Sydney Music Festival 2015 concerts reviewed - Jun 7th

[HarishankarK]

Venue - Riverside Theatre Auditorium, Paramatta, Sydney

1pm Abhishek Raghuram concert
Violin - H N Bhaskar
Mridangam - J Vaidyanathan

Attended late, songlist from where i attended as below:

Natabhairavi Alaap, Sri Valli Devasenapathe, Papanasam Sivan, Swaras at pallavi. Too loud. Didn't feel any pathos that usually this song/raga evokes.
Janaranjani Alaap, Nannu Brovaraada, Syama Sastri, Best piece of the concert, a bit overdone but still v good one
RTP Purvi Kayani, Madurapuri nilaye, manivalaye, sadaye - Very elaborate alap, tanam done by violinist owing to lack of time, very long pallavi with several acrobatics, Ragamalika swaras - Purvikalyani, Hindolam, Ranjani, Atana, and then disorderly shuffling between all these ragas up and down, left and right. Within one avartana of tala he sang the entire pallavi line in all 4 ragas in different order. Audience applauded as was expected. Too much elaborate and gimmicks i felt.
Rama Jogi Mandu - Kamas - Bhadracala Ramadas
Muddugare Yasodha - Kurunji- Annamacharya, this was also good.

I am not his Abhishek's fan, and usually find his music hollow and too much. But even i felt some bhava today and for me he has improved. Liked this concert. Violin and Mridangam were good and followed him.

4pm Chitravina Ravikran
Violin - Mysore Manjunath
Mridangam - Tanjore Murugabupaty
Ghatam - S V Ramani

This was a real real WOW concert for me. Started only around 4:30pm
Chintiavar manadinil uraiyum - Nattai - Oothukkadu - RK announced this
Sarasasamadana - Kapinarayani - Tyagarajar
Varali alap - Seshachala Nayakam - Neraval Swaras at Aravinda pathra ....Dikshitar - Very very good presentation of this song. Soothing, melodious music.
Raghuvamsasudha - Kasanakuthoohalam - Patnam Subramanya Iyer. Very fast, could have been avoided and replaced with some Sahana or Yadukula Kamboji etc. Must have been included for the few International crowd attending.
RTP - Keeravani alaap - Because of lack of time alaap was minimum but broguht out the raga fully. Violin and RK both did 2-3 rounds of tanam - very nice again. Adi tala 2 kalai, Pallavi line - Aalava, Dayalava, Vadivelava, Viraivinil yennai
Pallavi was very small so could not enjoy fully but Keeravani ragam came out v v well. Tani given here after swaras. Only swaras in kiravani.
Eppo Varuvaro - Jonpuri - Gopalkrisna Bharati

Ravikiran conncected v well with audience, introduced every song raga and composer and cracked jokes too. Enjoyed. What an instrument the Chitravina is !!

Nityasree
Violin - R K SriramKumar
Mridangam - J Vaidyanathan
Ghatam - S V Ramani

Good song list selected but artiste was not able to sing so well. Voice unable to reach the higher octaves and every where sruthi lapses. But nevertheless she bravely carried on. Really, my heart goes out to her. Hope she will regain her voice and sruthi fidelity.

Innum yen manam - Carukesi - Adi Lalgudi Jayraman
Asaveri raga sketch (i thought Ahiri) - Mapala velasika - Tyagarajar
Nattai sketch - Pahimam Sri Rajarajaeswari - Syama Sastri - Had raga mudra Natapriye and Syama Krishna sodari composer mudra. Is this SS only composition in Sanskrit?? Heard this song for first time and liked it v much despite voice problems and sruthi problems song stood out. Swaras at pallavi.
Pantuvarali - Raghuvara nannu - Tyagarajar - tough song not justifed. Neraval, swaras at manasuna neeke - sruthi out of place.
Dhanyasi - Balakrishnan Padamalar - Papanasam Sivan -Adi
Neelotpalaamba - Naarireethigowlai - Diksitar - Song was beautiful and stood out despite all the problems in sruthi.
Marivere Gathi - Malavi - GNB- Adi, one of my favorite filler songs and i like the version by DKP/DKJ only best but in this concert this song was a let-down.
Mohanam main - Kapali Papanasam Sivan, Adi tala 2 kalai - Swaras at pallavi - This was somewhat okay in the whole concert. RK Sriram kumar Mohanam alap too good. Tani was given.
Sindhu Bhairavi sketch - Rama Rama ena raada - Adi tala, composer not known but has mudra Sriranga dasa. Maybe someone can identify the composer. The song was not so good and her singing made it even more ineffective.
Sandanamum Javvadum - Bhimplas vrittam - Kana ayiram kann vendum - Bhimplas - sang this in her usual style
Nanoru vilayattu - Navarasa Kannada - Adi - Papanasam Sivan
Rama Rama Rama Rama, Avar Ramari Parama Bhaktaraam - sounded like Shadvidamargini ???, some modern composer i suppose
Tilang - Santi nilava vendum
Tillana - Dwijavanti - the composition seemed like v good but was sung very badly. Anyways i came to know that there is a tillana in this raga too.
Pavamana - Saurashtram - Tyagaraja

Nityasree tried real hard and out of all the three concerts hers was the longest in duration too. Really wish her voice problems will get resolved soon. A few years back she was one of the best singers for me. Can't forget her Ragam album which i listened to so many times.

[harimau]

Venue - Riverside Theatre Auditorium, Paramatta, Sydney

Nityasree

Nattai sketch - Pahimam Sri Rajarajaeswari - Syama Sastri - Had raga mudra Natapriye and Syama Krishna sodari composer mudra. Is this SS only composition in Sanskrit??

Himadri Suthe Pahimam in Kalyani.

[rajeshnat]

Venue - Riverside Theatre Auditorium, Paramatta, Sydney

1pm Abhishek Raghuram concert
Violin - H N Bhaskar
Mridangam - J Vaidyanathan

I am not his Abhishek's fan, and usually find his music hollow and too much. But even i felt some bhava today and for me he has improved. Liked this concert. Violin and Mridangam were good and followed him.

Great to hear that Abhishek has paired with J V. In the last season there was also one of HNB. The vibrant ringing touch of JV would have been a great combo with Abhishek.

Overall I am looking at that one phrase of yours and when you say He has improved . That is the key phrase of your review. Thank you harishankark

[rajeshnat]

Nattai sketch - Pahimam Sri Rajarajaeswari - Syama Sastri - Had raga mudra Natapriye and Syama Krishna sodari composer mudra. Is this SS only composition in Sanskrit?? Heard this song for first time and liked it v much despite voice problems and sruthi problems song stood out. Swaras at pallavi.

HarishankarK
I am assuming this concert followed ravikiran and was a 7 pm concert . The first experience of me hearing this song was when maharajapuram ramachandran singing this song , if you have a chance hear that pristine rendition.

[rajeshnat]

Venue - Riverside Theatre Auditorium, Paramatta, Sydney

Nityasree

Nattai sketch - Pahimam Sri Rajarajaeswari - Syama Sastri - Had raga mudra Natapriye and Syama Krishna sodari composer mudra. Is this SS only composition in Sanskrit??

Himadri Suthe Pahimam in Kalyani.

Harimau
Are you saying Himadri suthe pahimam is a sanskrit composition. I thought that was a telugu composition. Top of my head , sankari samkuru in saveri and kanaga saila viharini in punnagavarAi are in sanskrit

[HarishankarK]

Yes I agree Syama Sastri has composed a lot of songs in Sanskrit.
Nithyasree's concert started around 7 and ended at 9:30.

[harimau]

Harimau
Are you saying Himadri suthe pahimam is a sanskrit composition. I thought that was a telugu composition. Top of my head , sankari samkuru in saveri and kanaga saila viharini in punnagavarAi are in sanskrit

Himadri Suthe employs the tune (varna mettu) identical to Birana varallichi which is a Telugu composition. But this particular krithi is in Sanskrit.

You can check the lyrics at http://syamakrishnavaibhavam.blogspot.i ... -raga.html.

Careful reading of the lyrics will show that Syama Sastri was indeed a good astrologer and able to foretell the future as he has mentioned Obama in that song.