Nithyashree Mahadevan @ SGBS, Bangalore 2009.07.29

karthikbala · Post by **karthikbala** » 29 Jul 2009, 22:24

Nithyashree Mahadevan @ SGBS, Bangalore 2009.07.29

A satisfying concert, staring off with Kalyani Ata tala varnam, followed by Mariyada(Bhairavam), Durmarga(Ranjani), Thyagarajaya(Begada), Narayana ninnero(?)(Jingla, Purandaradasa), Kannathandri(Devamanohari), and main piece Adigisukhamu(Madhyamavati). Missed the rest as I had to start for Chennai.
Smt. NM was in good voice with some resplendent anthara gandhara soundings in the tara sthayi still ringing in my ears. Mandra sthayi was not as robust as usual, but that is a minor quibble, given that nowadays half-an-octave worth of rasping is enough to get a halfpage splash in The Hindu. Jingla was a nice change (have only heard Anathudanu in this raga, also by the same artiste) but the chittaswaras were awkward.
Raghavendra Rao (Violin), J.Vaidhyanathan(mridangam), S.Srishyla(ghatam) accompanied well.

Listening to NM never fails to impress upon me how rigorous attention to basics like precise pitching, robust sound production, clean intonation, clear diction makes all the difference, and how wide the gap is between top professionals like her and moonlighting amateurs.

s_hari · Post by **s_hari** » 29 Jul 2009, 22:36

After Jingala, she sang purvikalyani alapana and sang ekkalathilum unnai maravamal. Kannatandri neve is not devamanohari. After main, she sang eppadi padinaro, a behag devarnama, teerada vilayattu pillai, sai bhajan, paras raga javali and santhi nilava vendum

-hari

keerthi · Post by **keerthi** » 29 Jul 2009, 22:50

s_hari wrote:Kannatandri neve is not devamanohari.
-hari

Common mistake.. this is a nArAyaNi song of PaTNam ayyar, a heirloom of the dAmal tradition.. The dEvamanOhari song is kannatanDri nApai...

And which paraz jAvaLi..? Cheli nEnEtlu..??

s_hari · Post by **s_hari** » 29 Jul 2009, 23:13

Here is song list

1. vanajakshi (varnam) - kalyani - kanda ata
2. mariyada gadayya - bhairavam - adi - thyagaraja
3. durmarga chara - ranjani - rupakam - thyagaraja (raga outline, swara @ paluku poti)
4. thyagarajaya namaste - begada - rupakam - muthuswami dikshitar (alapana)
5. narayana yanniro - jingala - misra chapu - purandara dasa
6. ekkalathilum unnai maravamal - purvikalyani - adi 2 kalai - (alapana)
7. kanna tandri neve elAgu nannu - narayani - adi - patnam subramanya iyer (Swara @ kanna tandri neve)
8. tarunam idamma - gowli pandu - adi - shyama sastri
9. adigi sukhamu - madhyamavati - misra chapu - thyagaraja (alapana, neraval, swaram @ nike daya buti and tani avarthanam)
10. eppadi padinaro - karnataka devagandhari - adi - suddhananda bharati
11. godhuli dhu sarita komala... (virutham) - behag
11a. kandena udupiya krishnena - behag - purandara dasa
12. tirada vilayattu pillai - ragamalika - tisra nadai - subhramanya bharati
13. sai rama sarthaya nama (bhajan) - ?
14. cheli nene (javali) - paras
15. santhi nilava vendum - tilang - sethumadhava rao
16. pavamana (mangalam) - sowrastram - adi - thyagaraja

Another nice concert, well presented. purvikalyani & madhyamavati alapana was nice.

Narayani & devamanohari are almost similar! S R M P D S in arohanam could help me to tell that it is not devamanohari. Also, no S N D N P in avarohanam

-hari

karthikbala · Post by **karthikbala** » 29 Jul 2009, 23:40

s_hari wrote:Narayani & devamanohari are almost similar! S R M P D S in arohanam could help me to tell that it is not devamanohari. Also, no S N D N P in avarohanam

-hari

Thanks for the correction! I switched off during the kannathandri; don't care much for either Devamanohari or Narayani. To think I actually learnt a varnam in Narayani ages ago... (by Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar I think)

keerthi · Post by **keerthi** » 29 Jul 2009, 23:59

Arre! only the other day, a co-rasika berated the fact that no one sings/plays this pUchi AyyangAr varNaM..Irrespective of your lack of warmth towards the raga, do try and hustle up a rendering..

rajeevsid · Post by **rajeevsid** » 30 Jul 2009, 11:01

Wow!!! I quite like both Devamanohari and Narayani.. Nice ragas in my opinion. Why are no artists doing a RTP at this venue? Lack of time, speech by organisers or just co-incidence???

Interestingly I heard from the rendering of my aunt,a wonderful mahishAsura mardinIm - rAgaM nArAyaNi - tALaM miSra cApu, of the great MD , and curiously enough I have never heard this on the concert platform.. It is one beautiful krithi, as far as krithis go...

Also I have found that Narayani in dikshitar and thyagaraja paramparas are quite different.. the mahishasura mardinim of of Dikshitar sounds to my ears more cose to Gowlai than Devamanohari..Experts in the field may be able to throw more light on the situation..

vs_manjunath · Post by **vs_manjunath** » 30 Jul 2009, 12:30

rajeevsid wrote:Wow!
Also I have found that Narayani in dikshitar and thyagaraja paramparas are quite different.. the mahishasura mardinim of of Dikshitar sounds to my ears more cose to Gowlai than Devamanohari..Experts in the field may be able to throw more light on the situation..

This song is a favourite of KJ Jesudas.........

raviraj · Post by **raviraj** » 30 Jul 2009, 15:16

rajeevsid wrote: Interestingly I heard from the rendering of my aunt,a wonderful mahishAsura mardinIm - rAgaM nArAyaNi - tALaM miSra cApu, of the great MD , and curiously enough I have never heard this on the concert platform..

Rajeev......Would it be possible to share a copy of your aunt's rendition of 'Mahishasura mardhineem'. Any idea as to where she learnt it from ?

karthikbala wrote: To think I actually learnt a varnam in Narayani ages ago... (by Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar I think)

Karthikbala : I would second Keerthi's request. Can you share a recording of the varnam as you learnt ?

In the extant interpretation of the MD composition as exemplified by Chembai's version ( & possibly KJY as well) , the raga has been needlessly Bilaharified and the composition's kalapramana has been accelarated to fit into khanda capu, so much so that one wonders if its indeed a Dikshitar composition as it is much at variance with the SSP notation ! I leave it at that

. Also it makes us wonder if Chembai so learned it, possibly from Bidaram krishnappa or Mysore vasudevacar? One doesnt know (http://www.hindu.com/2001/04/17/stories/1317017d.htm )

.

Narayani of Dikshitar is placed under the sankarabhana mela and it joins the long list of rare derivatives of Sankarabharana such as Purvagaula, Chhayatarangini, Narayanadesakshi, Nagadhvani et al not counting in Kuranji and Navaroz . These ragas are no longer in circulation and as such their lakshana as codified in the SSP & the Dikshitar kritis in them are the only surviving corpus.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 30 Jul 2009, 16:26

There is a version of mahiSAsura mardinIm by Sri TVR in the sangeethapriya vault...not sure what 'version' it is, having never heard Chembai's version.

Rasika911 · Post by **Rasika911** » 30 Jul 2009, 18:18

Was there any tribute to her grandmother?

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 30 Jul 2009, 18:34

rajeevsid · Post by **rajeevsid** » 30 Jul 2009, 20:42

Thank you coolkarniji as ever ... A valuable comparision it is between chembai and TVR...very nice thanks..

Raviraj - I myself have heard her live and not on tape , so sorry I dont have a copy of that to share with you...

AI wonder, Is there an SSP compliant version of the narayani sung by any stage artist? MD Ramanathan or DK Jayaraman possibly?

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 30 Jul 2009, 21:07

rajeevsid · Post by **rajeevsid** » 31 Jul 2009, 07:18

yes surely.. Coolkarni Sir... Forgive me if I am wrong but the equivalent of Narayani in Hindustani is Gorakh Kalyan is'nt it? Waiting eagerly for an elaborate Narayani..
Regards

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 31 Jul 2009, 07:47

Rasika911 wrote:Was there any tribute to her grandmother?

A number of the items in the list were often sung by late DK Pattammal. A favourite recording of mine is of 'adigi sukhamu' sung by DKP and Lalitha Sivakumar (Nithyasree's mother).

gn.sn42 · Post by **gn.sn42** » 31 Jul 2009, 11:01

mohan wrote:A favourite recording of mine is of 'adigi sukhamu' sung by DKP and Lalitha Sivakumar (Nithyasree's mother).

I like this, er, rendering of Adigi Sukhamu: by Vijay Siva, available from Charsur.

karthikbala · Post by **karthikbala** » 01 Aug 2009, 11:15

raviraj wrote: Karthikbala : I would second Keerthi's request. Can you share a recording of the varnam as you learnt ?

I've uploaded the notation. I'd rather not upload any of my recordings, given my dim view of amateur renditions. If I can find a decent version, I shall share it. However, as I had learnt it from Bhagavatulu Seetarama Sarma, my patient guru, it is eminently possible that a recording by his student Sri TM Krishna exists. He has been known to draw from this vast repertoire of varnams, swarajatis in concerts. I can think of many such rarely-performed pieces; Mandari, Nayaki, Kadanakutuhalam, Kanada (Adi), Gaula, Mohana (Ata), Vasanta (pada) varnams, Yadukulakambhoji (varnam & swarajati) etc.

See:
http://charulathamani.com/clips/nv1.jpg
http://charulathamani.com/clips/nv2.jpg
http://charulathamani.com/clips/nv3.jpg
http://charulathamani.com/clips/nv4.jpg

knrh05 · Post by **knrh05** » 01 Aug 2009, 19:49

coolkarni wrote:http://www.mediafire.com/file/znktihgnn ... hembai.mp3

http://www.mediafire.com/file/zmxu2nnav ... ni-TVR.mp3

Sri Mudduswami Dikshitar has two songs starting with Mahishasuramardhini. TVR sings the gaula kriti Mahishasuramardhini mampahi. Chembai renders Mahishasuramardhini namami that is supposed to be Narayani but to me it sounds like Bilahari.