Vasudha kEshav@IIT Madras on Feb 3rd,2010

[rajeshnat]

Vasudha kEshav@IIT Madras on Feb 3rd,2010
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Vocal : VasudhA kEshav
Violin : HN Bhaskar
Mrudangam : kallidakurichi sivakumAr
Ghatam : N Guruprasad

Sponsors : IIT Madras KannadA association
Occasion : PurandAradAsar thematic concert, hence all dAsar compositions
Concert duration : 2 hour 15 minutes

1A. ugabhoogA "manmanO ishTa vaRaDham" - hamsadhwani
1B. gaja vadana bEduvE(N,S) - hamsadhwani
neraval for 4 mins in sarsijanAbha shri purandara vithalana
swaras for 5 mins
2. mUrthi eNu nilisO (rAga sketch)- harikAmbOdhi

3A. ugabhoogA "krishnAya vAsudEvAya" - madhuvaNti
3B. narajaNma - madhuvaNti

4A. alApanai of varamu
7 mins alApanai , 5 mins violin return
4B. ugabhoogA "hagaLu nina nennAyaLLA" - varamu
4c. yEnO bandyO jeevavE (R,S)- varamu
swaras for 5 mins

5. yEnagu vANE rangA nivaguvAna - kEdAram???
6A.nambi keTTavar iLLavO (R N S T)- kalyAni
12 mins alApanai , 6 mins violin return
neraval for "ambuja naabana akhila lOkEshana" 9 mins
9 mins swaras
6B. tani fro 10 mins

7A. ugabhoogA "hadidarE eNNudaya hAdurE" - darbAri + jujAvanti + hamsAnandi
7B. hariyanu nenna yEda - hamsAnandi + sahAnA + dhanyAsi + mohanam
8. mangalam jaya mangalam

This is my second concert of this vidushi and incidentally this also is my second exclusive purandaradAsar concert that I am listening (a year back I had a chance to listen to Bangalore shankar, I thought I could search and put the link here but search is still not working ). vasudhA has always a voice resembling smt arunA sayeeram at many places that too when she stresses few phrases that too in ubabhoogA.

The start was an emotive ugabhooga in hamsadhwani with a lovely presentation of gajavadana bEduvE , neraval was a bit of surprise as I have not heard this neraval in this krithi,the usual volley of swaras in hamsadhwani was well done.

A brief krithi in harikAmbOdhi was bit short nevertheless well done. A lovely madhuvanti followed what a rAga it is it just gives a resplendent coat to the whole concert ,emotively madhuvanti dressed with a short ugabhooga and a famous krithi of PD followed which I enjoyed a lot

The submain was varamu and was neatly sung and I was more sure that it was only varamu and not hindOlam. A nice emotive ugabhooga with smt arunA sayeeram touch or can I say KB sundarambAl singing a PD ugabhooga was well done , the swaras were apt and well done. The days filler was kEdAram?? and this number was more like a bhajana sampradAya song , to me carnatic concert for few minutes became a panduranga vitalla bhajanA concert.

Usually all thamizhnadu based singers generally sing this usual and ubiquitous kalyAni nambi kETTavar as submain and then usually they jump to post thukkadas of PD like venkatAchala nilayam or bhAgyAda , I was slightly put off with kalyAni as I felt being an exclusive PD concert she could have sung a more unheard main. But nevertheless kalyAni was sung beautifully it was chiseled step by step in rAga followed it very well in neraval and a nice range of swaras, certainly to keep me personally interested in kalyAni is difficult but vasudhA balanced and kept me glued.

The pick of the day was the rAgamAliga ugabhoogA is was outstanding one very very emotive I felt I knew the kannada language , I atleast got the message cascading with a volley of beautiful rAgas in darbAri , jujAvanti and hamsAnandi. THe contrast of the finishing krithi was in ragas like sahana dhanyAsi etc which are more the staple of slokhams and viruththams was exceptionally noteworthy.

HN Bhaskar played very well and gave an able support . The concert was a success because of fairly well set teamwork of the percussionist kallidakurichi and guruprasad teamed up well.

Overall the concert started 15 minutes late ,despite the artist arriving on time and the mike was all set. Bharath gave a nice and crisp intro , I wish in future the concerts start on dot time , when academy does that why cant a prestigious institution like IIT madras not do it. Auditorium was as usual dressed clean in blue seats and the sound setting was well set, IIT-CLT is just unbeatable in visual ambience and sound setting.

Overall it was very satisfying concert and it was very good to excellent for 2 hours and 15 minutes.

p.s
Can somebody help how her name is to be written is that vasudha keshav or vasuda kesav or vasudhA kesav(mridhangam balaji if you can help that would be great)?

[srikant1987]

Can somebody help how her name is to be written is that vasudha keshav or vasuda kesav or vasudhA kesav(mridhangam balaji if you can help that would be great)?

Vasudha Keshav is how she spells her name. The pronunciation is vasudhA kEshav+, but since these both are rather well-known words, and also form reasonably common names, and are here forming the name of a reasonably popular artist too, you can use the English grammar of using uppercase for the first letters and lowercase for others.

+ I use sh for shankara, shravaNa etc. and Sh for Shanmukha, manuShya etc.

[arasi]

mUrutiyanu nilliso madhava was taught to me in kamAs. The original was perhaps in hari kAmbhOji as sung by Vasudha Keshav.

[kmrasika]

8. mangalam jaya mangalam

Is this the one in dhanyASi? The starting words are "jaya mangalaM nitya Suha mangaLam..."

[rajeshnat]

The last mangalam was in shuruTTi

[rbharath]

It is apparently Vasuda Kesav as clarified by her...

[srikant1987]

It is apparently Vasuda Kesav as clarified by her...

:$ ;( :$ :$ I'd gone by the telephone directory, thought they'd have taken measures to keep spellings the artists want ...

[arasi]

I am afraid Vasudha (Vasuda?) has to wait a while before she sees her name in print as she spells it. Look at even more senior vidvAns and vidUshis putting up with several avatars of their given names in print! Even a simple name like that of MMI is not immune from this--Moni Iyer is one. These errors can happen even on sleeves of recordings.
Our names yield to all kinds of spellings--another reason is that people do not pay much attention to the particular way in which an inividual chooses to spell his/her name. My short name is subject to it too