Sangeetha Ayyar for Ambalam/Rasayana, 06 Jan 2012

[ram]

http://ramsabode.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/sa_ar/


Vocal: Sangeetha Ayyar

Violin: V.L. Kumar

Mrudangam: R. Ramkumar



Venue: Ambalam, Yamuna Street, Besant Nagar, Chennai

Sabha: Ambalam & Rasayana



List of songs:

1) mAtru dEvO bhava (varNam) – nAgasvarAvaLi – Adi – mOhan ayyar

2) shrI mahAgaNapatE – AbhOgi – kanDa cApu – n.s. rAmacandran (OS)

3) aTukArAdani – manOranjani – Adi – tyAgarAjA

4) vishAlAkshIm – kAshirAmakriyA – misra chApu – muthusvAmi dIkSitar (ANS)

5) vipancyA gAyanti (viruttam) – sahAnA

shrI kamalAmbikAyAm – sahAnA – tisra tripuTa – muthusvAmi dIkSitar

6) nI pAdamE gati – naLinakAnti – rUpakam – g.n. bAlasubramaNiam

7) rAgam tAnam pallavi – kIravANi – kanDa tripuTa (2 kaLai) (T)

pallavi wordings: “gOvindA gOpAlA jagannAthA, harE krishnA hari”

eDuppu: 4 akSaram after samam, arudi: 14 akSaram

8 ) yA kundEndu (viruttam) – bhImpLAs

veLLai tAmarai – bhImpLAs – Adi – subramaNya bhArati

9) jAgO bansivAlE – lalit – Adi – mIrAbAi (O)

10) dhIm tadaratAni (tillAnA) – rAkEshrI – Adi – lAlguDi g. jayarAman

11) nI nAma rUpa mulaku (mangaLam) – saurAshTram – Adi – tyAgarAja



(Key: O=raga outline, A=raga alapana, t=tAnam, N=neraval, S=kalpana swaram, T=taniavartanam)

[rajeshnat]

Sangeetha Ayyar@ambalam(rasayana) on Jan 06th,2011
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Being a working day and a 6:30pm start missed about half an hour concert. I entered when she started paNtuvarAli (vishAlaksheem). The first impression that I got she has lovely sowkhyam and her alapana looped beautifully. It was a standard submain ,her neraval in kAsirAghni kapalini was well done , she in general was bit cautious in going to tarasthyai . Swaras in the submain definitely had a set of lovely patterns.

The next sahAnA was lovely, she got the oomph effect of serene sahana the most when she sang the pallavi lines of kamalAmbA navaavarnam, the build up of oomph with the earlier slokham was aesthetically well done. The next nalinakAnthi was a bit of mixed bag ,she did not get that krithi perfectly, the two cittaswaras were quite well done.She dedicated the GNB number to her Late Father Karaikudi S kannan who is her guru

To me the biggest hit was her keeravani, she sang first for a minute and handed over it to violin. She only had to ameliorate her throat and with her ameliorated throat the next 10 mins was really well done keeravAni .Right melody rAsa with controlled aggression that fits keeravani the best. Tanam was quite well done ,some musicians explicitly dont prefer roll of mrudangam and I think it was a choice and it was well done in madhyama kALam , no great high speed tAnam , still it was well presented.

Pallavi lines were nice in khanda jathi triputa and her swara patterns did not have any long cycles of exchanges , it was very creative with quite a lot of short bursts enjoyable. Apart from Kiravani , she sang nAttaikurinji (with that lovely descent ), the next in valaci was quite good and she went into behAg with a folkish touch. The return in reverse she went from behag to nAttaikurinji and then realizing she dropped valaci in between, came back again to valaci to nAttaikurinji and then to keeravani.

The violinist VL Kumar got the right kAlapramanam,gave right support in proportion but definitely the violin did not get that melodic nAdham, it was very squeaky that too perhaps keeravani being a main , i felt the violin could have far less squeaky tone.

R Ramkumar gave great support , I am seeing/hearing ramkumar getting more aggression which is wonderful, he is slowly getting the UKS fire . Tani was well done.

The crowd was very good, about 60 people I guess . TV Ramprasadh the host , suryaprakash, coolkarni were there. ambalam just rocks, they have got a great audio setup.

I had to leave at the end of tani , as I had a call , but definitely I would love to hear that lalith. Overall if I could say one thing that sangeetha can watch out to get better is to sing with little more abandon especially in upper reaches . But overall there is lot of sereneness in her music. I especially like this submain and RTP combination , it just gives me more satisfaction for a 2 hr concert , to that extent Mohan and Sangeeta have to be appreciated for doing what they did.I did know thru mohan the previous day that she will sing a pallavi.

4) vishAlAkshIm – kAshirAmakriyA – misra chApu – muthusvAmi dIkSitar (ANS)
5 mins neraval and 7 mins swaras

5) vipancyA gAyanti (viruttam) – sahAnA

shrI kamalAmbikAyAm – sahAnA – tisra tripuTa – muthusvAmi dIkSitar

6) nI pAdamE gati – naLinakAnti – rUpakam – g.n. bAlasubramaNiam

7) rAgam tAnam pallavi – kIravANi – kanDa tripuTa (2 kaLai) (T)

pallavi wordings: “gOvindA gOpAlA jagannAthA, harE krishnA hari”

eDuppu: 4 akSaram after samam, arudi: 14 akSaram

swara rAgamaliga in keeravani + valaci + nAttaikurinji + behag
ragam for 12 mins , violin return 8 mins , tAnam for 6 mins ,pallavi and swaras for 20 mins

[mohan]

Thanks for posting the song list, Ram, and for your uplifting accompaniment.

Thanks for the review, rajeshNat. Sangeetha was having some throat problems that day. This was the first season she has sung in Chennai and it has been a wonderful experience for her. Was great to see some people from Rasikas and some musicians (PSN, Suryaprakash) at the concerts too.

[rajeshnat]

Mohan
May I know the composer of 5) vipancyA gAyanti (slokkam not viruttam) – sahAnA

and 8 ) yA kundEndu (viruttam)– bhImpLAs, I heard that as a short ugabhooga till I got the kesari and pongal (is that in kannada language)

Also Did shri PSN come after I left or was he always seated in the chair in the back ?

[rshankar]

Great to hear the concert went of very well! Congratulations, Sangeetha! Lovely list.
I would love to hear Mohan's varNam...mAtru dEvO bhava.
Question for the cognoscenti - isn't it hindustAni tODi that maps to our SubhapantuvarALi?
Rajesh, yA kunda indu (kundEndu) is the first verse of a slOkam on sarasvati - it has a total of 8 or 10 verses!

[mohan]

Mohan
May I know the composer of 5) vipancyA gAyanti (slokkam not viruttam) – sahana

That is from the Soundarya Lahari. See E. Gayathri's commentary at http://egayathri.blogspot.com/2009/04/6 ... truth.html

Also Did shri PSN come after I left or was he always seated in the chair in the back ?

He was there at Sangeetha's previous concert at Mylapore.

Ravi, I'll try and upload a recording of the concert later.

[vasanthakokilam]

Sangeetha, Mohan, Ram, Rasayana team Congratulations! Sounds like a great concert. The song list is quite unique. Looking forward to the recording. Thanks.

Overheard a conversation at the concert from thousands of miles afar.

"pADaradu yAru?'

'ivA AustraliavlelllAm romba pugazh petravA, ippadAn modal daDavayA Chennaila pADara'

"Oh..."

[Sreeni Rajarao]

Another successful concert from rasAyana! Two in a row!

Congratulations to the performers and the rasAyana team!

Mohan,

looking forward to the recordings!

[PUNARVASU]

Congratulations to Sangeetha and the team for the wonderful concert. Would like to hear the varnam.
VipanchyA gAyanti- the slokam from Soundarya lahari is so beautiful. I t describes how ,when AMbal praised the playing of sarasvati on the veena by uttering a word, the veena took refuge under its cover because Her voice was much sweeter. What an imagination!

[bilahari]

I especially like this submain and RTP combination , it just gives me more satisfaction for a 2 hr concert , to that extent Mohan and Sangeeta have to be appreciated for doing what they did.

+1

Glad to hear Sangeetha's concert was a success and am also looking forward to the recordings! I'm sorry I wasn't able to catch S at Velachery.

Also, I've never heard this AbOgi kriti before. This is another ragam that doesn't seem to be favoured these days.

[rajeshnat]

Question for the cognoscenti - isn't it hindustAni tODi that maps to our SubhapantuvarALi?
Rajesh, yA kunda indu (kundEndu) is the first verse of a slOkam on sarasvati - it has a total of 8 or 10 verses!

You are spot on Hindustani tOdi = carnatic subhapaNtuvarAli.

[rajeshnat]

Also, I've never heard this AbOgi kriti before. This is another ragam that doesn't seem to be favoured these days.

There are many shri mahaganapathE , this one in AbhOGI is "sri mahaganapathe shri vallabhapathE" , search in sangeetapriyA you may get it. I have heard vidwan Maharajapuram santhanam rendering this.IIRC Even SKR and MLV render this, or wait till mohan uploads the recording.

[arasi]

Wish I had heard her too:( Better luck next time...
I did have the pleasure of meeting Sangeetha (of the sweet smile) twice, and Mohan as well!

Eager to hear the recording...

[rshankar]

You are spot on Hindustani tOdi = carnatic subhapaNtuvarAli.

Rajesh, then why is the mIrA bhajan at #9 indicated as lalit (SubhapantuvarALi)?

[varsha]

mIrA bhajan at #9 indicated as lalit (SubhapantuvarALi)?

problem no 1 - use of symbol "= " and use of term spot on -
problem no 2 - discussing this with reference to lighter stuff like bhajans

http://www.youtu.be/watch?v=sNNuvBgeIBg&feature=fvwrel

[mohan]

The bhajan was in lalit which is similar to subhapantuvarali / Hindustani Thodi without the pa. It takes both madhyamams.

[mahavishnu]

glad to hear of this concert. Look forward to the recording, Mohan.

[varsha]

for more clarity on lalith

TRS sings a composition of D Pattammal here .
http://www.mediafire.com/?zz8wekaf4am6jgt

and a small clip which guarantees removal of all confusion , if used as a ring tone for just a day
http://www.mediafire.com/?v7r2123mvw0devm
from Amir Khans concert - at around the 45th minute of A 70 Minute rendering .

[sreecons]

Congrats Mohan and Sangeetha Its always nice to hear about musicians from Down Under performing in Chennai during the season. All the very best.

[narayan]

The bhajan was in lalit which is similar to subhapantuvarali / Hindustani Thodi without the pa. It takes both madhyamams.

Mohan, Lalit is actually Mayamalavagoula or pantuvarali, but with two madhyamams instead of the pancamam. It is exactly Subhapantuvarali when suddha madhyamam is taken as the sa. I've written earlier also that this is a very mystifying effect. With the normal sadjam, for most carnatic listeners, it is a magical raga, with the two madhyamams creating a mesmerising and unusual effect. But since I'm also used to listening to songs in madhyama sruti, at some stage, my reference shifts and it just becomes subhapantuvarali and while it is still nice to hear, the magic disappears! I wonder if this happens to others.

[vasanthakokilam]

Narayan, just to make sure I understand right, are you referring to a self-induced and self-perceived sruthi bedam?

[srikant1987]

I find it hard to play shrI ranjani with sa-ma shruti ... suddenly I get bewitched by the "madhyama" shruti. I prefer having just the sa instead, reserving sa-ma for cenjuruTTi, punnAgavarALi and the like.

[narayan]

Narayan, just to make sure I understand right, are you referring to a self-induced and self-perceived sruthi bedam?

I guess that is one way of putting it. Especially Hindustani musicians tune the Ma string quite explicitly and loudly and when lalit begins, it has a great feel to it. Somewhere down the line, my mind does the shift and then it's just plain old subhapantuvarali. Nice, but not magical or anything.

[mohan]

Full concert recording available as a zip file at
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5340307/2012010 ... mbalam.zip

Varnam in nagaswaravali can be heard here at http://soundcloud.com/mohanayyar/01-var ... aswaravali