OST @ bay area

[Gadolinium]

Venue: SIFA, Bay area

Vocal: O.S. Thyagarajan
Violin: Mysore Shrikant
Mridangam: Akshay Anantapadmanabhan

1. ?
2. lEkanA ninnu - asAveri - T
3. rAjagOpAlam - mOhanam, A, S - MD
4. manasA mana - vardhini?, A - T
5. varalakshmi - salaga bhairavi, A, S - PS?
6. vijayAmbike vimalAmbike - vijayanagari, sketch - HMB
7. ninne namminAnu - thodi, A, N, S, T - SS
8. ...

Phew, was that some concert! Such a phenomenal concert by Shri O.S.T that will remain with me for a long time. Shri O.S.T. is almost 70 but his energy, vibrancy and voice resembles someone in their 20s. The concert was quite atypical OST since I associate OST with having quite a predictable composer/ragam/song list, but boy did he prove me wrong and throw my half-baked theories to the wind. He also eschewed his practice of singing neraval for almost every song (to my initial disappointment), but he made up for everything with the ~5 minute neraval for the Thodi kriti.

After a quick asAveri, he dived into an expansive alapana of Mohanam. While not a big fan of the raga, especially at the beginning, he made me sit up during the alapana. The majestic "rajagopAlam" was beautifully rendered, with swarams around the pleasing lines "pArijAta tarumUlam". And then, what a thodi! He has an absolute mastery over the raga, the entire 20+ minutes of alapana was pure bliss. Mysore Shrikant was in such a "trans" that he could've been excused if he let go of his bow. And I was so excited when he took ninne namminAnu since "kamakshi kanjadalayadakshi" is one of my favorite neraval lines. He sucked the thodi out of every syllable and the entire rendition was a celebration of this boundless raga. No words to describe, rendition of a lifetime for me.

Mysore Shrikant was wonderful. He was full of deference when Shri OST was in his elements, but really showed his class in the Salagabhairavi alapana. My highlight, though, was his Mohanam alapana and the swaram exchange for Mohanam.

Akshay was quite good, especially for ninne namminAnu. OST challenged him quite a bit but was also very encouraging, and I felt he stood up very well. I hope someone could comment further.

I should thank SIFA for organizing this concert and also for the wonderful sound system. If anyone else was there, feel free to complete the list/share your thoughts as well.

[thanjavooran]

shri Gadolinium,
Thanx for the review. Expecting a detailed report from Shri Mahavishnu.
Thanjavooran
18 05 2015

[kssr]

Believe me. SRI. OST is now in his peak form. He has always been a majestic singer. But now, the relaxed grandeur in each of his concerts is amazing. I have in fact heard quite a few in recent times. Great artist indeed.

[mahavishnu]

Gadolinium: Thanks for your report about this concert.

Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to the concert (I had to make a whirlwind visit to attend a family wedding in upstate NY).
My loss for having missed OST in top form. I have the highest regard for Sri OST and his brand of classicism. I also really like Mysore Srikanth, although I have not heard this young mridangist who played with them.

4. Would that be vinavE O manasA in vivardhini (Tyagaraja's composition)?

I believe Sri MKR was in town and went to the concert. Hope he can fill us in on the rest of it!

[PUNARVASU]

Mahavishnu, there is a ThyagarjA composition manasA....... In vardhani rAgam.

[Gadolinium]

kssr: I completely agree. Some of his recent full length concerts uploaded in youtube are real gems, especially the one with Trichy Sankaran.

Mahavishnu: The way he is going, I think he'll be going strong till he is 90. So I am sure there will be plenty of chances.
Regarding #4, it was definitely not vinavE O manasA. I am quite confident that the song started as "manasA mana sA..", it is likely this - http://www.karnatik.com/c2541.shtml (the same that punarvasu mentioned)

[ramakriya]

I was there from items 3 to 7 (although I had to leave before the Todi kriti started). I should admit I could not place Vardhani (which was throwing me off in between an unrecoverable kOkilapriya and Jayantasena, in my mind - since I had never heard this composition or the raga being sung), until he started off with the composition!

Rajagoplam was a nice pick - although I kept thinking he may be going to sing bhavanuta, just by some of the sangatis that were used in the AlApane. The grahabheda segment in tODi AlApane was nicely done.

-Ramakriya

[kssr]

Seniors can also probably announce the details like ragam and composer at least at the end of each song. This will leave the listeners at peace to enjoy the concert instead of getting distracted in the identification exercise. But these are traditions. Cannot help.

[pperumal]

In film parlance, OST is like a "minimum guarantee" hero
i have heard young akshay in the music season - good style...with more exposure he will grow.

- PP

[Lakshman]

Here are the lyrics for the Tyagaraja song:

manasA mana. rAgA: vardhani. rUpaka tALA. Tyagaraja.

P: manasA mana sAmarthyamEmi O
A: vinu sAkEta rAju vishvamanE rathamu nekki tana sAmarthyamucE dAne naDipincenE
C: alanADu vashiSTAdulu paTTamu gaTTE palukula vini vEgamE bhUSaNamula nosagina kaikanu
palumAru jagambulu kallala nina ravijuni mAya vala vEsi tyAgarAja varaduDu dA canaga lEdA

[mahavishnu]

Thank you, Lakshman-ji.

[hatakambari]

There were two songs at the start:
0. tatvam ariya taramA -- rItigowla -- PApanAsam Sivan
1. kamalApta kula - brindAvani - T

After the thOdi:
8. dEva jagannAtha -- kalyAna vAsantam - GOpAlakrishna BhArathi ?
9. muruganin maru peyar azhagu -- behAg -- Guru SUrajAnandA
10. mangaLam -- sowrAshtram

OST had sung many of these ragas, if not the same songs, the last time he was in SJ in March 2012. That was also the same venue -- Santa Clara Convention Center. There was a mohanam, kamalApta kula, etc. tODi was a big piece then too, with a graha bhEdam to naTabhairavi. Would love to hear a more diverse repertoire from such a talented vidwan.