Bangalore Shankar@rasayana(eambalam) on Feb 03rd,2013

[rajeshnat]

Bangalore Shankar@rasayana(eambalam) on Feb 03rd,2013
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Vocal : Bangalore Shankar
Violin : SP ananthapadmanAbha
Mrudangam : Aravind (our semmu86)

Concert duration/Day : 2 hrs 35 mins /Sunday
Concert Type : Nirvana (no concert to follow)
sabha/Hall : rasayana, eambAlam
Theme : compositions of composers from mysore (erstwhile )

1. shree mahAganapathim bhAvayE - AndOlikA - Bangalore Shankar
2.dASarathi nunnu kOri vaccitirA (RS N S) - rishabapriyA - Bidaram krishnappA
2 mins alapana each in vocal and violin
neraval in "kamalA bhAva sEguna charitA" for 4 mins
swaras for 5 mins
3. sankari sadA naNda lahari - mAlavi - JC wodeyar

4. muddu mOmu jupAra mOhanAnga (N , S)- mOhanam - TN Padmanabhan
neraval in sasnAdan sarva bhowma??? for 6 mins
5 mins swaras
5. satatamu ninnE - shivakAmbOdhi -BK Padmanabha rAo
6. rAmam bhajE - saramati -shrikantiah (from shimoga)

Long back , when coolkarni started the concert series in west mambalam , TV ramprasadh sang , then the banner rasayana was not there.Then with the banner rasayana - we have gone for full circle almost ending this 5 + years series of atleast 30 + concerts. Coolkarni told then "We are starting this so that we bring artists to limelight and there is no barriers between gifted artists and passionate rasikas". Incidentally vidwan bangalore shankar has sung maximum concerts in this series , one in sowmya's flat, second in mantra's house , a year before at same place-eambalam and now this is vidwan shankar's 4 th concert at eambalam-besantnagar.

Bangalore shankar is a very altruistic artist . He has certainly reached high standards of musical maturity and having talked with him on few occassions , he is one artist who has really digged lot of compositions of erstwhile mysore state and worked with few unpopular teachers from the belt of mysore -bangalore and tuned many of those numbers. The theme was compositons of mysore and he was joined by our aravind - semmu86 who is a disciple of UKS along with quite established violinst sp ananathapadmanabha

The start was a cracker of an andolika, one usually hears andolika with a gnb varnam ,not very sure if there is a ganapathi krithi in andOlika and indeed bangalore shankar composed one on andolika with its two round of cittaswaras was lovely. Bangalore shankar has also learnt from vallabam kalyanasundaram who was the sister of mayuram vishwanatha sastri . He has lot of musicality taken from both head and tail of cauvery. Wih the AndOlika krithi the next raga was a teaser , yes I was not sure if it was rishabapriya or one of those nasikabhoshani belt of ragas . But he sang beautifully the swaras and neraval of the rare bidaram krishnappa krithi.

The next filler in mAlavi by maharaja wodeyar was just ok, some how I have generally not get the hang of malavi yet. Mohanam came back well with his earlier andolika like standard and he presented beautifully , there was a lot of flat note singing , and to an extent shankar is more of a flat note singer than a gamaka oriented singer . Mohanam suited well. The next saramati was just ok.

[rajeshnat]

7.ratna kancuka dhArini (R N S) - kAmbOdhi - HMB
7 mins alapana and 6 mins violin return
neraval in manda gamanO for 5 mins
swaras for 4 mins
8. rAma rAma rAma rAma - vasantha?? - PD

9A. rArA yani pilachiTE rAvaDEmi(R N S T)- kharaharapriya - mysore sadashiva rao
9 mins alapana and 6 mins violin return
6 min neraval in "ilalO neekalilO jEsina"
7 mins swaras
9B. tani fofr 6 mins

10. manavE mantrAlaya - suddasArang - padmacharan
11. SRngapurAdhISvarI sharadE - kalyani - padmacharan
12. jagadoDharana - piloo - PD
13. dhirana -thillana - shenjuruTTi - veena seshanna
14. slokham sadguru thyagarAjaya mangalam - sAveri + hindolam + anandabhairavi + bEgaDa + shurutti - TN Padmanabha

KAmbOdhi was very good to start I wish he had generally sung more extensively, possibly I had few elaborate renditions of kambodhi in my mind , nevertheless well presented. The filler rama rama was well done , not sure if he sang vasantha or lalitapanchamam ,but definitely shankar kept up the pep

With prathi gone and kambodhi , i was thinking it would either be a keeravani or kharaharapriya main, indeed it was karaharapriya with a little kara karappu in his voice , it was well presented . The alapana had power sangathis, albeit short ,the rendition of main was well done. Personally I would have preferred a little longer kharaharapriya. The tukkadas were all well done , manave mantralaya in sudda sarang was with emote- kind of maharajapuram touch was there. The filmy kalyani - kind of illlayaraja kalyani of SRngapurAdhISvarI krithi was nice. The jagadOdharana was tuned by srinivas iyengar , not sure how different is it from other jagadodharana, but what he sang was what is most heard . The last mangalam was a ragamaliga slokham,i think it was from composer TN padmanabha and i enjoyed that a lot

SPA played good and I liked his returns too. I am hearing semmu86, his nadham was very pleasant , may be a little more speed from him and kind of UKS like street smart steals were missing . Tani was bit too short .

Bangalore shankar's versatility was impressive .Overall a very good to excellent concert .

[rshankar]

Rajesh - what a lovely list - I have not heard many of these..thank you for your review.
Some corrections
2) I think it should be dASarathi nunnu kOri vaccitirA
7) ratna kancuka dhAriNI
9A) rA rA yani pilacitE
11) SRngapurAdhISvarI

[rajeshnat]

Ravi
Made those corrections ,thanks.

[rajumds]

http://www.mediafire.com/file/su3rbz9y4 ... mbalam.zip

Recording of the full concert is here

[mahavishnu]

Nice review, Rajesh.
Rajumds, thank you for the recording. I really enjoyed listening to B.Shankar at the performance in Smt Sowmya's house a few years ago.

Look forward to listening to Semmu's playing!

[ranjanimalavi]

Is 9

nArAyaNa pilicitE rAvadEmi rAma (nIvu) lOkAbhi - Adi - Karaharapriya - Mysore Vasudevacharya

Raman

[CRama]

I could not attend this concert. Thanks Rajumds for sharing the concert.

[rajeshnat]

Is 9

nArAyaNa pilicitE rAvadEmi rAma (nIvu) lOkAbhi - Adi - Karaharapriya - Mysore Vasudevacharya

Raman

Yes you are right , it is not mysore sadashiva rao as indicated in post #2 . My mistake.

[kmrasika]

rajumds: Thanks a milion for letting us listen to the ambrosia of Shankar's music. I still remember what Cool Sir mentioned when he first introduced the former to the board: He offers a very refreshing breath of air; his renditions sound simple to the ear but still very hard to imitate, how reposefully the pieces are presented!
Maybe in the upcoming year we can have a Part 2(??? 8) ) They're more composers from karṇāṭaka like C raṅgayya, the many vaiṇika-s like vēṅkaṭagirayappa, dōresvāmi(x2), subbaṇṇa, śivarāmayya, padmanābhayya etc.

[rbharath]

It was an awesome concert. really touching music.

I had to leave in the middle though, thanks to indifferent health.