Vijay Siva, Music Club IIT Madras

Vijay Siva - Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi - J Vaidhyanathan - Trivandrum D Rajagopal

1st Feb 2005

The concert was dedicated to the memory of Dr. Anand Subramaniam (cookie) an alumunus of IITM (1995-99) who was the secretary of Music Club during the years 1998-99; he was very active in the IITM cultural scene and in the activities of the music club. He passed away in 2004 owing to cancer.

Songlist:
sadAbalarUpApi (slOkam)
sObillu saptasvara - jaganmohini - rUpakam - tyAgarAja
(neraval at thararuksa mAdulalo, svaras at saptasvara)
sangIta sAstra - mukhAri - Adi - tyAgarAja
(AlApanai, neraval at prEmabakthi sujana vAthsalyamu)
parimaLa ranganAtam - hamIrkalyANi - rUpakam - dIkshitar
(the kriti with AlApana, svarAs at parimaLa)
brOvavamma - nIlAmbari - cApu - shyAmA sAstri
kaDaikkaN nOkki - tODi - Adi
(neraval at mayilApuri iRaivA kailAcalathuRaivOi)
kAsi visvEsvarAya - kAmbhOji - kaNTa jAti aTa tALam - dIkshitar
(AlApanai, svarams at kAsi visvEsvarAya)
tani Avartanam
eppaDi pADinarO - bhImplAs
sOmasundarEsvaram - suddha vasantA - Adi (2 kaLai) - dIkshitar
ninnai caraNaDaindEn - yamunAkalyANi - Adi - bhAratiyAr
Om sakthi Om sakthi - sOhini - tisra gati - bhAratiyAr
thuLLumada vETkai - hamsAnandhi - kaNDa Ekam (tisra nadai) - tiruppugazh
mangaLam - saurAshtram - Adi -tyAgarAja

It was a very fulfilling evening. sObillu was nice to start with. He sang the cittai svara after anupallavi but skipped it after the caraNam, probably because he had decided to sing kalpana svaras at the end. He embarked upon a moving AlApana of mukhAri. The kriti, sangIta sAstramu, though listed in many sources as being set in sALaka bhairavi, is popularly sung in mukhari. Vijay presented a neat rendition including a good niraval. hamIrkalyANi AlApana was structured with a lot of fast paced sancAras. SvarAs in viLamba kala were distinctly more appealing than those that followed in dhurita kAla. The kurappu at 'ma' sounded good. The rarely-heard nIlAmbari kriti, brOvavamma was rendered with a lot of bhava. The tODi kriti was good as well. It is now a common practice among his generation of musicians to render a kriti in a rakti rAga kriti without any AlApanai or svaras.

For the main piece, kAmbhOji was elaborated very traditionally and had a lot of rare sancaras of the olden days. The kriti was another rare item. It was grand and well-rendered. The svaras that followed and the kuriappu at 'da' and 'pa' were done neatly. The last part of the concert had all the pieces rendered well.

Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi on violin just followed Vijay Siva like a shadow and was good in both accompanying and also in her AlApanais and neraval, svarams. Her alApana of mukhAri was particularly impressive as were her svarAs in hamIrkalANi. Overall, she showed a good grip over laya, a trade-mark of her school of training. J Vaidhyanathan and Trivandrum Rajagopal handled the percussion department sensitively with good anticipation and discretion. They were good all through the concert. They also showed their mettle in managing a tani in the unusual kaNTa jAti aTa tALa, with RAjagOpAl on the kanjirA gaining a slight edge over the mridangam artist in one particular spell.

Overall, a good concert that confirmed Vijay's class as a top-notch musician.