Nada Inbam - 16th Dec - Smt Seetha Narayanan

[raviraj]

Artistes :

Seetha Narayanan - Vocal ; R Hemalatha - Violin
J Vaidyanathan - Mrudangam; Prasanna - Ghatam


List:

Calamela - Varnam- Durbar - Tiruvotriyur Tyagayyar - 3 speeds
siddhi vinAyakam - cAmaram - Muthusvami Dikshitar - NS @ Prasiddha yaksha kinnarAdi sEvitam
parAsakti jananI - Hamsadvani - Papanasam Sivan - Alapana - http://www.karnatik.com/c1822.shtml
kAranam vinA kAryam - Kambhoji - Svati Tirunal - ragam, ns@jananE kAranam karma - http://www.karnatik.com/c6798.shtml
jhankAra sruti - Purvikalyani - Suddhananda Bharati
koluvamarEgada - Todi - Tyagaraja - ANS@vekuva + tani
Sri rAmacandra krupAlu - rAgamAlika - Tulsidas
madhubana tuma - Desh - Surdas
pavamAna - Saurashtra - Tyagaraja


As usual a very competent concert was delivered by the Vidusi and her team. The balance of the concert in terms of ANS, composers, ragas -M1/M2 and the weightiness of kritis appropriate to their sequence in the concert, kalapramanam and the correct proportion of neraval and svaras was all obvious. She rendered all the caranas of the Sivan composition , each of which is in a different mettu. Even the Hamsadvani alapana wasnt cliched.I was hearing the Kambhoji kriti first time on the concert platform. She seems to feature some of these rarer entrees especially from the Svati stable, every time she performs.The raga vinyasas of Kambhoji and Todi, right from the opening phrases were right out of the grammar book. Earlier in the morning I attended the Lecdem of Smt Suguna Varadacari on a related topic, that of unambiguously developing a raga - rakti and scalar with illustrations. Smt Seetha Narayanan was seemingly giving a live demonstration of every point that her learned contemporary echoed earlier in the day. I only wish that the younger folks sit through these recitals imbuing the tried and tested way of developing ragas with the least of effort. The neraval in the jnana vairagya Kambhoji kriti was on the sahitya line, the mettu of which was akin to 'tirunIrai sumandhu', the carana line of the Papavinasa Mudaliar classic.So taken in was accompanyist J Vaidyanathan that at the end of the of the Todi neraval, he requested the audience to applaud once more for the Vidusi's performance ! Hemalatha's bowing and her raga vinyasas were extremely lucid and attractive, needless to add, making her one of the best of her tribe today.

Here is the link to reviews of Smt Seetha Narayanan's last year's performance both at Nada Inbam and MA :
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=26558
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=26593&hilit=Seetha ... an#p293403

She performs this year as well at Meccademy on Dec 26th 9 AM.

-R

[shankarank]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iochKkMjV6A

Mami looks like an embodiment of her Guru SSI at every turn - her entire body language / mannerisms resembling SSI. I have not heard a svarAksharam so clearly used in bhAdra-(pa)(da) mAsa in siddhivinAyakam. Enjoying the concert!

[shankarank]

JankAra Sruti seykuvAi - there is a recent rendition (Parampara) by K Gayathri - she being younger sung it slower.

Mami's off samam take on sangItAmRtam is slight difference from that rendition - pushes peykuvAi jagadhIsanE further off and done in a cascading roll down - both nice.

In Sankara sAmba SadAsiva OmkAra - both renditions same. A sandhi of 'a' followed by 'O' turning to sivaumkAra could be employed for a musical effect since both are also Sanskrit words - albeit in a Tamizh kriti ( the verbs determine the language). More space to do some rhythmic subtleties.

[arasi]

If my memory serves me right, it is 'sadASiva Om hara', sambhuvenach cholli en janmam kaDaithERave--jhankArA Sruthi...all words addressing Sambhu.

[rshankar]

Arasi - you're right. Smt. MSS' is my gold standard rendition for this one too!

[shankarank]

The sandhi proposal still stands valid

[sankark]

Only partially available recording Till half the nereval in thOdi