Vocal: Ashvin Bhogendra a.k.a Ashvin D B
Violin: Jayashankar Balan
Mridangam: Trivandrum V Balaji
Extremely satisfying concert. I have seen artistes dilute the music when they present it to predominantly western audience (a previous concert this semester at Purdue being a case in point - will refrain from naming the artiste) but Ashvin sang as if it was a concert being held in Mylapore
Song list:
1. chalamEla - darbAr varNam - Adi
2. dEva dEva kalayami - mAyamALavagowLa (N,S) - rUpakam
3. nAdupai balikEru - madhyamAvati (R,S)
4. chEta sribalakrishNam - jujAvanti (short sketch)
5. paridAnamicchite - bilahari - khanDachaapu
6. kalyANi main piece (apologies, forgot to note down the lyrics - not a popular composition according to my limited knowledge) - thani
7. slOkam - kEdAragowLa, varALi, durga - followed by a composition by Sri Dayananda Saraswathi with the lyrics 'rAmam bhaje shyaamam manasa, rAmam bhaje shyAmam vachasa' in durga
8. ennathavam seidhane - kApi -Adi
9. rEvati tillAna by Shri LGJ
10. mangaLam
From the very beginning, it was extremely impressive. Darbar varNam was rendered with a short sketch. Impressive neraval and teermaanam with swarams in dEva dEva kalayAmi. The madhyamaavati alaapanai was very impressive. jujAvanti kruti was rendered with a lot of bhAvam and with a lot of emphasis on perfect diction. A racy bilahari kruti led to the main piece in kalyANi. Fairly longish neraval with a short round of swarams owing to the lack of time.
What impressed me the most was his shruti shuddham, no gimmicks and wonderful sense of diction. And, Jayshankar Balan fit the role of an accompanist perfectly. Gave short replies to Ashvin's alapanais and swarams for he seemed to enjoy Ashvin's singing. Shri Balaji played a wonderful thani, had a lot of 'aha! bhale' moments - but being a layashoonyam, didn't understand the intricacies. After the thunderous thaniavarthanam, he switched gears and played so softly to the tukkaDa in durga. All in all, an extremely impressive concert!
Anyway, wonderful concert in music starved midwest. I really hope he performs more often both in India and here. In my humble opinion, a worthy heir to his grandfather Shri T K Rangachari!
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A few (minor) cons:
1. Somehow, I am not comfortable with the 'dEva dEva kalayami' piece sung as 'dEva dEva kalayamite' and then 'charaNaambuja sEvanam'. Somehow, I feel it robs the beauty of a wonderful composition.
2. For the first couple of pieces, Shri Balaji seemed irritated by the effect AC had on his thoppi. And, magically after the second piece, it was perfect!
3. Was expecting a pallavi, but then again, too much to expect!
. Thank you for the review sreebeecane