Sumithra Vasudev@ragasudha Hall(DKP centenary) on June 23rd,2018

[rajeshnat]

Sumithra Vasudev@ragasudha Hall(DKP centenary) on June 23rd,2018
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Vocal : Sumithra Vasudev
Violin : Dr Hemalatha
Mrudangam : K ArunPrakash
KanjirA : KV Gopalakrishnan

Concert Type : Nirvana - no concert to follow
Day/Duration : Saturday/ 1 hour and 10 mins
Concert Type : Free concert
Occasion : DK Pattammaal 100th centenary

1A. RTP in kharaharapriya 52 mins
19 mins alapana with vocal alapana for 11 mins
5 mins taanam
Pallavi and swaras for 28 mins
Pallavi taalam in mishra jampa
Pallavi line --> madhurya gAna rasa, ambA jayathi
ragamaliga swaras in Kharaharapriya + lalitha + Shyama+ saramathi

1B. tani for 8 mins

2A. slokham from ramayana verses(rajeshnat assuming valmiki)
Abhiswarnamayi - sAveri + janani janmabhoomi - valaci
2B. parukulle nalla nAdu -valaci - mahakavi bharathiyAr

The concert was scheduled to start at 7pm with a previous lecdem demonstration of DKP pallavi by vidushi Suguna varadAchari. As I entered around 06 50 pm i caught a part of vidushi Suguna Varadachari explaining a grand pallavi popularied by DKP. The grand pallavi in jaganmohini by DKP was ideated by DKP along with DKJ and also palakkad mani iyer . The pallavi was performed live along with tiruparkadal veeraraghavan in violin. The pallavi line in jaganmohini lines were Nenje ninai anbe tudi neri nin Guruparan mel, Anjaadiru nam paavangal panjaai parandidum aagaiyaal. vidushi Suguna mami gave a very lucid explanation on the tisram and chatushram change .Her explanation of even high tempo segment of DKP singing was indeed praiseworthy. I have not given that much attention to this jaganmohini pallavi but I just heard just now , DKP and DKJ with extraordinary PMI laya vinyasam resulted in an extraordinary azhuttam(PMI is truly God of mrudangam) .It was weighty classical RTP - jaganmohini and I only wished i came bit earlier.

After lecdem nithyashree thanked the artists and recollected her family of great musicians performing this veera rasa pallavi in jaganmohini , another person(dont know her name) briefly introduced sumithra and team. Sumithra Vasudev thanked the DKP centenary committee .Sumithra said she is honoured and told that she is going to jump directly to pallavi in kharaharapriya in chatushra jampa . She mentioned the words of pallavi can address DKP too, I am conjecturing gAna rasa and amba jayanthi all can be addressed to the great vidushi DKP , DKP also had a lot of devotion to goddes kamakshi.

Kharaharapriya alapana was strictly in the madhyamakAla tempo,sumitra has always a great voice and she takes an extra care to strictly align with shruthi mAta . Kharaharapriya alapana came out very well in the first half for sure , she attempt a bit of foray towards little more patterns .Then she took a bit of safe recourse and gave the violin return to Hemalatha. Hemalatha played concisely and she is a joy as she never intrudes during vocal part . Hemalatha completely focusses on jeeva pidis of the raga .

Taanam was non metered and kharaharapriya stayed in the same course of the alapana , no attempts to give any higher kAla pidi. The pallavi was very creative and I am assuming she is singing that for the first time . The swaras were all melodic for atleast three fourth of the pallavi . Her melodious voice hit the best of sukham as she jettisoned kharaharapriya and moved to lalitha , shyamA and saramathi.Each ragamaliga raga was measured with extreme clinical precision in raga swaroopam. Sumitra then took kharaharapriya and gave sincere attempts to change the tempo and gave more patterns with arunprakash teaming up very well with nice sound. There was no trikaalam and I am assuming the pallavi just moved from 4 , 2 and 1 kalai and that movement is a trick to not sing trikalam. I missed more elaboration in RTP , her melodious voice appeared to squat bit more and did not come out of shackles to ideate more in the stage.

The tani followed and for most time Arun prakash was very mild and with Sumithra and Hemalatha putting talam loud, for few minutes it appeared as a mrudangam class. KVG gave great support but had limited role.

Sumithra winded up with a lovely slokham , nice saveri and lovely valaci . The usually sung parukulle in jOnpuri took a valaci shape Sumithra's strength with slokham and follow up krithi gave a lovely touch of sahithya with music. I felt Sumithra could have given more patterns in RTP .Her voice and shruthi are her pluses but could have had bit more RTP charge considering there was no other number before RTP.

Overall a very good concert for 1 hours and 10 mins.

[shankarabharanam]

Here is the pallavi that was discussed by Smt Suguna Varadachari at Raga Sudha.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_YKjPMJCy4&t=996s

Rasikas should first here the lecture where she very nicely took up each aspect of the ragam tanam pallavi and explained what all DKP did. It was learning experience.

[arunsri]

Pallavi is in chaturashra jhampa tALam not mishra jhampa

swaras were put at gAna rasA, and rasA in addition to mAdhrya

there is laya vyavahAram in the pallavi line sung at around 40 mins..pallavi is sung in tishram and the start is altered so that the arudi is at the original place as in the original chaturashra naDai version {what is this technically called?}, the pallavi sung after lalita, sAma and sAramati swaras also has inbuilt laya changes.

DKP school sings pArukuLE in valaji and not jOnpuri, hence sumithra chose the valaji version.

[rajeshnat]

Pallavi is in chaturashra jhampa tALam not mishra jhampa

DKP school sings pArukuLE in valaji and not jOnpuri, hence sumithra chose the valaji version.

Arunsri,
Thanks for the tAlam correction. Has vidushi R Vedavalli sung parukulE, if she has does any one know the raga that RV has sung? .

[sreebeecane]

It is not 'AbhiswarNamayi'. It is the famous shlokam from Ramayana: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janani_Ja ... i_Gariyasi