Sanjay Subrahmanyan@nAdopasana on July 12th,2011

[rajeshnat]

Sanjay Subrahmanyan@nAdopasana on July 12th,2011
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Vocal : Sanjay Subrahmanyan
Violin : RK Shriramkumar
Mrudangam : Tanjavur Ramadas
Concert duration/Day : 2 hours and 40 minutes / Tuesday

1. varnam "nenarUla eNi vAni" - balahamsa - patnam
2. samageetha priyan (S)- gowlai - TiruvarutpA
swaras for 4 mins

3. hari hari hari yani (R)- saraswati - W V B
6 mins alapana and 4 mins violin return
4. uLLam URugi URugi aNbu (R,S) - kanakAngi - SudAnanda bharathi
6 mins alapana,
8 mins swaras

5. kailAsanAthEna samrakshitOham (R N S) - kAmbOdhi - MD
8 mins alapana and 5 mins violin return
neraval in "cAru saracchandra kalAdharena" for 8 mins
swaras for 10 mins

Sanjay's repertoire is always his biggest asset . His concert of nadopasana was an exhibition of his asset . Sanjay at times also struggles to maintain a consistent shruthi sowkhyam , to an extent that weekness was also there in this concert

The first was a rare balahamsa varnam, the near 95% packed nadopasana hall was banging their heads inclusive of me . I was sure that he was not singing kedaragowlai , but my head did not get the forgotten balahamsa , he had to announce the rAga at the end . The balahamsa was started well in the second half little bit away from shruthi . THe second was a rare gowlai , I remember few years back I had an oppurtunity to hear the same at bharath kalachar , the gowlai krithi and swaras just did not gel that well with the percussion .

THe third number was saraswati ,I definitely mapped that rAga and his usual strength of intense alapana singing was just out , though Goddesss saraswati was not in full swing yet. THe krithi was a rare walajahpet krithi and I would have liked it better if had gone with few rounds of swaras or neraval , bit ended abruptly .One can say Sanjay had not yet kalakattufied in this concert

The pick of the day was indeed the kanakAngi #4 , though we are all acclimitized well with ganamurthi and vanaspathi , the melakarttha #1 and #2 is always skipped by musicians . I remember once I heard a wonderful ratnAngi by Smt Rajee Gopalakrishnan, and when Sanjay sang kanakAngi it was an absolute delight .Sanjay has in general a voice that cannot be continously impressive , but if he latches with a right intensity without losing shruthi it is wonderful and that was the case of kanakAngi .THe words of SNB were lovely in thamizh , it appeared bit modern and when he did swaras with kanakAngitha jyothi aRula , I was amazed with his kanakaNgi

The topsy turvy of kanakAngi started immediately with another Raga K the kAMboDhi. His alapana was intense though just for 7 mins and I found he was bit off shruthi there . WIth a rare kailAsanAthEna , it was a sure treat to hear , but alas when during neraval and swaras he went slightly berserk and I found his shruthi lapses very annoying, the usually highly expressive kAMbOdhi was negated with his shruthi sense.

[rajeshnat]

6. anandavalli - neelAmbari - ST
7A. ambA nAdu (R N S T) - todi - pallavi gOpala AIyer
11 mins alapana and 6 mins violin return
neraval in "VAmini vaishnavi sumangali nijamAgama sanchArini" for 7 mins
swaras for 7 mins
7B. tani for 11 mins

8. kalilO hari samrana - kApi - HMB
9. kuNDriN meedhu (Raga Sketch)- kamAs - bharathidAsan
10.samayamidhE rArA - behAg - patnam
11. dheem dheeem theem tanana ??? .. ambuja ?? - ANandabhairavi - ST??
12. pavamAna

The rarity continued with anandavalli and it was quite expressive and not the usual konjal of neelambari , perhaps I am assuming this neelambari has a relatively odd texture to the usual neelambari , nevertheless very good rendition.IIRC it had cittaswaras too.

The tOdi was a nadaswara vidwan treatment , his alApana was far better than the kAmbODhi . The krithi amba nAdu , i think was popularized by yesteryears vidwans like GNB,ariyakudi and I am not sure if I have heard this krithi from anyone else other than TNS in a live concert. When sanjay finished a fairly early R N S of kAMbOdhi , I was expecting RTP of todi , to an extent when he went to the krithi it was bit letdown as sanjay is an excellent tanam singer. The neraval lines of amba nADu had a very beautiful placing of sumangali , vaishavi , Vamini and sanjay gave a lot of expressive and bit restrained tOdi rasa and I liked it. Swaras of tOdi was just good , I was expecting bit more.

In the tukkadas I liked the rhythmmic kApi and the last thillana , kamas was good and his treatment of behAg could have been bit more delicate.

Accompanist:
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RKSK usually plays with TMK and it was a rare combination for him to play with Sanjay. THere was a bit of little extra press in his play but overall he was very good.

I missed the second percussionist as most of the time it was quite difficult for ramadas to continue to play with same assertion for both vocalist and violinist. Also a slightly less volume to violin and the same proportionate increase of volume to mrudangam would have given a more enjoyable experience.

After many months I am going to a concert during a weekday, it was an experience I cherish.All said and done, Sanjay is a gifted vocalist who gives a medlay of unheard songs, he has to watch a bit more in shruthi .

Overall a very good to excellent concert for 2 hours and 40 mins.

[mahavishnu]

very comprehensive review. thanks, Rajesh.

Yes, RKSK playing with Sanjay is getting unusual these days. They used to be inseparable through the 90s, but somehow they have not performed much together in recent years.

I somehow prefer Ramdas's mridangam without upapakkavadyam (although this may not be ideal in terms of division of labour). He does produce excellent nadam with a kappi instrument a la PMI.

Balahamsa varnam, Kanakangi, Sarasawati and relatively rare kritis in Kambhoji and Todi! This concert sounds like such a treat. Nadopasana is a good avenue for such a concert. You are lucky to get such a treat in July!

[grsastrigal]

Costly miss for me, though very near to my house. On a working day, coming back from office is very difficult. After Nagai joined in violin, RKS could not accompany Sanjay. Somehow Nagai has performed selected vidwans consistently/continuously like Maharajapuram Santhanam. Some of the kritis were unheard.

[bilahari]

I didn't know RKSK used to regularly accompany Sanjay in the 90s. I've only mostly heard him with TMK and they have excellent rapport.

Thanks for the review, Rajesh. The krithi list is typically varied and beautiful.

I like Tanjavur Ramadas - very sparse and understated playing. Would have been a nice change from the Sanjay-Neyveli Venkatesh combination.

[mahavishnu]

@Bilahari: RKSK and Sanjay have been playing together, to my knowledge, since their YACM days in the late 80s/early 90s. They did a few tours abroad, including prestigious venues like the Theatre de la ville in Paris; actively did lec-dems and even released 3-4 albums on Charsur as recently as 2003.

I would go on to say that in Sanjay's early days, RKSK was one of his most regular accompanists. HK Venkatram, Kumbakonam MR Gopinath being others. This was followed by a more diverse phase when he had all other top-ranking violinists accompany him, including Mysore Nagaraj, Manjunath and on the rare occasion even Dr. Narmadha, Bombay Gayatri (of Ranjani Gayatri), THS, Mullaivasal and others.

But in recent years (since about 2003) Sanjay almost exclusively performs with Nagai and S Varadarajan.

On another note, Arun Prakash who was also one of Sanjay's most regular accompanists, almost never plays for him anymore. Like RKSK, he is seen a lot with TMK these days.

I think most of this has to do with habits/routines/comfort zones that people get into and nothing else.

[mahavishnu]

FYI. Clips from this Nadopasana concert and the SKR memorial concert from last month are on youtube (uploaded by Sanjay's mobile device). The lens appears a bit myopic, but the audio is reasonably good.

http://www.youtube.com/user/sanjaymobileapp

[kunthalavarali]

ambA nAdu - todi was a Musiri masterpiece

[malavi]

Yes it was a real treat for sanjay s fans.There will always be some surprises in sanjay s concerts.Except for the kambodhi kriti and the javali in behag all the other were rare kritis.
kanakangi and todi were outstanding.neraval in todi wassuperb.ofcourse we missed the RTP.could spot a few musicians also there.
Sriramkumar and ramados supported sanjay very well.

[arasi]

We have been to many of Sanjay's concerts and still find that he brings to us more and more unheard songs to listen to.

Rajesh,
Yes, ST's Anandavalli is something else. You are right. That composition brings out the gAmbhIRyam of the rAgam. Sanjay sings it beautifully. Yes, it has chittaisvarams. He treated us with a leisurely Anandavalli at KalAkshetra last season. I have heard the sarasvathi kruti (hari hari hariyani) in Bengaluru and its another song which is very appealing to me. His kanakAngi is on youtube (last year's mArgazhi mahA utsavam). Bharathi dAsan which you heard is another new one!
I know what you mean by, 'wish he had given more time' to this or that. I feel that way too, sometimes. Yet, he takes up the same song for elaboration in another concert and another excellent kruti gets short-changed in that concert! If a four hour concert is possible, then this won't happen, and we will get an RTP on top it, for certain!

Mahavishnu,
You are so right about accompanists. All the reasons you give make sense as to why they don't remain the same for an artiste for long. If they are good, they are in demand and one instance of one accompanying another artiste may lead to more because the artiste likes him. Then the dates may not be free dates for the more or less regular accompanist--and the musical chair of accompanists is the result. While it's nice to hear certain combos (Varadarajan with Sanjay, for instance), when the accompanists rotate, it's a nice change--if they're very good. Though Sanjay with Varadarajan, Nagai is a popular combination, I think he sings with many different accompanists.
Think of all the percussionists who play for him too. I feel the same about Ramadas as you do. I don't miss an upa pakka vAdyam when he plays. It seems as if he's always there, without making much of a fuss.
You say there is a video of part of this concert on youtube. Thanks to Sanjay--he's sharing quite a bit of his music. Did you see/hear his National Program concert which he has put up on his blog?
His homage to Chengulpet Ranganathan (putting up a clip of the doyen's impressive brOchEvArevaru on his blog)is appreciated as well.

[mahesh3]

lets just say i prefer sanjay being inseparable with varadu what a dynamic combo along with neyveli.......

[MV]

Sanjay sang that Kanakangi kirtanam of Bharati with an elaborate ragam and swaram in MMU2010. He was in fine form that day-SNB was the theme. He also sang Beagda and a brilliant Kalyani. Lapses in sruthi and all, he is always an absolute pleasure to hear.

[mahavishnu]

Arasi: Yes, I liked his subtle tribute to Sri Chingleput Ranganathan on his blog too.

I am also very happy that Sanjay is sharing quite a bit of music, including the National program featuring Kavi Kunjara bharati's Siddhi vinayakane in Kalavati. We are still eagerly waiting for Sri V Sanjeev to upload the dwimadhyama composition in Kalasri when he gets around to it.

And yes, I'm glad another BhArathidAsan piece found its way into his concert repertoire, in addition to "thunbam nErgayil". Too bad Kanimozhi couldn't make it to the concert (sorry couldn't resist, no offense meant to anyone)!

[arasi]

Mahavishnu,
tunbam nErgaiyil tuyar SErkkalAmA? No offense!

[bilahari]

Mahavishnu, naughty dig at Kanimozhi!

[bilahari]

Oh, and I absolutely love the Sanjay-Varadarajan combination. But I do agree with arasi that singing with a variety of accompanists has a lot of value for both musicians and audiences.

[gardabha_gana]

I would like to hear Sanjay with RKSK. Also sanjay is about to release his website http://www.sanjaysub.com

[mahavishnu]

And he has also launched some kind of android/iphone mobile app. Costs $1.99 though!
https://market.android.com/details?id=c ... rch_result

[rshankar]

That ap is for serious groupies, I guess!

[mahavishnu]

Ravi: I fully agree. It is an interesting marketing experiment though. He has actually employed a designer/developer and he would be looking to recover the development costs minimally.

But seeing the interest that he has generated on facebook (he's not on there anymore) and twitter, it would be interesting to see how far the groupie/personality cult will go! Unfortunately, content that is built around a personality and not a broader concept (like sangeetham.com) has inherent limitations.

What concerns me more is the sustainability given the history of Sanjay's other projects, including Sangeetham. The podcasts were great, but they just abruptly stopped. The blog is wonderful, but the posts are sporadic at best. Given that he is one of the busiest artistes in the business, he probably does not have the time to see the projects through. I hope the mobile app and the sister website do not meet the same fate.

That said, I wish this project all success. Sanjay is one of the most "original" characters of our times.

[rshankar]

Ravi: I fully agree. It is an interesting marketing experiment though. He has actually employed a designer/developer and he would be looking to recover the development costs minimally.

Unless said designer was groupie #1!

[mahesh3]

[/quote]

When sanjay finished a fairly early R N S of kAMbOdhi , I was expecting RTP of todi
[/quote]

With RKS on the violin, bit of high expecation

[arasi]

Mahavishnu,
You are being quoted, I see, in a blog!

[mahavishnu]

Yes, Arasi. I noticed

I finally caved and out of sheer curiosity downloaded the iPhone app. It is rather nice. Has a lot of potential for content, with schedule updates, shout-outs etc which would be very useful during the music season.

There are a few hand-selected tracks on the app; a very nice Sankari Neeve in Begada and a link to several videos already on youtube. I wish more details of these tracks and why they were chosen would be nice to have. There is a detailed career time-line and biography of Sanjay, with milestones. Lots of interesting trivia there.

There is also a bio of his gurus, not very well written at this stage. I'm sure some rough edges in the writing will get ironed out soon.

This is a much nicer way of a modern Carnatic Singer (2.0) to stay in touch with his/her rasikas. Less self-obsessed than an facebook page and more equitable relationship than a "fan" site. So, this is not just for the groupie

Is it worth the $1.99? It depends on what spending principles you have, but I put more money into a downtown parking meter earlier today. But I do not own any other paid "app", not even iTanpura.

I hope the content gets updated at a greater frequency than "sporadically"!

[sridrect]

This concert was all about KANAKAANGI...Just mesmerising. The MASTER sang this song at BHARATI MOOVAR thematic concert at MMU2010. But this presentation of the same song was JUST OUTSTANDING ! The swaras was ABSOLUTELY HAUNTING - Kanakaangi has such a haunting vibration and with MASTER delivering it ....the experience was BLISS !

Expected a TODI RTP and was disappointed - but enjoyed the rare DIKSHITAR Krithi and also the neraval. The typical SANJAY Nickel (in Endhiran language) was also there when he announced "...Idhu Kambhoji"

RKSK did have some slip-ups that day and for me MASTER with NAGAI SIR or VARADU is absolute delight. The hall was full and on a week day and in JULY - that shows the strength of MASTERs rasikas.

PS: The concert being held at my Alma Mater is another add-on positive !!!