Madurai R Sundar, Nalinakanthi

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 13 Dec 2006, 23:49

Madurai R Sundar - R K Sriram Kumar - Palladam R Ravi

Nalinakanthi , MGR Janaki College.
13th December 2006. 6:30 pm

valaci vacci - navarAgamAlikA - Adi (short sketch of kEdAram)
mahA gaNapatE - naTa nArAyaNi - Adi - MD
tuLasi daLamu - mAyAmALavagauLa - rUpakam - T (NS)
budamAshrayAmi - nATTakuranji - misra jhampai - MD (R)
nidhi cAla sukamA - kalyANi - misra cApu - T (NS)
tani Avarththanam
R T P - bhairavi - tisra jhampai (2 kaLai) 2 akshara eDuppu, 3 akshara aridi
'vElanE ninadu padamE thara vENum mayil naDana'
rAga mAlika svarams in vasantA, amrutavarshiNi, rEvagupti, nATTai, rEvati
nirupamAna sAmi - bEhAg - rUpakam
tillAnA - bilahari - Adi
srI rAmachandranukku - madhyamAvati - Adi - AK

The concert began with a nice short sketch of kEdAram. The varNAm was rendered in three kAlams (including tisram) neatly. The naTa nArAyaNi kriti which followed was good.

The mAyAmALAvagauLa kriti was rendered with nice neraval and svarams at 'sarasIruaha punnAga champaka pAtala kuravaka'. The nATTakuranji AlApanai was nice, showing essential rAga bhAvam. The kriti was an expected number, being a wednesday.

A neat rendition of the kalyANi kriti was followed with neraval predominantly at 'mamata bandhana yuta narastuti sukhamA' and occasionaly including the next line 'surapati tyAgarAja nutuni kIrtana sukhamA'. The svarams that followed were good. A tani in this kriti indicated that a pallavi was coming up.

Bhairavi AlApanai was done well in two parts. It was a beautiful elaboration followed by a nice tAnam. The pallavi was rendered well. He first sang the pallavi in 2 kaLai and the rAga mAlika svarams followed. The rAga transitions were quite quick. Later, he sang it in 1 kaLai (mEl tALAm) and did a nice 4 Avartana kOrvai.

The bEhAg kriti and the bilahari tillAnA were nice as well, and so was the suruTTi mangaLam.

Sri Sundar gave a nice concert. His kalpitam and manOdarmam parts were all nice. He was ably accompanied by Sri Sriram Kumar who played well giving fitting replies. Sri Ravi played well with good anticipation. His tani was good.

bharath

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 14 Dec 2006, 11:47

Bharath
YOu were wearing the green slack shirt , I have seen you for a long time without knowing it was you.

For me I was late for kedAram .The often unheard natanArayani which I heard only thru SOmu and of late RKS recording was captivating with good assertion. For me the tulasi dala showed the best team work ,just the replica of a popular DKJ recording. Well usually wednesdays may have been marked for budamAshrayAmi , but they will only sing the krithi and not the alApanai. His alApanai was quite a elaborate alApanai,nAttaikurinji how beautiful it is when it gently takes a descent .

The contrast of kalyAni main (if the krithi is endukku nee manasu or nidhichala sukhamA) and a bhairavi(RTP), is just a brinjal and a kAju katli experience respectively.Let me skip the nidhi chala sukhamA

I could see his guru Shri TNS in the bhairavi . For me the tAnam was excellent spread for nearly 8 minutes. The rAga maliga transitions were too quick , perhaps I did not get the amrithavarshini at all.Out of curiosity,did you ask the performer or did you find it on your own? If you did not post I would have put it as vasanta + ?? + revagupTi? + nAttai? + revati.

The tukkadas instead of behAg javAli and a bilahAri tillana , a significant better sequence would have been say a tillana in shivaranjani or revati or a kApi or a hamsanandi krithi(atleast one of the two ) . Certainly that would give rasikas like us to recollect him more. But perhaps this suggestion, does not take his delivery of bothe which were good .

Agree with RKSK views of bharat , but the mridangam artist played well only for the songs(excellent in tulasi dhala) .His tAni was average and little lacking in stroke.

Overall Sundar must have been a very recognized vidwan for his quite a weighty voice and vidwat.,On a side note,I a local rasika have to wait for an NRI vidwan to hear a RTP . What are local vidwans doing here:mad:

nirupamAna - -behAg -poochi (javali)
tillana - bilahAri - AriyakuDI?

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 14 Dec 2006, 14:11

rajeshnat wrote:Bharath
YOu were wearing the green slack shirt , I have seen you for a long time without knowing it was you.

i think yes. i am not sure, what color shirt i was wearing y'day. I hope we could talk in person, at the next concert, you spot me.

rajeshnat wrote:nAttaikurinji how beautiful it is when it gently takes a descent .

very true. have to agree with u on that. nATTakuranji is an amazing rAgam

rajeshnat wrote:The contrast of kalyAni main (if the krithi is endukku nee manasu or nidhichala sukhamA) and a bhairavi(RTP), is just a brinjal and a kAju katli experience respectively.Let me skip the nidhi chala sukhamA

nice analogy. I was happy that he dint sing an AlApanai.

rajeshnat wrote:Out of curiosity,did you ask the performer or did you find it on your own? If you did not post I would have put it as vasanta + ?? + revagupTi? + nAttai? + revati.

i did confirm with Sri Sundar after the concert. i was confused if it was amrutavarshini or valaji and bhupALam or rEvagupti. nATTai flew over me.

rajeshnat wrote:The tukkadas instead of behAg javAli and a bilahAri tillana , a significant better sequence would have been say a tillana in shivaranjani or revati or a kApi or a hamsanandi krithi(atleast one of the two ) . Certainly that would give rasikas like us to recollect him more. But perhaps this suggestion, does not take his delivery of bothe which were good .

i beg to differ. Anyday, i prefer a bilahari or pUrNacandrikA tillAna to sivaranjani. Why should all concerts have a kApi and/or sindhubhairavi and/or hamsAnandi? I was very happy to not hear any of those rAgams in the concert. Is our music fraternity short of kritis for tukkaDas? The numerous padams and jAvALis which have been left to accumulate dust could be brought back to concert circuit.

rajeshnat wrote:Overall Sundar must have been a very recognized vidwan for his quite a weighty voice and vidwat.,On a side note,I a local rasika have to wait for an NRI vidwan to hear a RTP . What are local vidwans doing here:mad:

For a man who has been living abroad for atleast two decades, he does have a name in the chennai music circuit. He sang in the 7:30 slot at Music Academy about a couple of years. Have to agree with you, on the RTP issue. Sad that, not everybody wants to sing pallavis here, even if they can.

rajeshnat wrote:tillana - bilahAri - AriyakuDI?

the tillAnA had the mudra 'rAmadAsa' in it. however i m not sure, if PS composed it.

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 14 Dec 2006, 16:09

rbharath wrote:i beg to differ. Anyday, i prefer a bilahari or pUrNacandrikA tillAna to sivaranjani. Why should all concerts have a kApi and/or sindhubhairavi and/or hamsAnandi? I was very happy to not hear any of those rAgams in the concert. Is our music fraternity short of kritis for tukkaDas? The numerous padams and jAvALis which have been left to accumulate dust could be brought back to concert circuit.

Yes you are only right on the kApi ,sindhubhairavi,hamsAnandi and Shivaranjani, provided he had selected a different song list and rAgas at the top .

See in the context of just this concert .He has already proved his vidwat with a rare natAnarayani, a kalyAni main , RTP in general is considered heavy and little unacceptable for a lot of rasikas, how many of them would like a behAg drowsiness(atleast this krithi is drowsy, may be a AAdum chidambaramO or irakkam varAmal would have given a better jolt) and a continuation of a bilahAri which is heavy.

All I am saying just sing one tukkada which is for the mass if there isheaviness at the top, for each of the rasika to go back and spread the word of mouth and atleast say this vidwan sang a nice tillAna or a tukkada .

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 14 Dec 2006, 18:14

Was this the caraNA of the tillAnA?
C: ninnu kOriyunna nAdupai sannutAnga nI dayayuncara
pannaga shayana nA vinnapamu vini nannu brOva rAmadAsa sannuta
If so, the tillan is by Ariyakudi.

jayaram · Post by **jayaram** » 14 Dec 2006, 18:47

Sundar is an excellent singer - have heard him at Pittsburgh SV temple years ago. His control over layam is very good, and yes, he tends to choose 'solid' ragas and kritis.

Keeps the TNS bani flying high.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 14 Dec 2006, 21:40

Sundar is a busy performer during the season. He is dedicated to his art. Otherwise, he wouldn' t be making his musical pilgrimage every year to Chennai. In between cutcheris in Chennai, he travels to other places to sing...

venkatpv · Post by **venkatpv** » 14 Dec 2006, 22:54

rajeshnat,
madurai sundar will decide for himself which audience he wants to please... or maybe, he just wants to please himself first. that is more important than pleasing rasikas.

gundakriya · Post by **gundakriya** » 14 Dec 2006, 23:29

Well said venkat!

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 15 Dec 2006, 15:01

venkatpv + gundakriya,
What I made is a suggestion. Just run bharath's concert list again bit slowly pausing at the end of each number.Perhaps may be (not will be) you both would have got the same feeling if you were also in the sabha as I am. There is always surely one tukkada that can be both a singer and majority of the listener's delight. I am not thrusting my opinion. No hard feelings either way.pavamAna here...

All,
FYI,this is my debut concert of Madurai Sundar. My appetite to hear him atleast once was created 2 years ago ,when sishyas of Shri TNS decided to celebrate his 50th year of concert .There Sundar wrote an excellent few page writeup on Shri TNS.If you get that writeup , you will understand why I had the appetite.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 15 Dec 2006, 15:27

Rajesh,
What a long time between the appetizer and the sangIta virundu