Sanjay Subrahmanyam at Indian Fine Arts, Ethiraj Kalyana Mandapam, 20/12/19

[SrinathK]

Live review: Will be updated as the concert progresses

Vocal : Sanjay Subrahmanyam
Violin : R Raghul
Mridangam : Poongulam Subramanyam
Kanjira : C S Venkataraman
Tambura and Vocal support :

Crowd : Hall full, a few empty seats at the back. No standees or people on stage though.

Song list :
1) varnam - kedAragauLa - Adi -

2) jAnaki ramaNa - shuddha seemAntini - Adi - Thyagaraja

Owning to time constraint I managed to reach only after the first 2 items. Made some enquiries to find out what they were.

3) sudhAmayi sudhAnidhi - amrtavarshini - roopakam - Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavatar - R, S

4)thyAgarAja pAlayasu mAm - gauLa - Adi (2 kaLai) - Muthuswami Dikshitar

5)ayyanE ATkoL meyyanE - kAmbhoji - tisra tripuTa 2 kaLai -1/2 eDuppu (that is a minus 1/2 ateeta eDuppu) - Koteeswara Iyer - R,S - Swaras on pallavi

6)rAgam tAnam pallavi - naTabhairavi - tanam in tisra Eka (2 kalai) - mAvur vaLar mahArAni madhuravAni - pallavi also in tisra Eka 2 kaLai, eDuppu on samam

Tani Avartanam

7) innum parAmukham EnO - bEgaDa roopakam (1/2 eDuppu) - Duraiswamy Kavirayar

8) kaNDEna gOvindana - kalyAna vasantam - Adi - Purandaradasa

9) uppum karpooramum ondra pOle irundalum (short viruttam) followed by innamum oru taLam - behAg - Adi (1/2 eDuppu) - Muttutandavar

10) nee nAma rupamulaku (mangaLam) - sourAshTramam - Adi (1/2 eDuppu) - Thyagaraja

Walked in as Sanjay completed a brawny alApana of amrtavarshini - where did he find that extra range in the upper octave over the years? To be honest, at 50, Sanjay's voice is in the best shape of his life. R Raghul is a disciple of the great M Chandrashekaran and a violinist of formidable calibre - I have heard his solo before and he stunned me that time. His phrases are so much like his guru's - the one finger slides and nagaswara-esque vibratos. A very good reply.

Sanjay executed a naughty naDa bhEdam in the chittaswaram and started kalpanaswara at the pallavi, lots of gu gu gu and usual eccentric swara labels, but they were sung really well and ended with a nice poruttham that was also brought out by Raghul in his reply.

thyAgarAja pAlayAsu mAm is a majestic kriti of Dikshitar and Sanjay and team did a solid rendition of it.

Then started an alApana of kAmbhoji. Sanjay seems to be specifically including a couple of phrases that are stylistic of MC mama keeping his team in mind. He has picked up a few tiger like growls and other "effects". After singing a few phrases ending on the N2 (this is rare), he went for his trademark bullet fire brighas in the upper octave concluding in a long held M1 and several punches and jabs at the upper P. As such this alApana was full of really exaggerated and eccentric phrases, not to mention a rich spectrum of unusual syllables (more on that later). It was good though, but nothing extraordinary overall.

Some humour -- The rasika next to me is not impressed though and is groaning his heart out on his FB. Ayyo! he says. He thinks the kAmbhoji is getting butchered to the point of being unrecognizable. He doesn't know I'm peeping...

Raghul is right up there with Varadarajan (Sanjay's stock violinist) in having a turbocharged left wrist that could probably do the work of all 4 fingers on its own. How does a wrist vibrato execute such fast and long brighas? His reply was more on normal lines. But that wrist is quite something and it's more than enough to handle all of Sanjay's brighas.

The kriti itself is new to my ears. It turns out it is a Koteeswara Iyer kriti, with a -1/2 ateeta eDuppu in tisra tripuTa. Sanjay skipped neraval and went for the slow speed swaras.

Announcing the rAga, Sanjay then took up naTabhairavi for elaboration. At the point I am convinced he has borrowed and internalized a lot of gestures and articulation from Semmangudi. The alApana was well done with long phrases in the Madhya sthayi. Once he got to the upper octave, he changed track into the unconventional and went for a lot of booming plain G1 and M1 phrases before going even higher up to P and D1 (but at this point his range was being pushed to its limits and he didn't seem too comfortable). Things were back to normal though once he got back down. Sanjay has also found some good range lower down as well. Overall a nice alApana.

Raghul's reply was very good. It was completely in nagaswara bani. Long phrases and brighas, but building up on Sanjay's lines.

Sanjay took up tAnam with mridangam accompaniment. tAnam acquires a special sarvalaghu flow when accompanied with percussion. Sanjay exchanged some wonderful rounds with Raghul, concluding with some loud endings, but once he got to the upper Sa as always, a bizarre phrase could not resist. Overall the tanam was better than the Alapana and would have been the highlight of the day.

The pallavi was a simple one, which is good because of the scope for neraval, of which several brisk exchanges happened between the team.

The swaras started normally, but after a brief foray into chatushra tisra, went into tisra naDai in 2x and 4x speeds, before retuning to 2x chatushra naDai, with brief bursts of 4x runs even. Finally ended with a kOrvai that included a naDa bhedam to tisram.

The tani finally started at the 2 hour mark. Round 1 was chatushra naDai and ended with a kOrvai by Poongulam Subramanyam and CS Venkataraman was excellent in both replies and tone. The second round was a thundering high power mishra naDai exposition. Then the kuraippu began with 2 Avartanams, then 1 and then 1/2 an Avartanam each, before the two rejoined for the farans. And then the mohra and the final kOrvai. (Note : These are the parts of a typical tani).

No rAgamAlika swaras though. And no rAgamAlika shlokam / viruttham either.

Sanjay then dispatched innum parAmukham EnO before starting kanDEna gOvindana with a short shloka like beginning before starting the kriti.

Ditto for innamum oru taLam. Towards the end Sanjay couldn't resist the call of narm and just had to sing one last strange jhAru. Otherwise nice.

And it was time for the mangaLam.

Overall a good concert of 2 h 37 min, but it does make me slightly regret that I couldn't attend his tamizhun nAnum at the Academy which got rave reviews. Could have been better if Sanjay had reined in his temptation for the bathos. Full marks however for the accompanying team for the support they gave throughout the concert.

And with that I bid good night!

[pperumal]

Is it just me? Of late the lack of restraint in this great musicians stage music reminds me of the late Madurai Somu. That was a different era but somehow couldn’t help drawing a parallel!!!!

Praying for the return of the Sanjay of yore - Kamboji was indeed his stock raagam!!!! One that he had made his own even as a young musician.

Sigh!!
PP

[laya1234]

Please be accurate before writing your review. I must point out that firstly there was no multi speed corvay in the first round. Especially the second round was in misra Nadai not thisram. The Thani was very good, there is no doubt about that !

[SrinathK]

Ok, so it was mishra naDai. I had a doubt myself. Will change it. Hard to differentiate between the 6 and 7s, especially when played at double speed. Thanks.

Besides, how many of us really understand what exactly are the intricacies of a tani? Only percussion experts have to guide us. I can recognize the standard tisra naDai patterns, but at 2x speed I get confused and can't tell sometimes which naDai it is.

There was a time in another concert where a mridangist had to confirm to me that he played in khaNda naDai in mishra chApu. Otherwise I wouldn't have known. We all learn.

Btw, is this your first post? Welcome onboard!

[SrinathK]

One other thing not related to the concert itself was the ticketing surge pricing scam going on outside at IFA. The people at the ticket counter are forcing rasikas to buy expensive Rs.500 and Rs.1000 tickets before the concert begins, claiming that the hall is full, when it really isn't. That way, they get the front and mid rows filled up first.

Later after the concert begins and gets rolling, if someone turns up, they sell the 2 x Rs. 100 ticket for Rs. 200 for the last rows (which was were I was) and fill up any empty seats they see. One elderly mama complained that they've been doing this for days.