Nithyasree Mahadevan at Kalarasana, 28 Dec 2008

Jigyaasa · Post by **Jigyaasa** » 28 Dec 2008, 22:54

Accompanists:

Violin : Dr. Hemalatha
Mri : I. Sivakumar
Ghatam: Udupi Sridhar

1.dayAnidhE (bEgaDa varNam, Shyama Shastri)

2.raghuvIra raNadhIra (husEni, rUpakam, Thyagaraja)

3.daNDamu beTTEnurA (bAlahamsa, Adi, Thyagaraja) (S at pallavi)

4.sharaNam bhava karuNAmayi (hamsavinOdini, rUpakam, Narayana Theerthar) (A, S at madhusUdana)

5.kA vA vA (varALi, Adi, Papanasam Sivan) (O)

6.rangapuravihAra

7.Emi dOva balkumA (sAranga, Adi, Thyagaraja)

8.enduku dayarAdurA (tODi, Mishra cApu, Thyagaraja) (A, N, S, T at tyAgarAjavinuta tArakacharita)

9.bhAgyada lakshmi bAramma (bhowLi(!), Adi, Purandaradasa)

10. a) viruttam - eeyenru nAn oruvariDam ninru... (rAgas - sahAnA, hamsAnandi, mOhanam, sindhu bhairavi)

b) kUvi azhaikkakUDAdA (sindhu bhairavi, Adi, Papanasam Sivan)

... Had to leave at this point

Highlight - expansive treatment of hamsavinOdini... Quite unlike the one described by Mr.Vijay in the Hyd Bros in the Academy (just surmising from the way he's written about it. I didn't attend the concert), I believe the Alapana established the rAgaswarUpa completely n in my opinion, proved that it does have quite some scope...

tODi was a tad too long n repetitive as regards the Alapana (spanned 20 minutes). The violinist's version was crisper but sounded str8 out of the notebook, I mean that isn't a bad thing but it didn't showcase any individuality, is what I think...

The bAlahamsa piece reminded me of Sri Balamuralikrishna who used to sing this song... Swaras interwove the rmgs motif thru n thru, I guess cuz it wud slip into other ragas, possibly kEdAragowLa... But it came out really well...

revanthv552 · Post by **revanthv552** » 28 Dec 2008, 23:02

Thanks a lot for the review jigyaasa....
I was looking for the reviews of Nithyashree's concerts...
Really great to know that she elaborated Hamsavinodini...
She always has surprises in store... and swarakalpana for Balahamsa must have been really great.. heard her sing this in the album "Sri Rama Jayam"

Bhagyadha lakshmi is generally sung by her in sri ragam na?? was it bowli this time?

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 29 Dec 2008, 00:00

That was interesting, Jigyaasa - to each his own but definitely not my kind of raga - not for an elaborate treatment anyway....and why have I suddenly become "Mr. Vijay" - I feel so old!

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 29 Dec 2008, 08:53

Jigyaasa wrote:
6.rangapuravihAra

She is the only singer singing this master piece, I am just assuming lot of musicians are little worried to take up this particular no, as they are afraid of whether it will have an effect in their voice for other concerts. This is just a speculative but an accurate observation.

bravO nithyashree!

HarishankarK · Post by **HarishankarK** » 29 Dec 2008, 11:50

Aruna Sairam sings Bhagyada Lakshmi in Kalgada raga also - maybe this could be the raga (Bowli and Kalgada sound alike)

Jigyaasa · Post by **Jigyaasa** » 29 Dec 2008, 13:34

vijay wrote: definitely not my kind of raga - not for an elaborate treatment anyway....

I think the key to establishing the identity of hamsavinOdini is the phrase gmd... If the dhaivatam is given a madhyama-bound shake, it sounds kannaDa-ish to me... And u'd mentioned vasanta threatening to appear... This wudnt have been the case if the above phrase kept sticking to the rishabham... And in the upper half, u said it the treatment was a la kalyANi... Does that mean the nishAdam was sung "very close or touching" the shaDjam cuz I believe that's characteristic of kalyANi. The artiste in the aforementioned concert strove to avoid this...

vijay wrote:and why have I suddenly become "Mr. Vijay" - I feel so old!

A sense of formality engendered by the lack of acquaintance and a respect for someone older to me I guess (which I have admittedly overlooked earlier... My bad!)... And Anna didn't sound professional enuf

Vocalist · Post by **Vocalist** » 29 Dec 2008, 14:50

I'm quite sure MLV has sang this raga elaborately in RTP form before, and several times for Sharanam Bhava....

Jigyaasa · Post by **Jigyaasa** » 29 Dec 2008, 15:23

So has Sri Balamuralikrishna... He's even composed a song... guruni smarimpumu manasA...

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 29 Dec 2008, 17:00

Vijay is good enough Jigyaasa!

Regd H'Vinoshini, yes the Nishadam was very close to Kalyani and that too straight which gave it a hindustani flavour. I agree that the key is RGMD but my point was - how long can you support an alaapana when there are so many pitfalls around...maybe, Nityasree managed to succeed...since I was not there I will take our word for it...

ganeshkant · Post by **ganeshkant** » 30 Dec 2008, 13:27

Vijay,

I don't know the intricacies of music like U & Jigyaasa.But scope wise is HV as good as Sriranjani ?

The scale is same of course the swarasthanas are different.I have heard a RTP in SR by MLV in 89 @NGS which was really good.

Jigyaasa · Post by **Jigyaasa** » 30 Dec 2008, 15:13

Good point! N this despite the fact that shrIranjani merits such elaborate treatment AND has so many compositions in it (I guess these two things imply and are implied by each other) despite being just one note "lesser" than khp...

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 31 Dec 2008, 00:05

Ganesh, it is not only about one note being different. It is about 1) repertoire of songs in the raga and established pidis and 2) existence of allied ragas.

Of course, you need to watch out for Abhogi, Reethigowla, Bageshri etc. while singing Sriranjani but it is important to note that it is Sriranjani which is the most important of the 3 (perhaps Reethi Gowla is in the same league. Further, one has the safety of phrases from existing compositions - this is important in a grammar oriented art form.

When one sings a raga like HV, one is essentially seeking to compose - this requires a very high level of awareness of aesthetic merit (in the context of the carnatic idiom) as well as careful attention to Raga lakshna...This is what Thyagaraja achieved with, say, Harikambhoji. Needless to say, not everyone has the same calibre. Of course this is not to say that artistes should not try.

mahesh_narayan · Post by **mahesh_narayan** » 31 Dec 2008, 19:01

For anyone interested, here is a link to a Thiruppugazh paatu, "AchAra vInan arivili", tuned in raga Hamsavinodini by Guruji A. S. Raghavan of Thiruppugazh Anbargal group.

http://www.kaumaram.com/audio_k/grtp1211.html

Chanda Tala: 1 + 1 1/2 + 1 1/2 + 2

It is quite a good classical piece !!!

rajaglan · Post by **rajaglan** » 01 Jan 2009, 19:29

rajeshnat wrote:
Jigyaasa wrote:
6.rangapuravihAra

She is the only singer singing this master piece, I am just assuming lot of musicians are little worried to take up this particular no, as they are afraid of whether it will have an effect in their voice for other concerts. This is just a speculative but an accurate observation.

bravO nithyashree!

Not sure whether you meant this season only. But I have heard this by Ranjani & Gayatri in MMU.
I havenot heard this by male artist except MMI (recording). I am sure TNS must have sung.

Sharanam Bhava is a very good song. I have heard this before By SKC in a live recording.

saravanan · Post by **saravanan** » 08 Jan 2009, 13:17

I heard Dr.Nithyashree singing Sharanam bhava in above concert and her concert in Mumbai in 2007.It was real joy to hear her again.

I also heard Gurucharan singing Sharanam bhava in 2 different cd s, one in hamsavinodini and one in Saurashtram.Can any one inform if it can be sung in 2 ragas.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 10 Jan 2009, 23:18

Vijay,
You said you 'feel' old. It is definitely a better state than 'being' old!

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 11 Jan 2009, 00:03

It is most certainly how you feel that counts!