Violin : M Vijay
Mridangam : Akshay Anand
Ghatam : Harihara Subramaniam
Song list :
muddu mOmu - suryakAntam - Adi 1/2 eDuppu - Thyagaraja
vinata suta vAhanA - jayantasenA - Adi - Thyagaraja - S
amba neelAmbari - neelAmbari - Adi 2 kalai - Ponniah Pillai - R
raghukulOttama rAma - nAgaswarAvaLi - chatushra jhampa - Oothukadu Venkata Kavi
ninnE nammiti - simhEndramadhyamam - mishra chApu - Mysore Vasudevacharya - R,N,S,TA - neraval at pannagEndra shayana.
rama ramEsha kahu - vishwapriya - Adi (3/4 kalai) - Chitraveena Ravikiran
tiruppugazh - mAnD - Adi - Arunagirnathar
Two concerts in one day by the same artistes...And you reviewed both of them?!!You can't be serious.
Well I warned you I am as intellectual as I am crazy. In fact my cerebral side only hides the real Srinath.
If artists performing 2 concerts in one day with some deadly mutant throat virus infested, PM 2.5 contaminated and exhaust chemical polluted air everywhere making everyone sick these days is one thing, reviewing the same duo twice in one day for a total of 3 reviews must be the most over the top crazy thing I've attempted. Thank god my ears can work independently of my fingers and I can out any tala on my feet. Though my creative juices are challenged to keep the level of writing up. So this review will be entirely in present tense.
So anyway as I write this, unlike the previous concert that was micless, in this one the diaphragms are back to remind you about the physical meaning of the word decibels. As I write this, the sisters have kicked off with a brisk muddu mOmu in sUryakAntam.
Up next Apoorva has taken up jayantasenA. A few days back at Mudhra, jayantasenA had featured as one of the ragas in a superb RTP by these 2 and lo now I've heard more jayantasenA in 10 days than the rest of my entire life since I last heard a superlative recording of the one and only MMI sing vinata suta vAhana. M Vijay is acing his reply some fast violin suited phrases.
And obviously it is vinata suta vAhanA, and the lyrics have given Thyagaraja a chance to introduce a particularly unique gait into this composition. After a splendid rendition, the swaras are being taken with an easy sarvalaghu and both M Vijay, Harihara Subramaniam and Akshay Anand also seem to be in their element here. And finally with a simple korvai, the swaras and then the kriti come to a close. I assume that it will be a long time before I hear jayantasenA again, so I'm savouring it.
A slow and sweet AlApana of neelAmbari is next. amba neelAyatAkshi or amba neelAmbari? Right. The second. I am also in the mood to relax right now and neelAmbari is who I go to when I need a massage. A beautiful kriti with a beautiful chittaswaram.
A new racy number in nAgaswarAvaLi. Google the ever present true guru of my generation lets me know it is raghukulOttama rAma, a composition of OVK, in chatushra jhampa tala (never heard that ever being used in my life before). Anyway the style is unmistakable. Of course they did announce it at the end.
Sit close enough and you can tell by the nearly inaudible humming off mic what's coming next before it does. It's simhEndramadhyam, mighty moving raga, mightier name.
And Anahita's embarked on a journey plumbing the depths of this dark and deep raga. A round of S-P varjya phrases brings brief applause. Time to stop texting for a few minutes at least. After a nice foray to the top P and then some, some medium paced long drawn brighas with plenty of aha moments. Meanwhile my thumbs need a break. Next time I shall bring in the laptop. M Vijay is playing a mighty good reply. I'd wish he'd use a but more bow, but he already gets so much sound out of his violin he can afford to bow gently. His left hand is agile to play brighas effortlessly for a huge number of notes in one bow. His reply is also introspective and serene and well done.
And in the meantime, I wonder if rajeshnat is by chance here for round 2. Maybe not....
And I seem to have gained some kind of 6th sense at times for what might come next and it is ninnE nammiti nayyA of Mysore Vasudevacharya. Lovely poruttam to kick of the anupallavi by Akshay Anand. After wrapping up the kriti, the sisters have taken up neraval at the usual spot in the anupallavi and their unhurried rendition continues into the neraval. They're going at it hammer and tongs now, trading rounds and more rounds with M Vijay maintaining the momentum. Akshay Anand and Harihara Subramaniam are looking forward to building up the energy to the eventual cresecendo after a long French Open level rally Nadal style, which comes and gets it's due appreciation.
The swaras have started with a typical GNB 1/4 3/4 eDuppu like start in the slow tempo. Meanwhile sitting by me are Nick H, Vidwan K S Kalidas and Lars Fredricksson (right?). Anyway we are on to high speed swaras now. A nice calculation by Apoorva gets a sabaash from K S Kalidas here. Then come the poruttams. Then the kuraippu round, ending on the R2 and full of calculations. We could feed them to kids and turn them into number theory experts in a short time. After a long round of upper octave sarvalaghu, the final korvai is a show stopper.
And so the tani. Again a mishra chApu one. Akshay Anand is trying out all sorts of stuff in Round 1 and Harihara Subramaniam goes on to do more of the same with a small detour into khanDa nADai as well. The next round Akshay really throws everything including the kitchen sink at it and succeeds, getting a bale from K S Kalidas. And ditto for the ghatam. God how do you put tala when they're criss crossing like this? This is a superb effort by both of them, using tisra and khanDa naDais for the kuraippu. A cracker faran leads to the mOhra and a traditional multi speed pattern in the korvai. One does get the feeling that the mridangam has gone up a step in tune over the tani under the lights.
The next number is a bhajan I've never heard before. The raga seems to be vishwapriya (basically pantuvarALi in madhyama shruti ending at the lower N2 and going up to upper S). I wonder who the composer is. Oh yes, ravishashi appears in the line - their guru Chitraveena Ravikiran. Vishwapriya is a dark and beautiful raga, a Hindustani - ish flavour like warm balm. I have never heard it live, so another first. The high upper S, at the position of M1, is hit so nicely by these 2. And the khayal esque brighas follow to wrap up this one. To my surprise the rAga is announced as pantuvarALi, but hey I'm still right technically.
A lilting Tiruppugazh in mAnD wraps up a superb and introspective concert. And just in time, my thumbs are done for the day. (Claps).