Vijay Siva@Music Academy on Dec 17th,2012

[rajeshnat]

Vijay Siva@Music Academy on Dec 17th,2012
----------------------------------------------------------------
Vocal : Vijay Siva
Violin : RK Shriram kumar
Mrudangam : J Vaidhyanathan
Kanjira : Alathur Rajaganesh
Concert duration/Day : 2 and 1/2 hrs /Monday

Concert Type : Evening II

1. Pagavari Bodhana - hamsadhwani - Patnam Subramania Iyer
2. Ora jupu(N,S) - kannadagowlai - T
3 mins neraval in "dIna rakSaka shrta mAnava san-tAna gAnalOla"
swaras for 3 mins

3. shree sundararAjam (R,S) - kAsirAmakriya - MD
5 mins alapana and 4 mins violin return
4 mins swaras

4A. slokham "gAndharvAnara" - yadhukula kAmBOdhi
4B. kAmAkshi - yadhukula kAmbhodhi - SS
5. seetAmmA - vasantA - T

7. shree kamalAmbikAyah (R N S) - bhairavi - MD
11 mins alapana in bhairavi
neraval in "nAda maya sUksma rOOpa sarvasiddhi" for 11 mins
8. nAn kaNdEn kali theerNdhEn - kalyAni - GKB


Musicians can atleast get compartmentalized as two .One who pays more attention to extreme creativity and the other who tries to bring balance with showcasing compositions that have reached extreme satifaction to rasikas ears .Vijay Siva as a musician is of a later type and his academy concert was a real cracker .

Vijay's voice was in fine fettle and JV's mrudangam was brilliant. The start varnam was very good and he rolled into kannadagowlai flyer ora jUPu. The neraval was rare but definitely brought in a kalakattufied effect and from there vijay looked he had latched into a real zone of excellence.

KAsirAmakriya rAgam was concise and the krithi rendition was very good as a submain.When vijay sang a verse in yk kAmbOdhi and rolled to kAmAkshi swarajathi , it just bought goose bumps in me .What a lovely yk kAmbOdhi it was , he caressed it and I liked for his perfect diction,shruthi adherence, muse when every time kAmAkshi is dropped and real balance rock solid support of pakkavadhyams .Incidentally the same vijay sang this swarajathi in our rasikas concert on exclusive shyama sastri when it was conducted in agastheeswarar temple in nungambakkam. Swarajathi in yadhukula kAmbodhi was perfect and I always long to hear this number.

The fast filler seethAmmA was just good , vijay could have perhaps sung swaras there but he skipped.Bhairavi main was lovely, enjoyed his rendition and the neraval was concise .There was so much sowkhyam in early part of his neraval when there was demonstrable mandara sthAyi sangathis, what can I say when JV callibrated so beautifully his volume of mrudangam. The filler in kalyAni was a quick pass, it was a rare kalyAni krithi in GKB.

[rajeshnat]

9A. RTP in chArukEsi
7 mins each for alApana and tAnam
14 mins for pallavi and swaras
pallavi line was "padam eNru nambinEn ammA umA niNathu pangayya"
swara ragamaliga in chArukEsi + hameerkalyAni + kuntalavarAli
9B. tani for 13 mins

10A. slokham "tAmudhbhUtam" - bilahari +nAyaki?? + neelAmbari
10B. mAdhava mAmava - neelAmbari - NT

11. Aadi pushpathiyAgi - kurinji??? - ???
12. jAnaki nAthA sahAyakarE - ??? - tulsidas

13. ending with phrases like shivatkaryEya lOkham - yamunAkalyAni + revati + dEsh+ sindhubhairavi - Adhishankarar???
14. swasti praja - mangalam

RTP was a very restrained chArukEsi , there was not real vigour but there was balance .Alapana was bit too concise , tAnam was non metered and he sang it well. THe pallavi and swara ragamaliga had its share of usual restraint and swaras rolled very well from charukesi to hameer and to kuntalavarAli. He did something very creative in doing trikAlam with swaras-perhaps someone else can write on what I am missing as I unable to express it right.

The ragamAliga slokham ending with neelAmbari madhava mAmava was crisp. To bring in a pan indian effect he perhaps took up tulasidas bhajan , i did not get that rAga .He sang another meditative number with ending phrases shivatkaryeya lokham and it was very meditative bit away from carnatic more bordering on chanting mantra.

RKSK violin strings were perhaps bit too stiff ,till the first few numbers there was a bit abrasive tone. But he peaked up very well from midway and gave a lot of lung space by playing longish returns to vijay's volley.

Apart from Vijay, the real hero was indeed JV.What sowkhyam and there was also so much of controlled aggression . He has learnt from TK Murthy and incidentally for me it was a front to back concerts of two mrudangist JV and B Sivaraman. JV always impresses me ,no wonder the greatest crowd puller like aruna sairam keeps him as her stock mrudangist.Every beat had a shruthi sowkhyam and alAthur rajaganesh also rocked . Alathur rajaganesh usually comes only during kutcheri season and he is a real star in the making

On a side note , Vijay is slowly entering from a senior to a super senior status . This is the first time I did see him keeping a sishya who also sang in the mike (He is not N Harish, but Some one else whose name I would like to know). It really helped vijay, For eg he had enough lung space to sing bhairavi neraval where I did hear the sishya singing too prior to bhairavi neraval.The great news is Vijay is ageing right , I meant "musically ageing right" .Atleast few stalwarts like santhanam,KVN and ofcourse DKJ have created consistency and quite honestly vocal support is the key for sustained longevity to have consistent quality.Vijay is personally my #2 favourite of today's musician and I am glad that I attended his concert and took a day off.

Overall an excellent to outstanding concert for two and half hours.

[shankarabharanam]

Thanks for the review rajesh.. I was waiting for the review here. My friend who attended this concert was raving about it and said the Yadukula Kamboji simply moved him. Had I been in Chennai would have definitely attended this but can just listen to the recordings of the above mentioned songs and be happy

[PUNARVASU]

The concert timing 'evening I and evening II'- does it mean the 5 pm and 8 pm concerts respectively?

[mahavishnu]

Nice to see a unilaterally positive review for a change! Thanks for the detailed write-up, Rajesh.

And yes, JV is one of the best mridangists on the circuit today. He has absorbed so much music that he is one of a few people that consistently display the level of sensitivity required to accompany the music of very different genres of performers.

I find that JV has actually evolved a style of his own, while other students of TKM (including very talented ones like B Sivaraman) follow the guru's path with almost no deviation. A less known fact is that JV had his initial training with Tanjore Ramdas; who was one of PMI's last cohort of students in gurukulavasam. PMI sent many people his way for initial training in his last few years.

[Nick H]

Concert a real cracker... agreed. JV a real star... agreed. Vijay Siva a super-senior... agreed

Vijay C. Siva? Where the C is for "consistency."

I "accused" JV of having some special engineering secret to obtain the pure, ringing, tabla like tone from his kapi mridangam. "No," he said. Did he maybe keep a thread, like tabla? "No," he said. Then... if it just small stones, then each and every one must be absolutely carefully placed? "No," to that too: just ordinary kapi mridangam. The thing even more remarkable than the fact that he can make it ring out almost like a flute, and the consistency of tone between the dhin note and the open note, is the fact that that incredible sound, which he let free in the thani, was absolutely controlled during the accompaniment.

I suspect he could light up the diwali sky with every firework that can be produced from the instrument: his restraint is wonderful.

[Rsachi]

Guys, reviews and comments like this make me really yearn for such great live concerts. Thank you Rajesh & co!

[rshankar]

Rajesh thank you for that 's(r)inging' review!
One other thing (one of the intangibles, I guess) that may contribute to this particular set of artists performing at a high level time-and-time again is the fact that Sri VS, Sri RKSK and Sri JV have evolved together having been together from their early days, with their close association with Sri DKJ.

[rajeshnat]

The concert timing 'evening I and evening II'- does it mean the 5 pm and 8 pm concerts respectively?

Two ticketed evening concerts of Academy start at 04:15 and 07:00 pm respectively. This is not an official term ,Just to distinguish them , I am just saying this in my own way.

[rajeshnat]

One other thing (one of the intangibles, I guess) that may contribute to this particular set of artists performing at a high level time-and-time again is the fact that Sri VS, Sri RKSK and Sri JV have evolved together having been together from their early days, with their close association with Sri DKJ.

Definitely yes, but one has to give it to first JV for perhaps really playing the role of accompaniment even before playing . The tani was given post main and RTP in a evening II concert . Few mrudangists will fume when it is not given at the end of main. Also even after that he played for just 13 mins, and just giving more vocal space for vijay to perhaps a sing a more serene tukkada like a mAdhava mAmava. Contrast this when there are mrudangist who even take 20 to 25 mins, for even a 2 hr concert.
On a pure sunshine day success of Cm is always about total absolute time of a concert and relative time between accompanists. There can be exceptions but that is rare with very few artists.

[bilahari]

Thanks for the review, Rajesh. I was just wondering why there were fewer reviews from you so far this season.

RKSK violin strings were perhaps bit too stiff ,till the first few numbers there was a bit abrasive tone.

This early scratchiness usually results from rosin on the bow.

[saianamika]

We went to Vijay's concert at Vani Mahal. We really enjoyed it. Couldnt make it to this one
At Vani Mahal two sishyas were on stage with thamburas. One of them had a mike. I have heard him sing with Vijay at a concert sometime last year. If I am not mistaken, his name is Vignesh and Vijay mentioned he sings solo too.

[mahavishnu]

A few corrections.

slokham "tAmudhbhUtam" - bilahari +nAyaki?? + neelAmbari

tamabhbhUtam balakam ambujEkshaNAm - the second ragam was indeed nAyaki.

Aadi pushpathiyAgi - kurinji??? - ???

Adi pasupathiyAgi was in senchurutti.

and jAnaki nAthA sahAyakarE was in yaman kalyan.

ending with phrases like shivatkaryEya lOkham - yamunAkalyAni + revati + dEsh+ sindhubhairavi - Adhishankarar???

it sounded like "... vasishta shivatkEva loham" to me. perhaps someone with more sanskrit knowledge could clarify.
the ragams were actually brindavani, hamir kalyani, revati, desh, sindubhairavi.

[rshankar]

and jAnaki nAthA sahAyakarE was in yaman kalyan.

Just like how Smt. DKP used to sing it...

[Jigyaasa]

the ragams were actually brindavani, hamir kalyani, revati, desh, sindubhairavi.

Verses from the dashashlOki of Shri Adi Shankara - as an introduction of himself to his Guru upon their first meeting.

[VRV]

He did something very creative in doing trikAlam with swaras-perhaps someone else can write on what I am missing as I unable to express it right.

Rajesh,

A very interesting concept in the RTP. I will try to explain. Normally in an RTP after the pallavi line is sung and some neraval is rendered, the artiste will do what is called a "TRIKALAM" of the pallavi line. The pallavi line (mathematically speaking) will be rendered in 3 different speeds.

If the original pallavi sangati is set to 4 pulses to the beat, then the lower speed will be 2 pulses to the beat, the thisram will be 3 pulses to the beat and the mel kalam will be 8 pulses to the beat or double time. Once this exercise is completed successfully the artist will then venture to do kalpanaswarams in the pallavi line at regular speed (4 pulses) and then double time (8 pulses)

In this Vijay Shiva concert,
1. due to time constraint and
2. the unique novelty to this approach

the artist clubbed both the trikalam and the kalpanaswarams in one. He started the pallavi line and started singing kalpanaswarams ending the head at the various entry points of the "TRIKALAM" respectively. So if he was doing thisram the swarams were in thisram and entered into the pallavi line at the right spot in the talam. An exercise in serious combinatorial patterns with absolute command of the layam.

Loosely put hitting two birds with one stone.

I am reminded of a DKJ concert in Mumbai sometime in 1979 where DKJ did something like this and the tani avartanam by the mathematical genius Palghat Raghu was something to remember.

Palghat Raghu's weakness was cricket and his favorite star Gundappa Vishwanath was at bat (96 runs, 4 shy of a century) when the tani avartanam began . Only I knew that two things was happening wherein Raghu sir was tuned via headphones listening to the commentary and rendering the tani avartanam. When Vishwanath hit a four to get his century the smile on Raghu sir's face was something like a child getting his favorite ice cream. The real tani began after that and Raghu Sir played a cracker of a tani where all the patterns and more were delivered. I remember him turning around and telling me

"Adai Vinod, Talam carefula poddu. Inna dan century adikya mudiyum". Those were the good old days.

[Ramasubramanian M.K]

Rajeshnat: Great review!!Thanks for taking the trouble to make us-----the "vagrants" (who unfortunately are forced to be in any other place in the World except where we ought to be viz. Chennai!!!) happy!!!

VRV Nice story--Is Aishwarya performing in this season?

[VRV]

MK Sir,

Yes Aishu and I are in Chennai. She just finished two concerts in Chennai. Her next concert is in Kolkatta on the 28th and then on Jan 4th in Bhopal at "Bharat Bhavan". We leave back for the US on Jan 5th and back to school and work.

Vinod.

[annamalai]

I attended many concerts at Music Academy , but missed the concerts for which I had to stand in line @ 5 AM for the tickets.

Among the concerts @ MA I attended, I felt Vijay's concert was the best - esp. Sri Kamalambikayam - Bhairavi - my favorite krithi -- what a pristine rendition by Vijay. There are some superb renditions on tape, but this was one the best I have heard in person. Since Vijay is also a good mridangam player, kanakku comes naturally to him in the executing of the pallavi.

My view is vindicated by the Sruti Magazine article.

http://srutimag.blogspot.in/2013/02/vij ... stand.html

Somehow, Vijaya Siva concert did not get Yogam Nagaswamy award I have also heard from some quarters that this award is sort of a bogus.

[rshankar]

Is the author of the blog, Smt. Gowri Ramnarayan's husband?