Hyderabad Brothers@Mylapore arts academy, Nov 26th,2011

[Neeraja veni]

Dakshinamurthy Auditorium, P.S.High School, Mylapore,Chennai

Sri.D.sesha chary & Sri.D. Raghava Chary – vocal
Sri Delhi Sundara Rajan- Violin
Sri.Thiruvananthapuram Balaji-Mridangam
Sri.K.V.Gopala Krishnan- Kanjira

1.Era naapai-Thodi varnam-Adi- Patnam Subramanya Iyer
2.Palukavademira-Devamanohari-Adi-Mysore Vasudevachar
3.Lavanya Rama-Purnashadjam- Rupakam-Tyagaraja
4.Visalakshim viswasri bhajare manasa- Panthuvarali-Mishra chapu-MD

The rain outside and the occasional thunder kept company to Panthuvarali. One could see the sheet of rain bathing the trees and earth outside from the open doors of auditorium. Listening to panthuvarali during rain (or even better, after the rains, in the still of the night with the occasional drip-drip sounds of the remnant rain drops) is my idea of bliss. It was a refreshing change from the closed A/C auditoriums. Music soaked the rain more


Bliss indeed it was listening to the alapana by the brothers. The reposeful alapana of Sri Sesha chary adhered perfectly to the sruti. Even the rain obliged him for a while by drizzling softly. The beautiful alapana blended so well and seamlessly with Sri Raghava Chary’s alapana and Sri Raghava chary sang very well. His alapana was melodious. The jathi that is built in to this was very good. . Niraval at Kasiraagni kapalini, Vimochadayini, Varini .
5. Sathguru swamiki- Reethi Gowlai-Adi-Tyagaraja
6. Mohana Rama-Mohanam- Adi-Tyagaraja.
Alapana was sung by Sri Sesha Chary. Mohanam is not in my favourite ragam list. But as I listened to his alapana I also realized that Mohanam with its limitation of 5 swarams can get to be quite difficult to deal with elaborately. Sri Sesha chary sang some nice mandarasthayi prayogams, he touched anumandra shadjam and stayed there sounding very good. skipped the usual GPGGRS, RGRRSD bits and went to upper shadjamam and worked around it in detail. The kalpana swara patterns were interesting and sounded very good . Sri Raghava chary sang swarams with great verve and precision. He brought in the right mix of gamakams and the flat notes which were really good. It was really good to see Sri Delhi Sundara Rajan after quite some time. The violin wasn’t much audible initially but he perked up in panthuvarali. He played a clear Mohanam and was much appreciated by the vocalists. The animated thani was also appreciated and enjoyed as is clear from what followed.
7. Valapulu valapulu vayyali- Ahiri- Annamacharya. This was composed by Annamacharya and was usually sung in a chirpy, delightful tune usually sung by little girls when they play among themselves. Later it seems to have evolved in such beautiful Ahiri. I was told that Sri.Sesha chary himself set this to tune in Ahiri.

8.Ekkadi nesthamo -saranga-Misrachapu- Kshetrayya
9. Kasikku poyene- Mukhari-Misra chapu- Muthu natesar.
10. Samayamidhe –Behag- Rupakam-Patnam Subramanya iyer
11. Ini enna pechchu? Ellorkkum nagaippaachu ! – Sahana – Vaideeswaran Koil Subbarama Iyer
12.Mangalam-Nee nama rupamulaku-Tyagaraja
All post mains were simply great, especially the exquisite ososi.

Sri Sesha Chary paused for a while after the thani and spoke about Sri Palghat Raghu. He turned quite emotional reminiscing the days Sri Raghu played such excellent thanis for their concerts. He remarked that only he knew how exactly to fill the gaps in krithis. He referred to him as the` number one mridangist’ and his playing was not just Aanandam but Brahmaanandam. Having said this he said he was reminded of Sri Raghu when he heard Sri Thiruvananthapuram Balaji. He said that we need not think Tyagarajaswamy, Dikshithar , Syamasastri and also musicians like Sri Palghat Mani or Raghu are no more in this world but they all exist in the excellent music some musicians sing or play, like in today’s playing by Sri Balaji.
Sri Sesha Chary seemed to speak from his heart and the encouraging talk he gave Delhi Sunderarajan and the kanjira vidwan K.V.Gopala Krishnan was nice to hear. He expressed his heartfelt happiness in seeing Sri. Delhi Sundara Rajan again in concert circuit. He blessed him and wished him luck.

[keerthi]

ekkaDi nEsTaM ekkaDi nenaru is in sAranga, not hamsanAdaM. It is such a pleasure to see it in a songlist. It is like seeing an old, near-forgotten friend after a long while.

[ganeshkant]

he touched anumandra shadjam and stayed there sounding very good

I am bit confused.I think it must be mandhra shadjam.The usual SPS is taken as madhya sthAyi and below the madhya S downwards it is called as mandhra ni,etc.So anumandhra S means one more octave down from the mandhra S.Am I right folks ?

the ghatam vidwan K.V.Gopala Krishnan

Did he play both kanjira & ghatam that day ?

[harimau]

Dakshinamurthy Auditorium, P.S.High School, Mylapore,Chennai

Sri.D.sesha chary & Sri.D. Raghava Chary – vocal

4.Visalakshim viswasri bhajare manasa- Panthuvarali-Mishra chapu MD

Visalakshim Viswesim Bhajare Re Manasa - Kasiramakriya

Niraval at Kasiraagni kapalini, Vimochadayini, Varini .

Kasiragnim Kapalinim Vinodajalinim Varinim

[KV.Gopalakrishnan]

@ ganeshkant : I played the Kanjira only!

[VijayR]

@ ganeshkant : I played the Kanjira only!

KVG, in addition to the wonderful kanjira sounds, I am also looking forward to some super photographs this season! Hope your camera is all charged and ready to go...

[Neeraja veni]

My,My! So many brickbats. Thanks Keerthi (the saranga was indeed very, very, lovely), Ganesh Kanth and of course, Sri.KVG. My apologies to you about the ghatam vidwan `sodappal'. The sound from the kanjira you played that day was very good..

Thanks Harimau for correcting my a-sanskritised version of the neraval ! I did a bit of reading on this (SRJ and the musicologist Dr.Bhagya lakshmi) and she mentions that ``kamavardani is named kasiramakriya in the asampoorna mela padhdhathi. this is also called panthuvarali. According to dikshithar school this is also called Ramakriya or Kasiramakriya''.(quoted verbatim).

Interestingly another Kasiramakriya is listed seperately which is described as an apoorva ragam derived from kamavardini with vakra in arohana-sgrgmpdns.Only 5 compostions are listed all of which are composed by the 3 different dikshithars(Subbarama, Muthuswamy and ambi).

Visalakshim is listed under kamavardini aka panthuvarali aka kasiramakriya.

What ever it was, I am very sure that i did not hear any vakra prayogam in arohanam that day and it was a satisfying panthuvarali! ``whats in a name? a rose smells just as sweet....."' Thanks for making me read up . I hope some one will throw more light on this.

[harimau]

I have heard that Kasiramakriya does not allow sancharam above the tara sthayi gandharam whereas Pantuvarali does.