Shreekantham Nagendra Shastry,Sri Rama Mandir, Malleswaram

[braindrain]

Vocal : Shreekantham Nagendra Shastry

Vocal Support: Anoop Krishnan

Violin : Satyaprakash

Mrudangam : Anirudha Bhat

List:

01. SLOkam ( SukLAmbaradharam) – harikAmbOji

unDEdi rAmuDu – harikAmbOji – Thyagaraja ( N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘tamasAdi guNa rahituDu‘

02. jAnaki ramaNa – suddha sImantini – Thyaharaja ( A,S )

03. manasA eTulO – malayamArutam – Thyagaraja ( A,S )

04. endendu ninna pAdavE – rAgamAlika ( mOhanam, nAtakurinji , nIlAmbari) – Purandara Dasa

05. kaNDa jUDumi – vAchaspati – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @ ‘ sItAtO palki jUchinanta pulakAnkituDai’

06. ranganyAtakE bAranE anganA maNiyE ( jAvaLi) – chenchurutti – ?? ( O )

07. lAli lAliyani yuchEdarA – vEdaghOshapriya?- Thyagaraja

08. mangaLam srI rAmunaku – vasanta – Mysore Sadashiva Rao

mangaLam kOsalEndrAya – madhyamAvati

Brilliant concert. I am not sure if he was featured in rasikas. I had the privilege of the esteemed company of Keerthi for this concert. I wish he add his expert comment.

[rajeshnat]

07. lAli lAliyani yuchEdarA – vEdaghOshapriya?- Thyagaraja

Never heard the krithi or raga. I could not find this krithi or raga even in karnatik.com.tx foryour review Jayan.

[braindrain]

Never heard the krithi or raga. I could not find this krithi or raga even in karnatik.com.

That is the advantage if you have Keerthi next to you in a concert. I might have still got it wrong. Will wait for him to correct. By the way, I realised I wrote the name wrongly , corrected it now.

[ganeshkant]

harikaambodhi & vaachaspati in the same concert.interesting.braindrain,haven't heard about this artist before.can U provide some info.if possible ?thanks.

[Rsachi]

His is one of the two voices in this Mysore Kingdom anthem:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=12 ... =2&theater
The other one is of Sri R S Nandakumar.
 

[Rsachi]

His profile in The Hindu:
http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday ... 550504.ece

[vasanthakokilam]

His is one of the two voices in this Mysore Kingdom anthem:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=12 ... =2&theater
The other one is of Sri R S Nandakumar.
 

Incredible video with the pictures of the Mysore Royal Family. The anthem in the background adds a nice touch.

I have not visited the palace in a really long time but it looks the tourists are taken through some of the sections where these pictures are taken. Right?

[Rsachi]

Yes, most of the photos are in the main open durbar hall and the amba vilasa hall. Both are open to the public.

[mahavishnu]

07. lAli lAliyani yuchEdarA – vEdaghOshapriya?- Thyagaraja


Never heard the krithi or raga. I could not find this krithi or raga even in karnatik.com.tx foryour review Jayan.

It is an utsava sampradAya kriti. Set to the harikambhoji scale (but is a panchamantya rAgam; like navrOj is to sankarAbharaNam).
Semmangudi sang this quite often; more recently Nityashree released a commercial album through Charsur where this song is featured.

[Lakshman]

vEdaghOSaprya is derived from harikAmbhOji mELa. Notes are: *D2 *N2 S R2 G3 M1 - P M1 G3 R2 S *N2 D2 *N2 *P
Lali lAliyani is originally set in harikAmbhOji.

[Rsachi]

Found this in Smt. D.Pattammal's excellent compilation:


The last column shows her sources
P. Palai Yazhi, BM Sundaram 1979, AE. Sangeetha Swara Prasthara Sagaram, Nathamuni Pandithar, 1906.

[keerthi]

Expert comments or not, here goes -

01. SlOkam ( SuklAmbaradharam) – harikAmbOji

unDEdi rAmuDu – harikAmbOji – Thyagaraja ( N,S ) neraval & swara @ ‘tamasAdi guNa rahituDu'

The slOka was used very effectively to outline the rAga. There were mostly laghu-swara-knit short phrases in the sloka-clad alapana. There were some interesting plain swaras as well as the usual gamaka-varika phrases of Harikambhoji during swarakalpana.

The artiste , maybe out of oversight, forgot to sing the phrase 'shashivarNam' in the slOka, and went from viSNum to caturbhujam (or maybe even dhyAyEt, now I can't remember!)

02. jAnaki ramaNa – suddha sImantini – TyAgaraja ( A,S )

The Alapana was good, and had both the tODi-asAvEri type of kampita g that straddles suddha gAndhAra and sAdhAraNa gAndhAra, as well as the flat sindhu bhairavi sAdhAraNa gAndhAra. Some of the phrases like d/S\d sounded like d/n3\d to my ear, and a couple of d/s\p phrases too many smacked of asaveri. However, it was a good alapana, occasionally hinting bits from the kRti [which is something I like very much].

the kriti performance was very good, and I have heard this one from nAgEndra shAstri before, and could anticipate the meaningful phrasing he did, when he sang -

'bhakti-rahita-jana-mada-gaja-jAla-pancavadana...'

finished the tAla Avarta and repeated the whole, meaningful phrase before moving on to tyAgarAjalOla. The popular practise is to repeat 'bhakti-rahita-jana-mada-gaja-jAla' which makes the phrase an epithet for rAma, rather than his enemies!

Swarakalpana was good, though the violinist, here, watered the milk of suddha simantini with asAvEri.

03. manasA eTulO – malayamArutam – Thyagaraja ( A,S )

Good Alapana, imaginative phrases. Meaningful handling of the kRti. No stopping at etulO, which is meaningless; always etulOrtunE.

After the anupallavi and carana, he paused at

'guna-vihIna-manasa!...|'

and went onto repeat the last line of the segment, dovetailing into manasA etulOrtune.Swara passages had some laya vyavaharam, with swaras sung off the beat, which Satyaprakash repeated/ responded competently.


04. endendu ninna pAdavE – rAgamAlika ( mOhanam, nAtakurinji , nIlAmbari) – Purandara Dasa

05. kaNDa jUDumi – vAchaspati – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & swara @ ‘ sItAtO palki jUchinanta pulakAngituDai’

Expansive AlApana. Anoop also sang a big chunk of it. Nagendra shAstri's was full of short clustered phrases, reminiscent of some of MLV's phrases; Anoop sang some rather long high-speed strings that did not really move me. They may have been 'Abhishek-inspired'. In the slower segment, he did a good job, and sang some nice phrases.

NITPICK - violin Alap has a few phrases with nyAsa on D, in phrases like pD,, mpd,, which I find to be outside my map of vAcaspati, and maybe smacked of saraswati. Rest of AlApa was very soothing

KRti was well sung, with meaningful splitting again - 'baNTuDai velayu bAgugAni' was repeat instead of the common 'baNTuDai velayu bAgugAni tappu baNTudai etc..' which means one who is resplendent with a sinful servant!

The choice of neraval/kalpanaswara eDuppu was indeed inspired; and I have always noticed that Sri Nagendra ShAstri takes up difficult and unusual eDuppus [I remember him singing at a 11 akSara eduppu 'muktimArgamanukoni' in dArini telusukoNTi three years ago, and at 'mutyAla sarula uramuna gAna vaccitini' in O rangashAyi, last year at sEshAdripuram].

This one was the 13? akSara eduppu 'sItatO || balki jUcinanta pulakAngituDai'

Neraval was begun sometimes at sItatO and sometimes at balki jUcinanta. SwarakalpAna was all at sItatO, with some tight-knit elegant vyavahAram.

The tani Avartanam was neither short nor long, was marked by crisp landings on the kOrvai patterns, and a competent muktAyam. Anirudh played through all of the syncopated swarakalpana unfazed.

06. ranganyAtakE bAranE anganA-maNiyE ( jAvaLi) – chenchurutti – ?? ( O )

The artiste is a legatee to hundreds of jAvaLis including the rare kannada jAvalis,( I remember his very touching performance of mAtADabAradEnO at Seshadripuram last year) and this piece was languorous and swaying in its melody and rhythm. It brought to mind the moonlight and lilies mentioned in the song, and had all the grace of Janjuti embodied in Sakhi prANasakhuDiTu.

More importantly, this piece was an island of viLamba in the concert, which was marked by a more-than-or-equal-to-AriyakuDi madhyamakAla throughout. It made for a good contrast.


07. lAli lAliyani yuchEdarA – vEdaghOshapriya?- Tyagaraja

It was good to hear one of the uncommon DivyanAma songs of the bard being aired out, call it harikAmbhOji or vEdaghOsapriya, they are all priya to me; the elegance of dhAtu and mAtu that tyAgarAja invests in these simple songs is as much testimony to his genius as a dOrakuna or a O rangashAyi or a giripai nelakonna. Three caranas were sung.


08. mangaLam srI rAmunaku – vasanta – Mysore Sadashiva Rao

This was the last concert of Malleswaram Sangita Sabha, and it is appropriate that Nagendra shAstri sang SadAshiva Rau's mangalam, for at least two reasons - One, Nagendra shAstri is heir to the largest collection of compositions by this mindblowingly brilliant vAggEyakAra; and he paid obesiance to his lineage through the song.

Two, it was a signal homage to SadAshiva Rao who started the tradition of holding music festivals during rAmanavami in the Mysore-Karnataka state. The festival would begin on Ugadi and go on for the next nine days, called the vasant navarAtri, culminating in rAmanavami, also called garbha-navami.

People would also host rAmAyaNa parayana during this spring navarAtra, reading from the beginning upto rAma jananam on YugAdi, and then reading it out in eight more instalments, to finish with the paTTABHiSEkam on rAma navami. There were also sumptuous concerts by the vocalists, vaiNikas and flautists of Mysore, and bhajana sessions during these ten days.

It was good to here this old heirloom from Mysore at the end of an intellectually and aesthetically satisfying concert. Unusual song selection, neat handling, well- thought out eDuppus. Quite memorable.

[arasi]

Keerthi,
It also got your review
A treat(ise) in itself!

[sreebeecane]

Looks like Shri msakella knows him very well: http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday ... 550504.ece

Maybe we can ask Shri msakella to tell us more about him?

[mahavishnu]

Actually, he is no stranger to this forum.
He and Sri Akella posted quite a bit on this (very contentious) thread here: http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15980

[rshankar]

Keerthi - the precison and impact of your review seems to have rivalled the concert - thank you!!
Unless I am totally off, isn't Sri Sastry also a member of this forum? I seem to recollect a discussion with Sri Ravikiran on Sri OVK's compositions some time back.

[mahavishnu]

Ravi: pl see my post right above your last one...

[rshankar]

OOPS - sorry, Ramesh

[sweetsong]

Kalyani
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPA7MmfqrU0