Sanjay @ Stroudsburg Sharadamba Temple

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kedharam
Posts: 419
Joined: 28 Sep 2008, 23:07

Sanjay @ Stroudsburg Sharadamba Temple

Post by kedharam »

Sanjay Subrahmanyan
Varadarajan
Venkatesh


Abhogi – maye, varnam, Mayuram Viswantha Sastri
Jaganmohini – Daya Payo Nidhe , S, Meesu Kerishnayyar
Kannada – Kanden kanden, R, PD
Mukhari – Shivakama sundari, N @ kelayo en kuraigal thirucheviyil, PS
Sucharithra – Velum mayilume, KI
Thodi – Bharathi mamava, R, N@ DAsa bhUta jana vidya dAnalola, S, ST
Thani
Dwijawanti – Chetha Shree Baalakrishnam, MD
RTP
Mohanam
Mohana ranga vandarul varam thantharul jagan
Kunthalavarali – bhOgIndra ShAyinam, ST
Behag – NirupamAna sAmini, Poochi
Behag – Vandarulvai, Pattabhi Ramiyya
Urilen kani illai followed by Brindavanam idhuvo by Suddananda Bharathi, Suddha dhanyasi
Va va vel muruga – Mayuram Viswanatha Sastri, Sindhu bhairavi

My favs:

Aided by his inspired collaborators, Sanjay nudged his repertorial envelope and the lesser-known Varnam in abhogi was the curtain-raiser.
Sanjay followed this with the little-heard work, Daya Payo Nidhe in Jaganmohini of Meesu Krishnayyer. The up tempo composition floating atop a chittaswaram unravelled as the raga took its full shape. Sanjay gave a striking depth to the multilayer nuances as Varadarajan and Venkatesh floated in tandem, playing to the cadence of the work. Sanjay finished off with a few rounds of swarams as Varadarajan and Venkatesh followed by ornamenting his trajectory.

Then came the Sivan fare, ‘Shivakaama sundari’ with narrative fluency. Sanjay powerfully intoned the many guises of the composer’s anguish as Varadarajan and Venkatesh integrated with him by lending equally idiomatic support.
Most striking was the neraval at ‘Kelayo en kuraigal thirucheviyil’. He conceived it with impressive thoroughness by mining the composer’s agonized angst compellingly, evidence aplenty of his interpretive skills. And Varadarajan and Venkatesh supported by weaving around the text with precision to exemplify the work. It was a grippingly expressive rendition in all earnestness.

Thodi - a fertile territory for his creativity flowed like an epic. He evoked the varied essence of the raga through elaborations of notes, allowing the depth of the gamakas and karvais to travel in a deliberate, methodical fashion and scaling uncharted territories in reflecting the raga’s grandeur and his depth in the lower octave was impressive. Varadarajan played incisively with a fine sense of proportion for the aesthetic continuation of the raga in his rapt solo.

Swathi Thirunali’s Navarathri krithi, the ineffably beautiful composition ‘Janani mamava‘ attuned to its poetic language and rhythmic gait unfolded in madhyama kalam. With rhythmic fidelity, he highlighted the seamless built-in interplay of laya while tactfully folding in the jathis in creating an agile narrative … a composition that calls for multiple hearings to take in its many intricacies. It was greatly enhanced by Varadarajan and Venkatesh as they kept the gait going to the flow and the rhythm of the work, prancing around the heady beats and the graceful lyrics.

Sanjay wrapped around ‘dAsa bhUta jana vidya dAnalola‘, ornamented with interpretive specificity thriving on the implicit laya, emphasizing ST’s dynamic juxtapositions of rhythm and the lyrics to fine effect. Varadarajan and Venkatesh partnered with flair in the interplay embellishing sangathis with firm rhythmic snap as they traded off phrases. Then he delved into a cogent dynamic range of swarams with Varadarajan and Venkatesh both grounding and lending support.

This was followed by thani where Venkatesh’s mathematical permutations with clarity and fingering felicity were on vivid display, internalizing and improvising on Sanjay’s swaram patterns.

RTP
Sanjay plodded along a well-trodden terrain of mohanam as it welled up from within organically. And he pushed the envelope coaxing a spectrum of nuances within its confines enhancing the aesthetic value. Varadarajan rose effectively to match Sanjay’s finesse and mapped it following his probing aesthetic that served as a stately prelude to the tanam.

Tanam cushioned by mrudangam rolled out in tisra triputa through gentle vocal shades in the effective built up by gathering intensity with rhythm darting and weaving in the melody. Venkatesh’s strokes were to the rhythmic metre with tactful ease by playing for the percussive effect. And Varadarajan lent lively dynamics with incisive rhythmic point that ebbed and flowed laying down an exquisite base for the pallavi.

Pallavi, ‘Mohana ranga vandarul varam thandarul jagan‘ bounced off of tisra triputa, as he kept the rhythm-melody duality in scale with his judicious phrasings. The lilting stretch was anchored effectively by Varadarajan and Venkatesh with their sensitive attention to the text, hugging the stresses, the beats with flourishes. With skilful playing they fluidly transitioned ananda bhairavi, ragavardhini and bageshri in the swara ragamalika…

Post RTP pieces capped off a memorable evening in Stroudsburg....
Last edited by kedharam on 15 Oct 2017, 19:35, edited 1 time in total.

kunthalavarali
Posts: 425
Joined: 03 Mar 2010, 01:30

Re: Sanjay @ Stroudsburg Sharadamba Temple

Post by kunthalavarali »

Thanks for the Lovely review, Kedaram. I suppose the varnam is a composition of Mayuram Vishwanatha Shastri.

rajeshnat
Posts: 9907
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: Sanjay @ Stroudsburg Sharadamba Temple

Post by rajeshnat »

kedharam wrote: 15 Oct 2017, 10:37
Abhogi – maye, varnaym, Tiger?
Kedharam
Looks after few years gap you are again chasing sanjay performance in 3 to 4 US cities and glad that you are reporting from different us cities ,thank you for your lovely review . The varnam is by mayuram vishwanatha sastri
varnam - maayE mana arul - Abhogi - mayuram vishwanatha sastri

kedharam
Posts: 419
Joined: 28 Sep 2008, 23:07

Re: Sanjay @ Stroudsburg Sharadamba Temple

Post by kedharam »

Thanks kunthalavarali and rajeshnat. Corrected it.

arasi
Posts: 16774
Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 09:30

Re: Sanjay @ Stroudsburg Sharadamba Temple

Post by arasi »

kedharam,
Your most winning review so far--though we savor all your write ups, this takes the cake--we are not forgetting the concert which inspired it...
dayA payOnidhE was a new song from Sanjay (like many others) for me in the years following the millennium.
DAsara pada is kaNDe kaNDe.
The gait in Sanjay's cEta Sri is charming.
I missed the elaborate tODi, but Boston's nugget of a yAr pOi solluvAr consoles.
Two ST numbers in one concert and two behAgs in a row too!
Missed that mOhanam tAnam. As appealing as the AbhEri one was, I could not hear the mighty
mOhanam or the kalyANi tAnam...

Hope there will be reviews on today's Houston concert and from CA. My guess is that you are from the east coast. Your reviews may stop here...:( Still, thanks for sharing your joy so far...:)

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