Sowmya at Narada Gayana Sabha & Bangalore Gayana Samaj

S Sowmya - Pakala Ramdas - Neyveli Narayanan

Narada Gana Samaj and Bangalore Gayana Samaj

27th Nov 2005 at Sadguru Gnanananda Hall

karuNimpa idi - sahAnA - Adi
srI nAtAdi gurguhO - mAyAmALavagauLa - Adi - MD (S)
nimma bhAgya dhODDadhO - bEgaDa - rUpakam - PD (R)
kANavENDAmO - srIranjani - rUpAkam
ninnu vinA - pUrvikalyANi - cApu - SS (RNS)
taniyAvartanam
thiruvai paNindu niththam - mAND - Adi
chidambaram pOgAmal - senchuruTTi - Adi
rAma nAma bhajarE - madhyamAvati - Adi - T
nI nAma rUpamulaku

The concert started quite late, thanks to the extended felicitation function to DKP and LGJ

The varNam was well rendered. srI nAthAdi was nicely sung with svarams at 'jayathi jayathi'.

The bEgaDa AlApanai was well rendered and a fitting prelude to the dAsa kriti.

The main AlApanai of pUrvikalyANi was elaborated with leisure and made a good impact. The kriti with neraval and svarams at 'paramalObhulanu pOgaDi pOgaDi ati' was nice.

The post tani part also was good and enjoyable.

Sri Ramdas on the violin was good in accompanying and his individual parts, though he seemed to be a bit lost during the svarams of 'srI nAtAdi' in getting to the correct point in the tALam where the sAhityam starts

Sri Narayanan did a good job in accompanying and during his tani, which sounded a bit repetitive though.

Overall, concert was nice and gave good impact though it lasted for just over an hour. May be classifiable as a radio concert with a couple of tukkaDas thrown in.

TN Seshagopalan, Carnatica's Bharath Sangeeth Utsav

TN Seshagopalan - M Chandrasekaran - Umayalpuram K Sivaraman - TV Vasan

Narada Gana Sabha Hall. 22nd Nov '05

entO prema -suruTTi varNam
nAn yenna tavam seidEn - khamAs - Adi
sArasAksha - kAmavardini - Adi - ST (R, N and S at bAmini...)
brindAvana lOla - tODi - rUpakam - T (R, S at 'mAmava srI...')
slOkam "kR.SNAya vAsudEvAya dEvaki nandanAyaca nandagOpa kumArAya gOvindAya namO namaha" followed by cEta srI - dvijAvanti - tisra Ekam - MD (R)
bAlagOpAla - bhairavi - Adi (2 kaLai) - MD (R, N and S at 'nIla nIrada sarIra dIradara')
tani
RTP - shanmukhapriyA - kaNDa tripuTa (2 kaLai) 1 3/4 eDuppu (14 aksharams)
'paravasam miga AgudE kaNNA unnai ninaindhu ninaindhu nenjam'
ragamAlika svarams in valaji, nIlAmbari and kapi
Gopi GopAla LAla DAsa Mandala - gamanAsrama
Vijaya Gopalathe Mangalam - Surutti

I entered while he was wrapping up the suruTTi piece, which i was told was the varNam and i had to leave after the RTP.

kAmavardini AlApanai was nice. The neraval was not fully done while svarams were good. The tODi piece was a bit off beat without gelling well. The dvijAvanti AlApanai was very indicative of a main piece. The viLamba kala rendition of cEta srI was very moving. The time-tested bAlagOpAla and the bhairavi AlApanai which preceeded were good as usual. The pallavi left a lot to be desired with a lot of unexplored parts in terms of raga alapanai, which included graha bedham. the tanam was good. The pallavi part was less explored while TNS Krishna did some change of naDais at the end. TNS had only sang a few snatches of valaji and kApi while instructing his son to continue. TNS' nIlambari svarams were nice.

TNS' voice was good with a proper range, while the alignment to sruthi went offbeat more than expected of him. His rendition of kritis and all his creativity were at his best with all that he could do being portrayed. MC was out of ideas and was playing popular kriti and cine tunes all over. Personally, I found a lot of Sahana phrases in MC's dvijAvanti AlApanai. UKS was his good old self playing to the kritis with each sangati being meticulously followed. The tani was different with UKS choosing to play all the cycles in one flow leaving just the korappu before TVV could take off. TVV was good in all parts. The short tani after the pallavi with korappu to the start of the pallavi were good.

bharath

KL Kaushik, IIT Madras Music Club

K L Kaushik - Flute
Arunachalam Karthik - Fiddle
S R Ethirajan - Mridangam

Music Club IITM 8th November 2005

viribhONi - bhairavi - aTa tALam - pachimiriyam Adiyappaiyar (short sketch)
nADADina mATa - janaranjani - misra cApu - T (S)
angArakam - suruTTi - rUpakam - MD (short sketch)
karuNa yElakaNTE - varALi - Adi - T (RNS)
mAnasa guruguha - Anandabhairavi - tisra Ekam (2 kaLai) - MD (R)
aTukArAdani - manOranjani - Adi - T
tulasi bilva - kEdAragauLa - Adi (2 kaLai) - T (RNS)
taniyAvaratanam
dEvi brOva - cintAmaNi - Adi (2 kaLai) - SS
marubAri - khamAs - dharmapuram subbarAyar jAvaLi
nI nAma rUpamulaku - saurAshTRam

Our "knowledge-pretending" critics of the press usually have the habit of lamenting over all of contemporary carnatic music, saying "it lacks depth, these people have no understanding of the Carnatic idiom" and so on. They do not care to fan the obscure sabhas and pick the artists who can outclass the classical musicians of yesteryears. These thoughts passed through my mind as I sat listening to one of the most promising prospects perform at Music Club, IIT Madras.

The first indication of classicism is the menu card; it says a lot for where the artist's heart lies. The brief or elaborate rAga essays, the renditions soaked in melody, with no sign of discontinuity, were out of the world! The varnam in bhairavi was rendered as best as any that I have heard. janaranjani flowed smoothly. The Lord of the Day of the week, angAraka, was duly paid homage. Then came a breathtaking AlApana of varALi. Flautists would know the extent of control required for handling an entire set of 'half-holed' notes for this rAga. Kaushik was absolutely at ease, playing a memorable spell of the rAga and the kriti.

Did you look for a change to the light after that? Sorry, next came Anandabhairavi vying for honours with the preceding AlApana followed by another weighty rendition of 'mAnasa guruguha', Dikshitar's masterpiece. For a break, therafter, came a brisk manOranjani, to be followed by kEdAragauLa as the main item for the day. Frankly, though this was also an impressive elaboration, it did not measure up to the standards of varALi and Anandabhairavi; his earlier excellence was his own enemy! It was refreshing to hear tuLasI bilva taken up as the main piece and aired so beautifully. The niraval ans swaras were followed by the tani -- Ethirajan on the mridangam -- there was nothing left to look forward to from a guy who seemed to play bhairavi, Anandabhairavi, varALi and kEdAragauLa on the mridangam, if you ever thought that was possible! The melodic accompaniment that Ethirajan provided for this concert was so impressive that the tani sounded redundant, though he played well! Expected some light stuff after the tani, at least? No, there was still cintAmaNi to come! The jAvaLi in khamAs made up for that need after which the concert concluded, AruNAcala kArthik supported well on the violin without showing any kleptomaniac tendency to steal the show like Ethirajan did!

Kalpakam Swaminathan, Nada Inbam

Smt. Kalpakam Swaminathan - vINai
Smt. Vijayalakshmi - vINai support
Thanjavur Sri Subramanian - mrudangam
Sri N Govindarajan - Ghatam

Nada Inbam. Raga Sudha Hall. 4th Nov 2005 6 pm

varNam - kadanakuthukalam - maisUr vAsudEvAcAryA
mahA gaNapatim - nATTai - Adi - MD (R S)
duDugu gala - gauLa - Adi - T
nAda sudA rasa - Arabhi - rUpakam - T (R)
brOcEvArevarurA - khamas - Adi - maisUr vAsudEvAcAryA (R)
amba vANi nannu - kIravANi - Adi - HMB (R N S)
paritAnamichidE - bilahari - kaNDa cApu - patNam subramaNya iyer (R)
sankari ninnE - pantuvarALi - misra cApu - maisUr vAsudEvAcAryA (R N S)
taniyAvaradanam
sAramaina - bEhAg - ST
tulsi dAsbhajan - lalath
tillAnA - dhansrI - ST
tiruppugazh - asAvEri
nI nAma rUpamulaku - saurAshTRam
short madhyamAvati AlApanai

The concert started with a brisk rendition of the varNam. Elaboration of nATTai was good and the kriti was rendered with amazing sangatis which were far from the poplular versions knows. The difference between rendering of the svarams and the sAhityam was clearly brought out during the rendering of the pancaratna kriti.

Arabhi AlApanai was something very enjoyable and all the more enjoyable was the rare kriti. The Khamas AlApanai and kriti were good also.

Smt. Vijayalakshmi's kIravANi AlApanai was good, though it was not exhaustive. The fast paced kriti with nice neraval and svaram was followed by a short and sweet bilahari AlApanai and the kriti.

The main pantuvarALi AlApanani was good. Though Smt. Kalpakam Swaminathan had taken up the same kriti at an earlier concert for the main item, this AlApanai was quite different from that one. The kriti was rendered well with neraval and svarams. The bhajan in a rare ragam, lalath and the asAvEri tiruppugazh were enjoyable as well.

Smt. Kalpakam Swaminathan gave a very enjoyable concert. Smt. Vijayalakshmi provided good support all thro' the concert. The percussionists did a good job both while accompanying for the pieces, by playing in tandem with the sangatis and also did a good job with the tani also.