Sanjay@Bangalore Ranjani Fine Arts Feb 10, 2018

[kunthalavarali]

The inaugural concert of the Sixth Annual festival of SAMYOGA was held at the lovely auditorium of the Horizon Engineering College, Marthahalli in South East Bengalure from 4.15 to 7.15
S Varadarajan
Neyveli B Venkatesh and Anirudh Athreya

I have given the list of krithis, hope to see a detailed review by another formite. Correction welcome.
1. varnam_mAlavi_Adi Calcutta Krishnamurthy
2. intha paraka_nAdanAmakriya_rupakam Anai ayyA, N, S at kanna thalli
3. kAnthimathi annai nIgathi_kAnada_rUpakam PS, A
4. munnu rAvaNa bAdha_tOdi_jampa T, A, N and S at rAja rAja
5. jagadisa sada_nAttakurinji_Adi ST, A, S, thani
6. evvarE rAmayya nI sari_gAngEyabhushani_dEshAdi
7. RTP dharmavathi pallavi: unadhu pAdam uruthunai ena nambinEn dayai puriyum saravanabhava guhanE, Adi Swaragamalikai: bahudAri, ranjani and Abheri (bhimplAs)
8. manamE kanamum maravathE_bhimplAs_Adi PS
9. rAma krishnaru manegE_tilang_Eka, purandara dAsar
10. viruttam_thIrtha karai_bAgesri, Subramanya Bharathi
11. ninnaiyE rathi endru_bAgesri_Adi, Subramanya Bharathi
12. apadUruku lOnaitinE_Khamas_dEshAdi, PaTTaabhiraamayyaa
13. Mangalam
-

[kvchellappa]

Intha paraka and Kanthimathi were ordinary by Sanjay standards. I could not get out of my mind SSI singing Inthaparaka.
From the first note of Thodi, it was a superb event and in fact, he was in a great mood and would have continued but for the fact that it was a 'samsara' concert (another event to follow). In fact, a lady was trying perhaps to signal to him to close from the side. He looked at her and sang two more pieces, the last two that were so enthralling. Not to tease the lady more, he sang pavamana. But the speaker did not show any hurry as he went on and on. A little bit of anticlimax, but the audience was still in the mood of the concert and did not bother about him, I think.
RTP in a scalar raga, I do not know what text book says about it, but Sanjay scaled great heights and made it classical.
Atreya excelled in Tani which the other members of the team appreciated explicitly.
In Bhimplas, Sanjay showed extra creativity and predictably continued with the MS song, second only to MS.
Apart from a rarely heard kriti in Todi, there was no surprise in raga or kriti. That was unpredictable!

[hnbhagavan]

11 Feb 18 S Varadarajan gave a solo violin recital at Essae Music Foundation ,Wilson Gardens from 04:00 PM.

[kunthalavarali]

Thanks. date corrected

[arasi]

Thank you kuntalavarali for your list.

Chellappa, I like your new coinage 'samsara concert' (Rajesh-inspired).
The varNam of his master is always a good start for Sanjay. The first two numbers didn't stand out as they would have, agreed. Reminds me. Recently, I was at a wedding where the famed Pattappa was the chef (my first taste of his culinary fare). For instance, the badam halva was excellent. Yet, across the aisle there was a murmur that at so and so's wedding, it tasted simply out of this world. What I am driving at is the 'amaivadu' factor (it just happens).
Also the EAH (expectations are high) factor.That too, within days of an ace concert in town. Varadu and Venkatesh played their role admirably. Bhagyalakshmi sparkled at the Samaja, and Anirudh was simply delightful in this concert.
Munnu RAvaNa, a treasure from yore for me.The RTP was absorbing. Hearing dharmavati after a while was ever so refreshing.

One other feature which was distracting and somewhat hindered the atmosphere was the frequent passers by (kids included) to the rest rooms. It looked as though the only way to them was by the front entrance, which meant their crisscrossing and obstructing the stage The hall was a fine one, with colorful murals to boot--only, there were no aisles by them which resulted in more folks passing by in the rows, as you worried about your feet being stepped on!
Enough of this. Can't but commend Ranjani Fine Arts for mounting a super two day festival like this. How they are growing, with the inspiration of nourishing music--especially in the young ones! With dedication, they bring their bright minds and efforts together in continuing their good work. Bless them
They are nurturing music all through the year, and also bring a grand festival like this to music and dance lovers. How I wish I lived nearby! Would have attended a few more of the concerts then...

[kssr]

When I left the concert, I felt this was THE best concert I have ever heard from Sanjay. Besides the singing itself, there were several features that added to my enjoyment level. Firstly, when you are not the organiser, you have no worries about the parking area problems, or coffee to the artists and official desk management, etc., You just sit back and enjoy the concert totally peacefully as just a rasika. Secondly, the ambience, acoustics, stage and all the arrangements were perfect. No overcrowding. Pakka vaadyams, were pakka vadhyams- specialists in their trade. Everything 100% in place.

What stood out (for me) was the nattakurinji swara prastharam. Brief strings but each one a mastery of instant creativity. This indeed is manodharmam. At the point when the swaram returned to the sahityam each time it was a different pattern of the sahityam. Thrilling to the listener (but of course challenging to the violinist, which varadu did reproduce perfectly).

After the days when I have heard my mother sing munnu ravaNa, this was the first time in a concert. Superb.

Ever delightful Kaanada.

Bharathiar songs, as usual was my heart throb. Reminded of the occasion when my mother sent a chit to Sanjay (thro my obedient self) to sing Unnaye rathi endru. The main was over and then thani. We were expecting if he would sing the song as a thukkada. Then came the R and T . Imagine the P line was Unnaye rathi endru.
Hats off to this true master. "He excels himself everytime", as the organiser mentioned, although no one was listening to the speech after the conclusion of the concert!!!
Ranjani bosses are dreamers. They produce great stuff. My prayers that all their dreams come true.

[kvchellappa]

This thread will be incomplete without K P Jayan's 'braindrain':
“Surprise us”, requested the organiser as he handed over the stage to the artists of the evening. Did I notice a glimmer of a smile on his face. Well, he can’t surprise us. The element of surprise is part of the expectation and standard set by him over the years. So, the surprise to us is to have an ‘off day’, which wasn’t the case to be. Second time in this week, he was here with yet another scintillating concert. Probably, the ‘munnu rAvaNa’ can be the the surprise factor for those who was looking for one.

I am itching to use the superlatives again. The evening excitement started with the mAyAmALavagauLA piece. Fabulous neraval and svaras with some innovative support from Venkatesh. I will pass the kAnaDa, but to say the sedate kriti was very nice. Brilliant thOdi by both the artists. Some of his typical forays: the holding on to the svara with a loooong single breath singing – which always have people applauding, and the build up to some mesmerising higher octave passages and a clever termination ( again a staple ingredient for instant gratification from the audience). But beyond these, some of the takes were really superb. So was the violin return. Haven’t heard him singing munnu rAvaNa before. Again, he was very impressive in the neraval and some of the intrinsic swaras that followed.

Natakurinji was the main piece, if you insist ( To me it WAS the thODi , but the tani avartanam followed nAtakurinji ). Elaborate alapana again. Similar progress with some elegant phrases. Tried some of the lower octave takes, to some lesser effect. Jagadeesha sadA mAmava was against our speculations of ‘kuvalayadala nayana’ or ‘ mAmava sadA varadE’. No neraval ( hence not main ), but had some nicely set svara patterns with a whole lot of sweeping gamakas at ma,ga,sa swaras ( which went on for a while). Neyveli Venkatesh was very good through out, except a few places during natakurinji swaras. He later played superbly for the pallavi, following Sanjay during his various takes and variations (Aniruddh struggled a bit here). The tani Avartanam, especially the closing sequences were very good.

Dharmavati pallavi, this time. Nothing great to talk about the alapana. Rather shortish. But the tanam ( compensated for the depth in alapana) was delectable. From the start it was destined for an outstanding affair. Varadarajan was equally brilliant. Long pallavi line set to Adi tala , 2 kaLai. But, the purvangam and uttarangam were set to two different speeds ( I don’t think, there was a naDai variation) and that was the key essence of the pallavi singing. Everything, including the trikalam he did, was around these speed variations between pUrvAngam and uttarAngam. The bhImplAs svaras during the rAgamAlika stood out, which followed up with Papanasam Sivan’s composition , as is his wont.

This time we did not have a quick wind up post pallavi. The khamAs jAvaLi was the pick of this section.

The organisers were pleased. The huge hall was full, fabulous ambience, excellent seating and amplification systems and a start one would hope for , for the Annual Festival. I can pardon Arsene Wenger for another lose, as I was listening to another Arsenal Follower, providing us some relief ( taking the clue from the closing speech from the organiser again).