Manasi Prasad - San Diego - 27th Mar 2010

[bilahari]

Manasi Prasad - Vocal
V.V. Murari - Violin
R. Thiagarajan - Flute
K. Sivakumar - Mrudangam
Cleveland Balu - Khanjira

Theme: Seenappa Nayaka to Purandaradasa
Duration: ~ 2h 15 min

VERY Approximate Songlist:

01. gajavadana bEDuvE - hamsadhwani - Adi
02. haNavE ninnaya (S) - mOhanam - Adi
03. etta pOdanammA (R) - shubhapanthuvarALi - Adi
04. Adadella oLitE - PUrvikalyANi - Adi
05. dAsarendarE purandara dAsaraiyyA (R, N @ EtanArtaninErA, S) - kAmbOji - khaNDa cApu
06. ellAnu ballE nembuviralla - madhyamAvathi - Adi
07. kallU sakkare koLLirO (R, N @ pallavi, S, T) - kalyANI - miSra cApu
08. jagadOdhArana - kApi - Adi
09. dAri yAvudaiyya (sketch) - sindhu bhairavi - Adi

This was the third concert in a row on Saturday after the student performance and the nAdhaswaram concert and as a result I was unable to concentrate (alas, I have discovered that there IS such a thing as too much music - aLavukku minjinAl...). I apologise in advance for this brief review and for the numerous mistakes I'm sure I've made with the songlist above. Please feel free to correct my errors.

This was a thematic concert and Manasi chose to present Purandaradasar's life via a series of compositions, briefly interrupting between the songs to explain the reason for choosing the upcoming piece and to give a synopsis of its meaning. She spoke rather quickly for me to take down everything she said (she communicates very clearly), so I will only comment on the musical aspects of the concert.

I entered towards the end of the mOhanam and was just in time for an interesting shubhapanthuvarALi ragam. Manasi often sang the madhyamam and nishadam plain, enhancing the Hindusthani feel of the ragam. The violinist responded in kind. Throughout the concert, the violinist and flautist took turns responding to raga alapanais, neravals, and swara prastharams, and I thought the synchronisation of this ensemble was very good and I have absolutely no complaints about the execution here. Manasi delivered a kAmbOji ragam that was replete with all its classical phrases and she often sang an interesting elongated descending slide to N2 that liberally brushed N3. Thiagarajan's response to the ragam was rather short and squeaky. The neraval was well done with nice sangathis around the tara G.

Manasi's kalyANi ragam was fine and noteworthy for the beautiful kArvai at the tara shadjam. I felt the classical, gamaka-laden kalyANi effect was missing in her rendition, however. A thorough neraval was presented for the krithi and the madhyamam was often sung plain in the subsequent swara prastharam, which included phrases like GSNM,M and DNM,M (last madhyamam plain in such phrases). The highlight of the concert for me was her rendition of jagadOdhAraNa, which was sung in vilamba kAlam and emoted nicely.

The percussionists lent good support throughout this concert and played a brief thani avarthanam for the kalyANi piece. The violinist and flautist were fine as well.

Manasi impressed me with her mellifluous voice, which reaches well into the upper registers. However, she hardly essayed any mandra sthayi sangathis and seemed to struggle even in mandra N2. I felt she did not sufficiently vary the kala pramanam in her concert, and all her ragas, krithis, and swaras were in the same gait, which made the presentation somewhat mundane to me. This is probably why I especially enjoyed the slower jagadOdhAraNa at the end. Since I was rather tired during this concert and could not concentrate on her music, I will reserve judgement on the manOdharma component of her music. She definitely did prepare a good presentation, though, and ensured that the concert progressed fluently even with the interruptions between krithis. I also appreciate her efforts to present two neravals in a two hour concert, something which only one other artiste did during the festival.

It was a fairly good concert.

[More reviews tomorrow.]

[Sreeni Rajarao]

Bilahari,
Thanks for writing about Manasi Prasad's thematic concert.

I will login again later today and make some corrections to the song list.

Sreeni Rajarao

[mohana]

Here are some corrections to the song list.
01. gajavadana bEDuvE - hamsadhwani - Adi
02. haNavE ninnaya (S) - mOhanam - Adi
03. etta pOdanammA (?) (R) - shubhapanthuvarALi - Adi
04. ADaDella oLitE - (R) PUrvikalyANi - Adi
05. dAsarendarE purandara dAsaraiyyA (R, N @ EtanArtaninErA, S) - kAmbOji - khaNDa cApu
06. ellAnu ballE nembuviralla - madhyamAvathi - Adi
07. kallU sakkare koLLirO (?) (R, N @ pallavi, S, T) - kalyANI - miSra cApu
08. jagadOdhAraNa - kApi - Adi
09. dAriyAvu daiyya (sketch) - sindhu bhairavi - Adi

[bilahari]

Mohana, thank you very much for your corrections. Are you from San Diego, and if so, impressions?
Sreeni, please feel free to correct anything that is still amiss.

[mohana]

Bilahari - yes, I live in SD attended all the concerts. look forward to more of your brilliant reviews, where you pour out your heart and mind.

Here is my impression of Manadi Prasad's concert.
Manasi Prasad neatly brought out the lyrical beauty with a lot of bhavam in all the songs - it was also a neatly planned concert with the right choice of PD kritis to fit the theme without any compromise to the technical aspects expected in a carnatic kutcheri . Kannada language is not a barrier for me - so I was probably able to appreciate the concert even more.

The Kalyani alapana, neraval and kalpanaswaras for the main piece - kallu sakkare koLLirO, is where she displayed good manodharma and that stood out for me. I agree that MP has a sweet voice and that she is able to do the thara shtayi sanchaaraas effortlessly - but there were noticeable shortcomings in the lower octave.

Overall it was fairly good concert and MP seems to display the determination and talent to work towards being considered as a serious carnatic artist.

[mohana]

couple more corrections... there may still be mistakes
08. jagadOdhArana (instead of jagadOdhAraNa- kApi - Adi
09. dAri yAvudaiyya (the words are split that way instead of dAriyAvu daiyya) (sketch) - sindhu bhairavi - Adi

[arasi]

Mohana,
Good to hear your impressions too. I think Manasi has a sweet voice and brings out the bhAva in of the songs in her singing.
Is it 'Adadella' in pUrvi kalyANi?

[mohana]

sorry didn't pay enough attention earlier. Yes, it is 'Adaddella' and not 'ADaDela'.

[Sreeni Rajarao]

Nothing left for me to make corrections! I was just about to agree with Arasi avaru that it is Adaddella oLite Ayitu, but Mohana beat me to it.

[mohanakalyani]

It was good whenever the shruti matched for manasi. For the flute and violin, the shruti didn't match most of the time. Manasi's range looks like doesn't go below the mandara Sa.

The fact that all kritis were kannada was great. She was able to put the emotion in the songs, and we could feel it.

[bilahari]

Thank you, mohana and arasi, for the corrections.

SD rasikas, I fully expect your comments on the other programs as well!