanujacharyulu / Sadgurucharan / ASN Swamy

12 Apr Sun – Ustad Amjad Ali Khan & Party ( Sarod)

13 Apr Mon – Mysore Nagamani Srinath / Jyothsna Srikanth / Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma / Krishnaprasad N S

14 apr Tue – Malladi Brothers / Mysore Nagaraj / K V Prasad / Giridhar Udupa

15 Apr Wed – Sanjay Subrahmanyan / S Varadarajan / Neyveli Venkatesh / B.Rajasekhar

16 Apr Thu – P Unnikrishnan / T K V Ramanujacharyalu / Neyveli Venkatesh / Srishylan

17 Apr Fri – Lalgudi Krishnan & Vijayalakshmi (Violin)/ Patri Satishkumar / N.Amruth

18 Apr Sat – U Srinivas&U Rajesh ( Mandolin) /H K Venkatram / Yella Venkatershwara Rao / Vaikom Gopalakrishnan

19 Apr Sun – Kumaresh&Ganesh ( Violin) / B.Harikumar / N.Amruth

20 Apr Mon – Classical Carnatic Fusion “Earth Beat” by Praveen D Rao

21 Apr Tue –   5:00 pm – 7:00 pm Kalavathi Avadhoot / Nalina Mohan / T B Ravishankar / Sukamnya Ramgopal

7:15 pm – 9:15 pm  Jayanthi Kumaresh ( Veena) / Arjunkumar / Srishylan

22 Apr Wed – 5:00 pm Vinay Sharva/ Charulatha Ramanujam / Ganapati Raman

7:15 – 9:15 pm Ananthram & Amith Nadig ( Flute) – M A Krishnaswamy / Arjunkumar / ASN Swamy

23 Apr Thu – 5:00 pm Shantala Subramanyam & Party

7:15 pm Pattabhirama Pandit / Mysore Manjunath / Mannargudi Easwaran / B R Ravikumar

24 Apr Fri – 5:00 pm HKVenkatram/G.Ravikiran/Ashwin Anand ( Venu-Veena-Violin)

7:15 pm – Sukanya Prabhakar / B Raghuram / Cheluvaraj – Sukanya Ramgopal

25 Apr Sat – Mysore Nagaraj&Manjunath ( Violin) / Umayalpuram Sivaraman / N.Amruth / Giridhar Udupa

26 Apr Sun –  5:00 pm Shantala Subramanyan/ BU Ganesh Prasad / P S Phalgun / K S Udupa

27 Apr Mon – O S Thyagarajan / Delhi Sundararajan / K V Prasad / B N Chandramouli

28 Apr Tue – Rudrapatnam Brothers / Delhi Sundararajan / K V Prasad / Sukanya Ramgopal

29 Apr Wed –  Visaka Hari & Party

30 Apr Thu – Anuradha Madhusudan ( Veena ) / Cheluvaraj / M A Krishnamurthy

01 May Fri – M S Gopalakrishnan & Dr.M.Narmada  (Violin) / Umayalpuram Sivaraman / N. Amruth

02 May Sat – Nedunuri Krishnamurthy & Malladi Ravi / T K V Ramanujacharyalu / Patri Satishkumar / B R Ravikumar

03 May Sun – Sudha Raghunathan& Party

04 May Mon –  Sankaran Namboodiri / C N Chandrasekharan / H S Sudheendra / Sukanya Ramgopal

05 May Tue – Papanasam Ashok Ramani / M A Krishnaswamy / V.Praveen / M A Krishnamurthy

06 May Wed – 5:00 Vijay Siva & Party

07 May Thu – Shashank S ( Flute) / Akkarai Subbalakshmi / Patri Satishkumar / Vaikom gopalakrishnan

08 May Fri – Nityasree Mahadevan & Party

09 May Sat – Ravikiran  (Chitraveena) / Mysore Nagaraj / K V Prasad / B N Chandramouli

10 May Sun – Begum Parvin Sultana & Party

Concerts are ticketed.  Season tickets available. Usually open to purchase after the Ugadi. Will update details as soon as it is available.

Sanjay – Blissful!

It had been several years since I listened to Sanjay live and I was looking forward for this concert in Unnati center (organized by Sri Guruvayurappan Bhajan Samaj). The concert hall was quite spacious with chairs on both sides of the hall and mats in the center, right in front of the podium. For a Thu evening, the crowd was modest with lots of empty space. I could sit (on the floor) just few rows from the podium quite close to the artists. Right to the left was a serene looking Krishna sannadhi. And Bangalore had its light to moderate drizzles through out the concert, at times loud on the roof.  Can one ask for more for an long weekend evening ? It was 3 and hours of unadulterated anadham unlimited. Many thanks to the organizers!

Unfortunately I missed the varnam (reason below) and Sanjay just started Sahana alapana. All the alapanas were so soulful and filled with bhava. Especially Sahana, Kumudha kriya (listening for the first time, easily mistaken to be Subha pandhuvarali had Sanjay not told the audience. Does anyone know its melam?), Kambhoji and Saveri. Kambhoji esp was so eloborate and so beautiful. During the alapana he made some Madurai Mani Iyer style pieces that was so beautiful. The niravals were very equally elaborate with complex phrases towards the end. He sure kept Venkatesh on toes (or fingers) on Mridangam. Sanjay radiated his immense power and presence throughout the concert, which is quite infectious. Esp during the Savery RTP, he seemed to thoroughly enjoy his singing and equally appreciated the accompaniments.

The Behag at the end of so filled with Bhava. The following Sindhu bhairavi ashtapathi was well received by the audience. I guess Sidhubhairavi must be most popular ragam with the rasikas! Ofcourse Sanjay put in so much enegty into that piece. Vaziya Chentamil at the end made it a grand ending. Perhaps for Independence day eve, he finished the concert with Vanthe Matharam. (But I have heard him finish the concert with the same, once before in NJ, not sure if that was also close to some national event)

His conviction and confidence (as noted by the speaker at the end, who quite unsucceffully made an effort to advance his speach right into the middle of the concert but talked down by Sanjay firmly) were unmistakably visible throughout the concert. He is a genius no doubt. But he is careful in exercising his knowledge appropriately. He does n’t push the envelope too much; nor does he do too much on stage experimentation. However complex the sangathis are, he ensures they are enjoyable for everyone to the last swara. And thats what makes him a smart genius!

Vardharajan on Violin was flawlessly in unison. He supported Sanjay superbly and made immense presence, equally during short thanis (like Sahana) or long ones (like Khambhoji and Saveri). Venkatesh on Mridangam and Rajashekhar on Morsing made it a perfect concert. Rajashekar esp immensely enjoyed every bit of the concert, as well as being part of it.

Song List:

1. Varnam? (updates welcome)
2. Devi tavapadha, Sahana, Adi, Thygarajar
3. Samodham chinthayami, Sudha Dhanyasi, Kantachapu, Swathi Thirunal
4. Ardhanareeswarm Aaradhayami Sathatham, Kumudha kriya, Rupakam, Dikshitar
5. Adum deivam nee arulvai, Edathu padham thooki Aadum – Kambhoj, Adi (2 kalai)
6. Naga gandhari raaga nuthe – Nagagandhari, Adi, Dikshitar
7. Saveri RTP (Varattum, Iru maname Varattum, Padhara dhiru maname Varattum) with Ragamalika Swaram – Darbhar, Yamun, Behag, Hindholam, Danyasi, Hamir (I missed three in between)
8. Ramanama payasakhe – Anandha bhairavi, Rupakam, Purandaradasa
9. Virutham and Innam oru talam irruku mendru yean malaikirai – Behag, Adi
10. Ashtapathi – Sindhubhairavi, Adi, Jayadeva
11. Mangalam – Saurashtram
12. Vazliya Chen Thamiz – Madhyamavathi

Its the second concert that I missed the varnam. But this time, I had a good enough reason … the usual suspect. The traffic. This is my first time venturing into Sadanandhanagar and did n’t realize Temple road, what they meant in this map is nothing more than three feet wide potholes. Adding to the woes is a broken down lorry blocking half the road near Jalvayu tower. With the lane agnostic bangalore drivers, it was soon a chaos and it took more than 20 min to pass a km.

In the middle of the concert Sanjay is rendering beautiful Kambhoji and the organizers decide to do Puja for Krishna. Not too bad … but then they decide do take harathi around the hall.. Very bad. I have seen this in the Sri rama navami concerts, but the scale of the hall was different and the ambience was different (its a open auditorium), so the distraction was minimized. But in such an enclosed hall like this, it was an distasteful contrast.

One another irritating thing in the concert was the Mamis who are so engrossed into chit chat, with no ear for music, no respect for the artists and no regard for the audience. There was duo who were so involved in talking and writing something down in a notebook when not talking. Initially I thought they were having some serious discussion about the ragas and writing down the notation. I tried to signal them to keep their tone low. When it didn’t work (this was in the midst of Sanjay solefully singing Saveri alapana) I had to walk down  to request them. I found one mami writing down Sri rama jayam (or something like that) just chit chatting. What a waste! Why do they even come to these concerts? Do they get some brownie points or something?

Ranjini & Gayathri – perfect blend

After missing almost all the concerts scheduled as part of Semmangudi centenary celebrations at the Gayana Samaja (including T.M. Krishna and Sanjay’s … sigh!) I was looking forward to this concert. I still remember R&G’s concert we attended in Bridgewater few months ago. It was quite a performance, despite the crowded auditorium and unimpressive audio. Luckily this time around, the Gayana Samaja hall was quite adequate and well equipped. (we were quite late even for that capacity coming in almost 20 mins into the concert and had to take one of the makeshift chairs on the pathway; even that was n’t too bad).

The concert was quite well executed and with a good mixture of krithis (some popular, some rare compositions), right amount of alapana,niravals and swaras and supportive pakavadyams. The selection of raagas was quite popular, and the crowd just loved it. I was looking forward for a virutham (after listening in the last concert in Bridgewater, NJ), but not this time. The Kambhoji (Evari mata) was the hi light. The Alapana was very satisfying and the swaras at the end were beautiful. But the niraval was quite short. Everyone was looking for a Abang and they did n’t disappoint.

Its interesting in both concerts I heard them sing Ritigowla (Janaji earlier and Dvythamu sukuama now) and Kambhoji (Thiruvadi charanam earlier and a very impressive Evari mata now).

<I missed the varnam and possibly one krithi as well. Any update welcome>

1. Karunimpa – Sahana Varnam (thanks jayan for the update)
2. Ninu juda – Sourashtram
3. Mamava – Natakurunji
4. Dvythamu sukhama – Ritigowla
5. Maragatha Lingam – Vasantha
6. Pankaja lochana – Kalyani
7. Patti viduva radhu –Chitarajnaji? Manjari
8. Evari mata – Kamboji
9. Bhavayami – Yamun kalyani
10. Marubari – Kamas
11. Niyako – Ragamalika
12. Abhong – Bhatyal
13. Mangalam

Semmangudi Concert Video

In memory of the great Sangitha Vidwan … Semmangudi Sri Srinivasa Iyer on his birth centenary.

Found this 1994 concert video in YouTube.

Vocal concert by: Semmangudi Sri Srinivasa Iyer

Venue: ??

Organizer: CMANA

Date: ??? (1994)

Vocal Support: V. Subramanyam & Palani Subramanyan

Violin; T.N. Krishnan

Mridangam: Guruvayur Dorai

Ghatam: Vaikam Gopalakrishnan

Vijay Shiva – Uncompromising music

It had been several years since I attended Vijay Shiva’s concert in the crowded Bridgewater temple hall in New Jersey. All I could remember from the concert was how nasal he sounded. I had heard some of his tapes since then, mostly for rare compositions he renders, and wanted to attend a cocert by him for a long time.

Well .. the wait is worth every second of it. The concert Vijay Shiva gave in Bangalore Gayana Samaja was one of the fulfilling concerts I have heard. Few things were striking about his rendetion.

1. He does n’t require any prep time. He sits and starts singing the next moment. You could feel the maturity of his voice from that moment. There is no settling time for either him or the audience. You start immercing in the experience right away.

2. How composed he is. Unlike most of the singers who excercice their involvement and enegy physically (not that there is anything wrong with that … as Seinfeld would say), Vijay Shiva just sits like a stone and delivers music that would penetrate even the stone.

3. His sruthi … impeccable. impeccable. impecable.

He was ably supported by Charulatha Ramanujam on Violin, Arjun Kumar on Mridangam, Guru Prasanna on Kanjiri & young (CMANA prize winner, aparently a Jazz drummer) B.S.Arun Kumar on Morsing. It was a real treat to see these young artists play. It was a real good combination.

One curious sight was Vijay Shiva’s distraction with a small electronics instrument (probably sruthi, or an recoreder) that he has to divert his attention often during the first half of the concert, sometimes even while he is right into the middle of the alapana or sangathi. It did n’t seem to distract him from his manodharma sangeetham in any way, it was just a curious sight.

Songs List
1. Nadha tanumanisham – Chittaranjani – Adi

2. Innum Paramukham eno – Begada
3. Karuna judavamma – PantuvarAli (Adi 2 kalai ) Shyama Shastri

4. Divakara Thanujam – Yadukula Kamboji, Chatusra Kkam – Dikshitar
5. Sari Evvare – Sri Ranjani
6. KamalAmbikE – Thodi – Tishra Ekam – Dishitar
7. Matada baradeno – Khamas
8. Muddugare yashoda – Kurinji – Annamacharya
9. Bhajan – Mishra Khamaj.

10. Niraimadi – thirupugazh

11. Mangalam – Pavamana – Sourashtram

R A Ramamani – Brisk and brilliant

Read about this concert in this useful blog. With the evening wide open for me, I thought I would take a trip to Bangalore Gayana Sabha. The trip from work (Koramangala) to K.R Rd took more than an hour for about 10 km, but given the bangalore traffic conditions, thats considered good.

The concert started about 7.15 or so. The first thing I noticed was the audio settings. Perhaps becase the event was organized by Talavadyosthav, the over emphasis on the percussion was noticeable. It was too prominent to the extend vocalist’s voice was subdued and she has to struggle to be heard. There were also some accoustic distortions that the whole thing sounded off sruthi.

But once the ears were tuned to this ambience and mind set to filter out the loud percussion. the concert was quite enjoyable. Ramamani herself got settleed after the Saveri varnam and Hamsadwani (Gam gapapathe) and she was brilliant thought the rest of the concert. The high light ofcourse was the Shanmukhapriya RTP (Priye, sumukha priye pahimam, Shanmukpa priye) in a complex kanda jathi tisra nadai tirupuda talam. Though she made some swara calculation mistakes, the piece stole the show.

Ramamani’s voice is quite brisk and very refreshing. Her range is quite wide and she could effortlessly go from low Ma to hi Pa. Her brigas were impressive, yet effortless. It seem like she is a well known fusion artist, and there were few quite knowledgeable westerners in the crowd. One eurpoean was singing along the kadana kudhuhalam piece including the chitta swaras with typical Indian style bhava, attracting several curious onlookers.

Violinist was sub par, esp during the RTP. Percussions were ofcourse quite energetic and loud.

Sadly, I can’t believe I missed T.N Krishnan’s concert yesterday. (to offset bought a CD by him). Hoefully I can make it to Vijay Shiva’s concert tomorrow

Song List

1. Saveri Varnam
2. Gam ganapathe, Hamsadwani
3. Janaki ramana, Sudha seemanthini
4. Padavini, Salaga bhairavi
5. Eti Janma mitilo, Varali
6. Vandheham Shive – Kadhana kudhuhalam
7. Shanmukhapriya RTP
8. Ragavendra dhaya – Subha panthuvarali