Sri. Sanjay subrahmanyan, Sri. Varadarajan, Sri. Venkatesh, University of Illinois at Urbana-champaign
Darbar varnam - chalamela
asAvEri - rArA mA inti dAka, S, thyagaraja
Begada - abhimAnamel, thyagaraja, R, S
Brindavana saranga - Soundararajam, MD, R
CharukEsi - RTP
Pallavi text: 'hE gOvind hE gOpAl rAkhO sharaN ab tO jIvan hArE' in kanta triputa
Thani
BehAg - karpagAmbikai nee allavA, Papanasam sivan
NAdanAmakriya - Ramalingaswami’s Petra thai thanai mahan marandhAlUm followed by Muthu Thandavar’s ArAr Asai padAr
Sindhu bairavi - shrutva gunan bhuvana-sundara shrinvatam te. . ., vizhikku thunai thiru men malar pAdangal followed by S.kalyanaraman’s thillana
mAnd - rAmanai bajiththAl
My thoughts onbrindAvana sAranga, chArUkEsi, and nAdanAmakriya that haunt my imagination long after the last notes have faded away...
In brindavana saranga, peacefully weaving in the delicacy of the melody with in depth decorative twists, expressively conveying the raga’s introverted and reflective moments sanjay proposed a meditative perspective. The telling aspect of the piece was how with a slow deliberation, he approached the exquisite composition with such introspection, merging lyrics, melody and the subdued rhythm, savoring the melodic nuances and the text with great reverence imbuing the work with freshness and undulant grace with the melody floating atop a stream of breathtaking notes with SriVaradarajan and venkatesh following his interpretive styles like a shadow.
The nocturnal melody chArukEsi folded out with contemplation and flirtatious insouciance. With creative flair he delineated the character of the raga in a few well-chosen phrases overlapping both the genres gracefully with swirling tempos hooking listeners in every note of his musicalsphere and the wistful thanam followed with two planes of momentum- initially clinging earnestly to the melody with an appealingly subtle and intentional silences between the elemental chants with the notes hanging in the air, followed by rapid-fire chants anchoring the power of the music and his vocal mesh creating a profoundly affecting and spine-tingling tension. The pallavi was a gracefully introspective narrative evolution of the texually transparent text,
‘hE gOvind hE gOpAl rAkhO sharaN ab tO jIvan hArE’ with a meditative urge coming out with a calm, steady heartbeat nourishing his melody as he exposed the text and melody within the mathematical framework of kanda thriputa thalam, commingling the textual and musical contents and squeezed out the inherent elemental power with hallucinatory intensity reaching the recesses of the soul.
In the ruminative piece ‘ArAr Asai padAr’, of melting lyricism, with discreetly toned down exuberance, phrases floating with airy delicacy sanjay brought out the poetic nuances with finesse and sensitivity with the melody standing still with the listeners, as if presented for contemplation...
Melodies that simply squeezed the gut"¦
Sanjay subrahmanyan, UIUC
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mahesh3
- Posts: 584
- Joined: 06 Feb 2010, 21:32
Amazing selections...and each one signature Sanjay....!
The thing about Sanjay now is how he has literally transformed the bar with which carnatic musicians can now be considered worthy of being "carnatic" musicians...taking the sensibilities of his audiences everywhere to literally a new level.....no wonder the world of today laps up the new younger generation Sandeep, Abhishek, Pandit rightaway with open arms......
Forget yesteryear I did not see GNB in his pomp, or Semmangudi in MA 1964 or Paghat Mani play to Chembai...but I sure am ecstatic to be here to witness the ethereal landscape that carnatic music is in today (circa 2009)......
The thing about Sanjay now is how he has literally transformed the bar with which carnatic musicians can now be considered worthy of being "carnatic" musicians...taking the sensibilities of his audiences everywhere to literally a new level.....no wonder the world of today laps up the new younger generation Sandeep, Abhishek, Pandit rightaway with open arms......
Forget yesteryear I did not see GNB in his pomp, or Semmangudi in MA 1964 or Paghat Mani play to Chembai...but I sure am ecstatic to be here to witness the ethereal landscape that carnatic music is in today (circa 2009)......
Last edited by mahesh3 on 02 Nov 2009, 08:05, edited 1 time in total.
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rajeshnat
- Posts: 10121
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04
kedharam
Three in a row of sanjay with kedharam, may be you are driving with him all along . Was there a ragamaliga swaras in RTP .UIUC is a bit curtailed concert when compared to chicago, nevertheless it rocked with brindavana sarangA , the university is considered the best or top 5 and brindavana saranga indeed is my top #1. Kudos to sanjay and team .
Three in a row of sanjay with kedharam, may be you are driving with him all along . Was there a ragamaliga swaras in RTP .UIUC is a bit curtailed concert when compared to chicago, nevertheless it rocked with brindavana sarangA , the university is considered the best or top 5 and brindavana saranga indeed is my top #1. Kudos to sanjay and team .
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kedharam
- Posts: 419
- Joined: 28 Sep 2008, 23:07
"Three in a row of sanjay with kedharam, may be you are driving with him all along."
I wish...we live quite far off from all these places ..
No ragamalika swarams in RTP...it would have taken away the chArukEsi effect..thank god...Yes, it looks curtailed from the song list but one did get a wholesome experience due to brindAvana sArangA, chArukEsi, very sanjayish begada, and nAdanAmakriya...quaint university town with great enthusiastic Indian student body who organized the concert...
I wish...we live quite far off from all these places ..
No ragamalika swarams in RTP...it would have taken away the chArukEsi effect..thank god...Yes, it looks curtailed from the song list but one did get a wholesome experience due to brindAvana sArangA, chArukEsi, very sanjayish begada, and nAdanAmakriya...quaint university town with great enthusiastic Indian student body who organized the concert...
Last edited by kedharam on 13 Nov 2009, 02:31, edited 1 time in total.
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vasanthakokilam
- Posts: 10958
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:01
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kedharam
- Posts: 419
- Joined: 28 Sep 2008, 23:07
VK, i am in your camp in that...still bharathi's 'Rathi' can be cast in different hues with ravishing beauty in a second...she did look stunning in jaijaiwanti...but a totally different game with 'gOvind"...after an hour of ornamenting Him in chArUkEsi, it is tough to strip him to the bare and bring him out in bAgEshri...
, i think...
, i think...-
rajaglan
- Posts: 709
- Joined: 29 Dec 2006, 21:34
hi,
Soundrarajam : I have never heard, def I miss it. Begada and anudinamu , my fav.
Brindavanasaranga and Charukesi and begada (main , rtp , submain), would have
disappointed me, a Purvikalyani or todi or bairavi or sankarabaranam would have filled the expectation. And definitely for a change this is fine. It is diffciult to understand what goes in the concert planning mind of Sanjay.
Actually it is not that yesteryear vidwans didnot want/know to do that. But just that they were
worried when majority of the rasikas know raga & krithis in the popular ragas like todi, kamboji,
bairavi, kalyani, mohanam etc..why make the concert unfamilar to them.
Soundrarajam : I have never heard, def I miss it. Begada and anudinamu , my fav.
Brindavanasaranga and Charukesi and begada (main , rtp , submain), would have
disappointed me, a Purvikalyani or todi or bairavi or sankarabaranam would have filled the expectation. And definitely for a change this is fine. It is diffciult to understand what goes in the concert planning mind of Sanjay.
Actually it is not that yesteryear vidwans didnot want/know to do that. But just that they were
worried when majority of the rasikas know raga & krithis in the popular ragas like todi, kamboji,
bairavi, kalyani, mohanam etc..why make the concert unfamilar to them.