Vijay Siva - San Jose - April 18, 2010

[natakapriya]

I was only able to stay for part of the concert. did anyone else stay the whole way that can write a review and song list?

[gardabha_gana]

Can someone post the songlist ?

[hari2810]

Don't have the song list. However, thought I will post the few songs that I remember from the concert:

-- mayamalavagowla ("thulasi dala", IIRC)
-- "Rama Mathura Nagara...", which sounded like Harikamboji [Disclaimer: I am not good at ragam identification.. I can kinda identify about 10-15 ragams only.. so I could be wrong about the ragam]
-- saveri - "sankaru sankari" - was the sub main
-- kapi - "intha soukhya" - was main (tani for this)
-- RTP in purvi kalyani
-- virutham ending in jonpuri

I left after jonpuri -- as I was leaving he was announcing that he is going to sing the Rukmini Swayamvaram from Narayaneeyam.

This list probably has at least 2-3 songs missing as I can't remember them now.

-Hari

[barrakooka]

This is my first post, I sometimes silently read the discussions here as I'm not a good writer nor had valuable information to share. Now I decided to post because I felt that the concert of Vijay Siva was really really fantastic and I had full satisfaction when coming out (though I do not know much of nuances or technicalities, one can feel the pleasantness or dullness in concerts). I do not note down the songs/ragams list in the concert, I'll just post whatever I could recall.

Some addition to the list mentioned above by hari2810. As I forgot the exact order, I'll just bullet them but they should be roughly in the order I write:
-- Pagavari - Hamsadhwani varnam - Patnam Subramanya Iyer (I think)
-- Thulasi dala - Mayamalagowla - Thyagaraja - Swarams
-- Rama Mathura Nagara - Karaharapiya (if I'm right)
-- kamalambikayam (started with a slokam) - Sahana - Muthuswamy Dikshitar
-- Shankai Shankuru - Saveri - Shyama Sastri (I think) - Ragam, Neraval
-- Brova Barama - Bahudari - Thyagaraja
-- Intha Sowkyamu - Kapi - Thyagaraja - Long alapanai, neraval, swaram, thani
-- RTP Purvikalyani (till I saw hari's post, I wasnt sure if it was panthuvarali or purvikalyani ) - not-a-long alapani and thanam
-- Virutham in 3 ragas (forgot those) with ending in Jonpuri and followed by "Eppo Varuvaro"
-- ?? (from Narayaneeyam)
-- ??
-- Vittala salaho - Desh ragam
-- A patriotic song (on Gandhiji coz it had words like "desa pitha") - Sindhu Bhairavi

Interesting points I noted
- Did not rush the swarams in mayamalagowlai, excellent to hear (normally I have heard ppl try to sing superfast swarams in this ragam)
- Karaharapriya alapana had some a new phrase each by Vijay Siva and RK Shriram Kumar (from what I have heard the ragam so far)
- kamalambikayam was first class, with full Bhavam, and perfect silence in the hall and perfect accompaniment from JV (J.Vaidyanathan) and RKS, it was perfect and I felt like the krithi should never end, lol (one could recall how superb DKJ would sing and how Vijay sings equally well)
- Brova barama was fast I felt, but that spped was needed to life the mood, and this showed how good artists could present same songs with different moods.
- Traditional Kapi - some known did not come into picture but some known phrases were sung with fantastic intonation that it sounded like new phrases and created excellent effect (well, is that possible or am I missing something). Very very good swarams. No flashy uses or repeating things again and again.
- My small mind was already fileld it Kapi and not that brisk to listen to another RTP, I thought a fast piece inbetween could have been better, but no regrets for this wonderful concert
- My friend and myself confused between purvikalyani and panthuvarali (and I decided it was panthuvarali as I try finding ragams by popular phrases and not able to find a few purivkalyani phrases i know, not that i know a lot panthuvarali phrases also )
- Eppo varuvaro, very interstingly, the first stanza had some lyrics that I have never heard before (in bhajans or concerts). and he did not sing "narparuvam vandhu" stanza but sang 2 other stazas that I hear only in bhajans usually ("balakrishnan potri" and "alpa suga vazhvil")
- I'm used to hearing "Vittala salaho" in bhajans in a different raga in a brisk pace, but this was really really good. and with Vijay occassionally using his jalra, it was really cool
- One thing I noticed was that, after roughly half the concert, few seats in front me were vacant and when I tried looking behind, may more seats were vacant. I haven't atteneded many concerts in san jose but after seeing house-full crowd for mandolin srinivas' concert in a bigger hall, and also given that vijay's concert was in a smaller hall, I was wondering why would everyone not attend this concert. Infact, I went half an hour early and stood in queue to catch the front seats.

Though not an expert or connisseur in this field, I have just presented my views, in case you disagree, please feel free to throw light on what I need to know more

[gardabha_gana]

Thanks for the postings. After moving back to Bangalore after 17 years in the bay area most of which as a SIFA sponsor - wondering how the concert was and how the crowd was. I am surprised - the bay area crowd is discerning and I expected a high turnout. I am disappointed.

We had a wonderful concert in Blr as part of the ramanvami with Bhairavi (Kamalambikayam) main and Vachaspati (paratpara - submain) and Atana sub-submain with the same team. The three of them being DKJ disciples - it is a treat to see how they expect each other. Vijaya Siva's concerts leaves one behind with soukhyam. well planned concerts and a real treat.

[hari2810]

I agree it was an excellent concert. I was trying to remember all the songs with an alapana / neraval, forgot about the sahana song. Yeah, it was beautifully sung.

About the crowd. It does not help much that the concerts these days are on Sunday evenings. And this one started about 30 minutes late. Yes, U Srinivas was also on Sunday evening, but big names (like U Srinivas) tend to attract larger crowd. I remember seeing a few friends at that concert who typically attend only semi-classical / film music concerts.
But I would still say the attendance was decent enough. It was almost full for half the concert, and when I left after the Jonpuri song, it was about 60-70% full.

[gs1968]

Thank you barrakooka for the review. It appears like Sri.Vijay Siva has started his tour on a fantastic note. Your review is very good for what happens to be your first post. It is nice to know song lists of concerts so one can anticipate the songs in forthcoming concerts. Our turn is on May 15 at Philadelphia and the days cannot go by quickly enough!
I saw some discussion above about the size of the crowd but I feel that at this stage of his career, that is probably immaterial. He has defined his audience and the audience has defined him. It is unlikely that he is going to change his style or resort to gimmickry to draw large crowds. His style and approach have helped him to have a very successful if not glamorous career. A sampling of phrases from reviews of concerts on this tour from you, 1920veeyens, bilahari, mohanakalyani etc include
soukhyam,mana niraivu, satisfaction, fantastic, pleasant (same sentiment in various languages!) if people fail to attend such concerts-it is their loss.

[cmlover]

Vijay Siva is a great scholar musician who is a potential future SK. His strengths are is sahityam/viruttams and strict classicism. Of late he appears to be singing for himself rather than for the Rasikas. Nothing wrong with that, but that he is jeoparadizing his chances of becomng a SK almost like our legendary MDR which is a tragedy. He is not old enough to seek 'atmArAmam' and fade away ignoring Rasikas' high expectations of him

[mahakavi]

>> Our turn is on May 15 at Philadelphia <<
gs1968:
Our turn in Raleigh is on May 16, so don't hold him for long after the concert. Send the team to RDU expeditiously.
I like Vijaya Siva's rendition of dEvi kritis, especially those of MD