A Sundaresan, Shyama Sastri Day, Music Club IIT Madras

A Sundaresan
V V Ravi
Mannargudi Eswaran

Music Club IIT Madras Shyama Sastri Day

6th April 2006 7 pm

nA manavini vinu - saurAshTRam varNam - catusra jAti aTa tALam (R)
nannu brOva rAdA - janaranjani - cApu (RS)
sankari sankurU - sAvEri - tisra Adi (RNS)
brOvavammA - mAnji - cApu
ninnE namminAnu - tODi - cApu (RNS)
taniyAvardanam
brova samayamidE - punnAgavarALi - Adi (R)
sankari sankari - kalyANi - kaNDa aTa

The concert started with a beautiful sketch of saurAshTRam with the varNam rendered beautifully. The janaranjani AlApanai which followed showed the essential sancarams of the rAgam. The svaram which followed were good also.

The AlApanai of sAvEri was very good and the kriti was rendered with neraval and svarams at 'shyAma krSNa sahOdari shyAmaLe sAdOdari'. The clever usage of a catusra kArvai for a tisra naDai kriti all thro' the svaras was nice. The mAnji kriti was rendered with a lot of bhavam.

The main tODi AlApanai was good and revealed all the beauty of the grand rAgam. The kriti was rendered with neraval and svarams at 'kAmAkshI kancadaLAyadAkshI'. The punnAgavarALi AlApanai was too good as well and so was the kriti which followed.

Sri Sundaresan did a great job handling the Shyama Sastri kriti with a lot of ease. His rendition of kritis and also the manOdarmam were all too good.

Sri Ravi on the violin did a good job in all his replies to the main replies. He showed his capablities of being a good violinst in each phrase he played.

Sri Eswaran was just amazing. His playing for each kriti and each sangati and very apt following for the neraval and svarams were all good. The tani was very good also.

bharath

A Sundaresan, Hamsadvani & Lion Club - Shyama Sastri Day

Shyama Sastri Day

Hamsadvani & Lions Club

A Sundaresan - Vocal
Gayathri Venkataraghavan & Vasumathi Desikan - Vocal Support
V V Ravi - Fiddle
R Ramesh - Mrudangam


(pic from www.thehindu.com)

nA manavini vinu - saurAshTRam varNam - catusra jAti aTa tALam (R)
pAhimAm srI rAjarAjEsvari - nATTai - tisra Adi
dEvi nI pada sArasamulE - kAmbhOji - Adi (2)
karuNa jUDavammA - varALi - misra cApu
kAmAkshI parayugamu - yadhukula kAmbhOji - misra cApu (R)
Emani migula - tODi - Adi(2) (R)
mAyammA - nATTakuranji - Adi(2) (RS)
tani
brOva samayamidE - punnAgavarALi - Adi(2)
sankarI sankarI - kalyANi mangalam - kaNDa jAti aTa tALam

The concert was scheduled to begin at 6 pm. There was an eventless felicitation function from 6:30 pm and the concert actually started at 7:30 pm. Sri Sundaresan said he will sing till 9:15 or so. He also spoke about the essential aspects of the doyen's compositions for about 15 minutes. Such functions tell one not attend any of the concerts with felicitation ceremonies preceeding them time and again.

The concert started after all the wait with a brisk short sketch of saurAshTram. The varNAm was rendered superbly with the anubandam intact. It was very refreshing to hear a varNam with anubandam. The nATTai kriti which followed was good and the mention of svarajati compositions thro' the sAhitya 'svarajati kalpita saHNgItarasikE' was highlighted. This was followed by nice renditions of the kAmbhOji and varALi kritis.

The yadukula kAmbhOji AlApanai was good and showed all the essential sancarams of the ragam. The svarajati was rendered very well. The short tODi AlApanai was nice and the kriti which followed was also well rendered. The nATTakuranji AlApanai was good and the kriti ended with mEl kala svarams. The punnAgavarALi kriti and the kalyANi mangalam were very good as well.

All the alapanais were very short and one could visibly see Sri Sundaresan rushing thro' the pieces. One guesses that he did this to not miss anything he had planned to sing. He did a good job in choice of kritis. All of them were pieces, which one would have heard off, but never actually heard.

Smt Venkataraghavan and Smt Desikan could have been a bit more feebler considering they were giving Vocal Support. There voice was in some places overshadowing the voice of Sri Sundaresan. Partly the sound system and its in-charge needs to be blamed for not having set the microphones properly. Sri Sundaresan's Microphone was on atrociously low volume while Smt Venkataraghavan, who was off sruthi many a times, had a high volume on her microphone.

Sri Ravi on the violin was also off sruthi. His essays were rather normal and the bowing was shrieky at places.

Sri Ramesh on the mrudangam provided very good accompaniment and one could feel him playing the sangatis. The tani was very well structured and the two Avartana kOrvai at the end of the tani was just too good.