Seetha Rajan@Aastika samAjam(alwarpet) on Apr 09th,2014

[rajeshnat]

Seetha Rajan@Aastika samAjam(alwarpet) on Apr 09th,2014
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vocal : Seetha Rajan
Violin : Embar kannan
Mrudangam : J Vaidyanathan

Concert duration/Day : 2 hr /Wednesday
Concert Type : Nirvana (no concert to follow)
sabha/Hall : Aastika samAjan venus colony, alwarpet
Crowd : max of 35 in a free concert

1. Missed the first dhanyuvdevudO(?,S) - malayamArutham - patnam
2. rA rAmA inTi - asAveri - T
3. nivADanE gAna (R) - sAranga - T
alapana for 2 mins and a minute of violin return

4. rArA dasharatha rAjakumArA (R,N, S)- bhairavi - WVB
8 mins alapana and 6 mins violin return
neraval for 6 mins in agaNita lOkAdhArA Ashrita jana

5. kanamum maravAthE nenjE - shyamA - ambujam krishna
6. ennAlu oorakE (R) - subhapantuvarAli - T
5 mins alapana and 3 mins violin return

7. evarunA nannu brOchevA yinakula thilagA - Not sure of the raga(google says gowlai but I think she sang a number like kuntalavarali) - Pattamadai krishna Iyer (Lji clarify)
The 7th number is evarunnAru broChevA inakula thilagA - balahamsa - Mysore sadashiva rao

8A. rA rA rajeeva lOChana (R S T) - mohanam - MV
12 mins alapana and 7 mins violin return
swaras for 14 mins
8B. tani fro 7 mins

9. jAnaki nAtha sahAya - yaman kalyAn - Tulasidas
10 . nee nAma roopamulaku

[rajeshnat]

Seetha rajan is a vidushi who generally is known to have mastered krithis that are rare . In the last 3 occasions that I heard , each of her concert was
a thematic one , one was on Swathi tirunal and the other two on abhayamba and kamalambA navaavaranam series . WHen one sings thematic concerts the musician can interlace with anecdotes and usually the musical quotient will be less in elaboration. This being my first time concert of a plain vanilla non thematic concert had its share of atleast one plus and minus.

Seetha rajan had a lovely spread of composers which was a great plus and few numbers like the bhairavi and shyamA were extremely new to me . THe minus is where vidushi had a considerable voice and stamina problem to give a full rounded concert. As i entered the malayamArutham got over . An engaging asaveri that came with the right nayana piDi came and quickly faded , i wished there was a round of swaras . sArangA alapana was concise little more elaboration would have been better , i certainly did not feel any shade of hameer kalyani there and she rounded with another short krithi of T - nee vAda nee gana

The submain was bhairavi . seetha mami's voice had a very noticable dip. While the alapana was quite detailed she had the luxury of resting in spots where she could take comfortable voice rest. As the rare WVB krithi began she was kind of assisted by her two students - one had the tambura without the mike and the other had the mike. HEr neraval and swaras in bhairavi was not upto the mark as she kind of struggled to get adequate vitality to sangathis. The filler of ambujam krishan was really superb for quite a few sangathis seetha mami had to take the help of sishya in getting the sangathi right. I never knew ambujam krisha had composed such a lovely shyama krithi.

Seetha mami was like her guru semmangudi where around mid point she zoned into excellence . The subhapantuvarali alapana was rendered exceptionally well and the voice did have more vitality. The krithi was crisp and I liked it . I just googled to find that the next rare krithi was by Pattamadai krishna iyer- not sure of the raga (had a phrase sadashiva is pattamadai krishna iyer connected with mysore sadashiva rao).

The main in Mohanam came out very well . Her alapana did flow in the right pace and the swaras were most creative and interested me a lot. There was just one tulasidas bhajan in yaman kalyan and it was just good. I longed to hear few more tukkadas but the concert got over.

The two accompanist really played well. There is a touch of nice azhuttam in the bow of embar kannan and his contrasting press indeed lifted seetha mami's bit troublesome voice . JV had a clear understanding of how he has to calibrate with different krithis , his embellishments were excellent for the whole concert . His tani was just pass through , nothing much to rave about.

Vidushi seetha rajan could have done atleast few things:
--------------------------------------------------------------------

1. She could have sung Little closer to mike or a double mike would have helped , at times the voice was just too feeble especially in the first half .

2. Her sishya was really helping vidushi even odomos was passed , i wish aastika samajam gives that to even rasikas . If she had rotated more during neraval and swaras with her sishya it could have been better . After all for every song prior to neraval and swaras seetha mAmi voice did not require that much support. In short where support was needed she could have got it from sishya but was passed.

Her pathantaram purity was indeed there .Her creativity in mohanam and a touch of sereneness in subhapantuvarAli did interest me the most . May I know the two sishyas who sang (one with the mike and the other with tambura). I did see them a month back in dikshitar concert and I just donot know their names.

Overall a good to very good concert for 2 hours.

[harimau]

Seetha Rajan@Aastika samAjam(alwarpet) on Apr 09th,2014
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vocal : Seetha Rajan

2. rA rAmA inTi - asAveri - T

I believe it should be Ra Ra Ma Inti daga, meaning, "Come, come stay at my house".

Now, with two more songs, namely,

4. rA rA dasharatha rAjakumArA (R,N, S)- bhairavi - WVB

8A. rA rA rajeeva lOChana (R S T) - mohanam - MV

we see the theme.

It is a Ra Ra krithis concert! )

[rshankar]

I believe it should be Ra Ra Ma Inti daga, meaning, "Come, come stay at my house".

It should be inTi dAka - and shouldn't it mean - 'come to my house'? - inTi dAka is 'to my house/near my house/up to my house', IIRC.

[Lakshman]

evarunnAnura yadukula tilaka nannu brOcuTaku is listed in gauLa. Composition of Pattamadai Krishna Iyer.
evarunnAru nannu brOcuTaku inavamsha kumAra dhIra is listed in the rAgA simhavAhini. It is by Patnam Subramania Iyer.

[harimau]

It should be inTi dAka - and shouldn't it mean - 'come to my house'? - inTi dAka is 'to my house/near my house/up to my house', IIRC.

Literally, yes, come up to my house.

I thought figuratively it would mean "come stay at my house".

On the other hand, Tanjore hospitality (such as, நீங்கள் எல்லாம் எங்க ஆத்துலே சாப்பிடுவேளா? உங்க ஆத்துலே சாப்பிட்டு வந்திருப்பேள்) would mean that Thyagaraja invited Rama to come up to his house but keep going! ) ) )

By the way, it could have been made a total Ra Ra concert. Thyagaraja himself has written these additional krithis beginning with "Ra Ra":

rArA nannElukOrA - saurAshTraM
rArA phaNi Sayana - hari kAmbhOji
rArA raghuvIra - aThANa
rArA sItA ramaNi - hindOLa vasanta

The last one is a doozy. If you think Thyagaraja never wrote in an unmusical raga, listen to it on Youtube, sung by no less than Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer!

PS. You can blame Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer rather than Thyagaraja for that rendering but then you would be drawing the wrath of Maharajapuram fans! [-x

[mahavishnu]

rArA sItA ramaNi - hindOLa vasanta

The last one is a doozy.

Harimau: Here's MDR's version that will hopefully make you change your mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njCI6dZ0Q10

[arasi]

When did it become TanjAvUr 'hospitality', this 'varuvELA, vanDAlum SappiDuvIrgaLA?' thing?
thAmira varNikkArargaL vITTilE eppozhudum pazhaiyadum, mOrum kIRaiyum kiDaikkum, enbadAlA? (Is it because by the banks of tAmiravarNi one is always assured of getting yesterday's rice, buttermilk and spinach?) Okay, add a piece of lAlAkkaDai halwa to jazz this up a bit...

Give it to KeraLa for bringing instantly the flavor of hindOla vasantha!

[rajeshnat]

evarunnAnura yadukula tilaka nannu brOcuTaku is listed in gauLa. Composition of Pattamadai Krishna Iyer.
evarunnAru nannu brOcuTaku inavamsha kumAra dhIra is listed in the rAgA simhavAhini. It is by Patnam Subramania Iyer.

Lji
For sure vidushi seetha raja sang the phrase broChevA instead of brOCutaku. The song was evarunA nannu brOchevA yinakula thilagA.
I am also sure the raga was not gowlai , as I said before i had a feel of some janya of possibly harikAmBodhi - kuntalavarali was quite close but not there.

Interestingly the Evarunnanura yadukula tilaka nannu brochutaku (tv) - Gaula - Adi - Pattamadai Krishna Iyer is a tanavarnam as per karnatik.com

This krithi had a pallavi line evarunA nannu brOchevA yinakula thilagA ..ramachandra .....
It also had a phrase of sadashiva in the last charanam . Could that be a mysore sadashiva rao composition? Any idea ravisri or keerthi?

[keerthi]

evarunnAru - balamsa - SadAshiva Rao

[rajeshnat]

keerthi
You are right it is
evarunnAru broChevA inakula thilagA??? - balahamsa - mysore SadAshiva Rao

[HarishankarK]

There is another song Ra Ra Rama Ravikula Soma in the raga Bangala. It is very cute song and fast paced. I think the composer is Thyagarajar

[vasanthakokilam]

It is funny harimau is willing to throw Tyagaraja under the bus to avoid the wrath of Maharajapuram fans

Mahavishnu set the universe back in order.