Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Lightning tODi, thundering kIravAni, pouring naLinakAnti

Finally I could drag this out of the draft state after 4 days. Thanks to poll holiday. I had an amazing weekend with three instrumental concerts on successive days.

Friday, April 17th

Violin Duet: Lalgudi G.J.R. Krishnan & Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi
Mridanga: P. Satish Kumar
Kanjira: Amruth N.

1. pancha mAtanga mukha gaNapati - malahari – rUpaka – Muthuswamy Dikshit (s)
2. nEnendu vetukudura - karnaTaka kApi – Adi - Tyagaraja
3. nannu viDachi – ritigaula – mischra chApu –Tyagaraga (a)
4. paripAphimAm shri raGupate – kannada – Adi – Mysore Vasudevachar (a,s)
5. nine nammitinayya – simhendramadhyama – mischra chApu - Mysore Vasudevachar (a,n,s)
6. munupE teliyaka pOyenA - bangALa - Adi - Tyagaraja
7. koluvamare kadA – tODi – Adi – Tyagaraja (a,n,s,t)
8. RTP – Bhimpalas – mischra tripuTa tishra gati
pallavi - Bhajare sada mAnasa shri rAGavam mAdhavam followed by swaras in shahana, kAnada, nAsikAbhushiNi, bindumAlini
9. mAmava mAdhava - nIlAmbari - Adi - Narayana Teertha
10. bAro Krishnayya - rAgamAlika - Adi - Kanakadasa
11. tillana - madhuvanti - Adi - Lalgudi G Jayaraman

Nanu vidachi was very touching. For the first time I heard a alapana in kannada raga. It was simply outstanding. Simhendramadhayama was elaborated very beautifully by Vijayalakshmi. She also sang the pallavi a couple of times. The tani was awesome especially Amruth got lots of applause from the audience. After the RTP, artists were honored and the speaker described the concert as “110% pure Carnatic music”

Saturday, April 18th

Mandolin Duet: U Srinivas & U. Rajesh
Violin: H K Venkatram
Mridanga:Yella Venkateshwara Rao
Kanjira:Guru Prasanna

1. viriboNi – bhairavi – atta – Adiyappaiyar
2. mahAgaNapati – nAta – Adi – Muthuswamy Dikshit (s)
3. nAdOpAsana – begaDa – Adi – Tyagaraja
4. shrirAmapAdama – amrutavAhini – Adi – Tyagaraja
5. sogasuga mridanga tALamu – shriranjini – rUpaka – Tyagaraja (a,s)
6. nenedu vedakudura - karnataka kApi - Adi Tyagaraja
7. raGuvamsha sudha – kadanakutUhala – Adi – Patnam Subrahmanya Iyer
8. kaligiyunte kada - kIravAni - Adi - Tyagaraja (a,n,s,t)
9. enta muddo - bindumAlini - Adi - Tyagaraja
10. jagadOddarana – kApi – Adi – Purandaradasa
11. jagajjanani – ratipatipriya – Adi – Ghanam Krishna Iyer

Srinivas introduced all artists on the stage before the commencing the concert. I found it as very good gesture. I wonder why its not a general practice as it hardly takes a minute. He had a pile of requests from the audience and he announced he would play all of them.

Viriboni was played in 3 speeds very well. After the magnificent kIravAni and an equally brilliant tani, all seemed to be looking for someone to pickup the mic for the ceremonial speech. But as there seemed to be no one, Srinivas started the soothing enta muddo. Srinivas was presented a photograph, taken in 1981, of his concert at the same venue.

Sunday, April 19th

Violin Duet : Kumaresh & Ganesh
Mridanga: Harikumar B
Kanjira: Amruth N

1. jalajAkshi – hamsadhwani – Adi
2. mAkElara vicharamu - ravichandrika – Adi – Thyagaraja (s)
3. yOchana – darbar – Adi – Tyagaraja
4. hecchariga – yadukulakAmbhoji – Adi - Tyagaraja
5. dEva dEva jagadIshwara – pUrvikalyaNi – Adi – (r,s)
6. idu bhAgya idu bhAgya – hindOLa – Adi – Purandaradasa

It was preceeded by some experimental raga transitions which included ragas like shanmukhapriya, hamsadhwani, hindola. I am not sure if it was a demonstration of grahabhedam.

7. RTP – naLinakAnti - khanDa jati tripuTa
pallavi – sIta ramaNa raGurAmana raGu rAmachandrana polgaLi pADi Bajisi namipe
swaras – saveri, varali, natakuranji, ranjini, kApi, rEvati, shivaranjini and many more.

It was followed by honours. The songlist after this is incomplete as they played one song after (or even within) the other with little gap.

8. jagadOddarana – kApi- Adi - Purandaradasa
9. mAnasa sanchararE – sAma – Adi - Sadashiva Brahmendra
10. rAmabhadra rA rA – AnandaBairavi - Adi – Bhadrachala Ramadasa
11. vara chidambara natam hridi bhaje
12. bHaLi bHaLi rAma – kalyANi – Adi - Annamayya
13. tambUri mItidava – sindhu bhairavi – Adi - Purandaradasa
14. bhagyAdalakshmi baramma - shri - Adi - Purandaradasa

Ganesh sang the pallavi lines a couple of times and the complete songs #11 and #12.

A peculiar observation was that, Bangalore rains seemed to be attracted o RTP. On both Friday and Sunday, it rained heavily during RTP.


As I post this, I am waiting eagerly for Mysore brothers violin duet the day after.

PS: On a different n(v)ote, please dont forget to exercise your franchise today as I have already done and participate in making a positive difference.