MS SheelA@Swamy's hall on Jan 27th,2009

[rajeshnat]

MS SheelA@Swamy's hall on Jan 27th,2009
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Accompanied by Sanjeev - violin, neyveli skandasubramaniam -mridangam and anirudh AthreyA - kanjirA
...
5. baale baalEndu bhOOshani(R,S) - reetigowlai - T
6. pAdamE thunai paramashivA - valachi - psivan
7. mathurAmbikayAm - hemavathi?? (in asampoorna - deshisimharavam) - MD

8A.akshaya linga vibhO - shankarAbharanam - MD
Alapanai for 11 minutes and violin return for 9 mins
neraval in "badarI vana mUla nAyikA sahita " for 6 mins
swaras for 10 minutes
8B.tani for 10 minutes

9. naNNinu nOlaya - madhuvanti ?? + nalgu niNNe - hamsAnandi
+ buDDhi niNNalU - bhAgeshri ---> ???
10. nanda thanaya gOvindA - yamunA kalyAni - PD
11. ranga bAro pandu ranga - sindhu bhairavi - PD
12. pavamAna

I was late and entered from the reetigowlai alAapana onwards, again late by 30 minutes to hear my 2nd concert of hers , having missed few nos in my first concert of hers few years back.

Smt MS sheela does have atleast three big strengths :

1.A solid diction be it her zone of excellence a dAsar padam or a little difficult pApanAsam sivan krithi or a very difficult sanskrit krithis of MD.

2.There was another solid strength she is able to sing with lot of authority both in mEl and keezh KAlam and her voice never sags most of the time . Particularly her strength is in alApanai both reetigowlai and s'bharanam was gushing with gusto with absolutely no repetition ,even her alApanai of 11 minutes in the usual normal benadryl syrup drowsy shankarAbharanam, had a lot of great semmangudi -RKShrikantan pidis and gave a feeling that she went atleast 20 minutes.Her reetigowlai was excellent and the best pick of the day.

3. The tukkadAs had lot energy that she must have got learning from shri RK shrikantan especially the rAgamAliga with her start in madhuvanti ?? and her sequence in hamsAnandi and bhAgeshri was excellent to outstanding . The yamunA kalyAni was also gripping and her voice modulation was superb.


Having said there was just 3 strong weakness :

1. Her concert planning was not perfect , even though I came late for the 5 th number , I was told she sang the first varnam and three krithis in succession without R N Or S. I may be wrong here as I heard from another rasika about the first four.

2. Also her sequence of that tough MD's hemavathi?? and then following with another uphill akshaya linga vibhO , she lost lot of lung power there , the neraval was lacklustre and her swaras at most places did not come out well in shankarAbharanam despite one of the best alApanai in shankarAbharanam

3. Also three tukkadas in trot without a viruththam or a slOkham was not perfect.

The support of sanjeev was just mediocre to good, would have been nicer if his nAdham was much better and also his s'bharanam was never in line with the singer. Both the percussionist were just good to very good , at times they were little caught behind with few manOdharma patterns of the vidushi. Tani was just a standard reverse count down of 10,9..1,0 , very mediocre one, not much enthusiasm from both percussionist.

Looking forward to hear her 3rd concert in full, overall a good to very good concert , her reetigowlai and that rAgamAliga tukkada in madhuvanti?? + hamsAnandi and bhAgeshri was splendid.

I missed this four , some one else can correct me the first four if I have missed anything.

1.varnam -sAveri -patnam
2.Vande Anisham - hamsadhwani - MV
3.angAraka Aashraya - shuruTTi - MD
4. Orajoopu chooceDi - kannaDagowla - T

[kmrasika]

mathurAmbikayAm - hemavathi?? (in asampoorna - deshisimharavam) - MD

I have heard this piece rendered by yEsudAs in a commercial album but I didn't think it sounded quite like the common hEmavati. Hope someone can throw some light on this composition.

Nice item list for this concert.

[bilahari]

"usual normal benadryl syrup drowsy shankarAbharanam"
There are always such gems in your review, rajesh! Is this what you think of Shankarabharanam?

[rajeshnat]

"usual normal benadryl syrup drowsy shankarAbharanam"
There are always such gems in your review, rajesh! Is this what you think of Shankarabharanam?

bilahari,
I personally feel shankarAbharanam is one tough rAga where to capture rasikAs attention throughout is indeed difficult when a main krithi is rendered .(atleast when compared to say kharaharapriyA ) . Infact when this is sung as a main in the first few minutes of alApanai there will be maximum exodus.

Few of them get it perfectly. One is semmangudi mamA be it any shankarAbharanam (the way he sings without a moment of sag) and incidentally there is also ramnAdkrishnan's akshayalinga vibhO which is a master piece.

Incidentally in smt sheela's rendition she sang beautifully the alApana but lost lot of steam in neraval and swaras.BTW I always look forward to take benadryl syrup from my childhood days .