Jeyaraaj-Jayashri-Rajani@Veenavaadhini on April 28th,2019

[rajeshnat]

Jeyaraaj-Jayashri-Rajani@Veenavaadhini on April 28th,2019
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Veena : Jeyaraaj and Jayashri
Narration : Rajani Arjun Shankar
Mrudangam : Thanjavur Kumar

Concert Type : Nirvana - No concert to follow , Free concet
Day/Duration : Sunday / 2 hours and 30 mins with additional 5 mins for vote of thanks
Sabha/Hall : Veenavaadhini Trust / Arkays Hall
Theme : Siva Kshetra Mahima of Muttuswami Dikshitar

The theme was great as advertised .The presentation of both narration and the vainikas did bring in a sincere aura of bhakthi and more importantly the musical vidwat of naada jyothi muttuswami dikshitar . The theme though siva kshetra did not appear as a difficult subset as there was adequate research with lucid narration and lovely contextual follow up of music. Both J and J are our forumites and Rajani is a very very active persona who generally gives meanings for krithis with few other resident experts of rasikas.org .

The start was sharp just like the train leaving at exact 6pm in Japan not Thanjavur, thanks to Arkay Ramakrishnan .There was a brief introduction by some Lady whom i dont know she introduced the artist in a crisp manner the flow was regimented with a lovely narration by Rajani and contextual muse by J and J supported ably by mrudangist thanjavur kumar. I am just collating this write up more like

<No>. kshetra - krithi - raga - tala(if i had noted that)
Narration
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Music
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I am preceding with introduction and concluded with few shortcomings . I am personally not in a position to type all that was said simply because atleast close to 40 percent to 60 percent i already lost but rajani narration was exceptionally good so even that half that i got is still great.

For narration part ,I am also putting some thing in << >> which is more what i(Rajesh) thought about when the team presented with my own share of experience . I have personally not talked with Smt Rajani yet though i knew her by face way back in some concert in a tambaram temple she was seated right in front of me.

Introduction
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Rajani was introduced by the first MC. THe MC said Rajani is a sanskrit teacher from KFI (krishnamurthy foundation).

Rajani has flair and she started with a bang . The impression there was she is more interested in avoiding any overselling of MD but just presenting facts with an extremely cultural grounded insight of she being in TN . Rajani connected with sivakshetra and divinity and said 3 things . They are moorthy is god , driksha is sacred trees and theertha is water . She made a quote of kanchi mahaswami and connected on itihasam and puranam . She jumped from there with a lovely quote of tirumoolar with his thirumoolar mandiram which starts with naadum nagaramum

With that she moved to first song and kshetra.

[rajeshnat]

SongList :
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1. Thirukadavur - Shankaram Abhirami (R,S) - kamala manohari
2. Madurai - Somasundareshwaram - suddavasantham
3. Mayavaram - Abhayamba nAyaka(R,S) - AnandaBhairavi

4. Srivanjiyam - Shree vanchanAtham bhajEham(R) - Shurutti
5. Nagapattinam - kAyarOhanesam(R,S) - Devagandharam
6. Vazhuvoor - mAra koti koti lavanya (R) - Arabi- Mishra Jampai

7. Thiruvidaimarudhur - chintayE mahalinga murthim (R) - Parasu
8. Thiruvayaru - PranathAthi Haraya namaste - Samantha
9. Thiruvarur - shree valmikalingam(R , Taanam, S , Tani) - Kambodhi

10. Chidambaram - chintayE sabha(nottu swaras) - Shankarabharanam

[rajeshnat]

1. Thirukadavur - Shankaram Abhirami (R,S) - kamala manohari

Narration:
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Thirukadavur now more commonly known as THirukadaiyur. Rajani gave anecdotes on KALasambanda moorthy where she narrated how siva killed yama

Music:
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J and J both started playing the kamala manohari ragam of MD . The alapana was lovely very meditative . This raga muse is lovely, being melakartha 15 mmg child the muse being lovely is no brainer . With great pluck in unison by J and Jand with lovely short patterns of swaras the MD aura was simply great

<<Personally I heard this krithi few decades back when I bought a lovely Balaji Shankar audio casette. Only that is my biggest frame of exceptional excellence and J and J did a great job connecting to that near aura>>

2. Madurai - Somasundareshwaram - suddavasantham

Narration
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THe narration of anecdotes centering on Madurai was lovely. Rajani talked about madurapuri and called madurai as halayakshetram . References to Arunagirinathar and 64 leelas of tiruvilayadal was great. Rajani referred to few madurai celebrations and she talked about chitirai and spring festivals.

<<THe somasundareshwaram krithi is a tour of MD in the famous meenakshi temple is what i thought then.>>

Music
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Sudda vasantham is a light raga for sure. THis krithi was a good drop more to showcase a bit of western note orientation for MD . i forgot the rasa even now . I cannot recollect if i had ever heard this krithi before . May be i heard in one of 5 to 6 dikshitar all day jayanthi that was held in chennai some time back, the contrast was very nice .


3. Mayavaram - Abhayamba nAyaka(R,S) - AnandaBhairavi

Narration
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THe narration of mayavaram which is now known as mayiladuthurai was quite special. Rajani mentioned that Mayavaram is one of the 5 or 6 kashi kshetras .Rajani quoted some thing on sambandar and connected smoke and yagnas . References to Goddess abhayambal and references to mayuri which is peacock was all there

<<I was bit more attentive as the raga is also anandabhairavi and on a personal front I know many in my family were born in mayavaram inclusive of me were born there. Possibly with that reason may be subliminally I already thought this is the best .>>

Music
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The alapana of anandabhairavi was soaked in its extraordinary meditative hues with its usual special aroma . I have once heard this krithi when the sisters apoorva and anahita sang in a lecdem of exclusive abhayamba kshetras. The krithi was superb with very tight kalapramanam and a dose of swaras anandabhairavi was musically the best pick for the whole concert.

[rajeshnat]

4. Srivanjiyam - Shree vanchanAtham bhajEham(R) - Shurutti

Narration
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Srivanjiyam narration was very very impressive because . Rajani said THis place can be expanded as forest of sandalwood trees. Dikhsitar has also connected Aditya which is sunday and Rajani also mentioned that ganga is secretely residing here . We have 5 ganga secretely residing in cholanadu. Rajani said she will cover all .

<< Personally i knew nothing absolutely nothing about srivanjiyam history at all .At that time when rajani was referring to many ganga like kshetrams I was thinking all rivers in present day Tamilnadu are only secretely residing . My sincere prayers for all of them to please please come out.For those who dont know where is srivanjiyam it is in between kumbakonam and tiruvarur.>>

Music
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The contrast of shurutti and anandabhairavi was very apt in giving a great non overlap. Musically they did a good job there and the krithi was well presented

5. Nagapattinam - kAyarOhanesam(R,S) - Devagandharam

Narration
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Rajani referred to another name of nagapattinam as sivarajadhani (not sure if i am right). References to neelayatakshi was also done by Rajani . Rajani talked about the dance of waves as it is nagapattinam which is in the seashore. She gave a thamizh quote of sundarar tevaram which ends with kadal nAgai

Music
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The master piece kayarOhanesam with raga and swaras was very well done . Musically from anandabhairavi with a dip in shurutii the devagandaram got in me the muse.
<< I have personally heard this krithi for the first time with a maharajapuram santhanam casette and this was the same parampara, well done with superb aesthetics.>>

6. Vazhuvoor - mAra koti koti lavanya (R) - Arabi- Mishra Jampai

Narration
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Rajani gave considerable anecdotes on vazhuvoor . References to siva and vishnu with some anecdotes on angry rishis doing yagnas to destroy siva was told very crisply by Rajani. For this song prior to J and J playing , both of them added few anecdotes that this is such a difficult arabi raga by MD that too in mishrajampai taalam . Jeyaraj also said to show the contrast of bit non ornamented MD arabi krithi we are going to play the usual ornamented arabi alapana.

<< i personally did not even know that this place is close to mayavaram till she told. >>

Music
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I personally liked both the alapana of ornamented alapana of arabi and also liked the krithi. The krithi was played by Jeyaraaj but for most part the singing was done by jayashri.Due to my aural incompetence i did not spot the drastic difference of ornamental arabi alapana and the non ornamental arabi krithi, I missed spotting the difference despite their cues.

[rajeshnat]

7. Thiruvidaimarudhur - chintayE mahalinga murthim (R) - Parasu

Narration
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Rajani gave anecdotes bit more on tiruvidaimarudhur . Rajani gave anecdotes on brahmahati , she also talked about arjuna tree and idai maduram. An anecdote where she mentioned that even Adishankara came to Tiruvidaimarudhur to proclaim and establish on advaita philosophy and some anecdote of hand of shiva was seen by Adishankara was told by Rajani.

<< This temple is very special to me when the name is mentioned i only think of TRS and Flute Mali.I personally did not know that Adishankara visited tiruvidaimarudhur. This temple is so huge and so deserted that I felt you have some chance of getting some flashes of advaita is what i thought when i visited a year and half back now with Adishankara anecdote i connected back >>

Music
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Paras is an extraordinary raga with so special muse. But for this song Jayashri was singing the whole song with very minimal heard plucks by jeyaraaj. This part was more like vocal with veena accompaniment.

8. Thiruvayaru - PranathAthi Haraya namaste - Samantha

Narration
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Rajni talked about dakshinakailasam , dharmasamvardhani, shilada rishi. She talked about markandeya story and nandi keshwara wedding festival.<< Personally the anecdotes are very rare as Thiruvayaru and Thyagaraja is what we know more than Dikshitar >>

Music
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Musically samantha is a nice raga . IIRC when rasikas concert was held for the first time I heard when vidushi K gayathri sang this samantha raga. Samantha did not soak that much deep with me

9. Thiruvarur - shree valmikalingam(R , Taanam, S , Tani) - Kambodhi

Narration
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Rajni talked with some extra passion when tiruvarur . She said the tiruvarur shiva temple is the most ancient shiva temple . With some extra twinkle she mentioned the most important fact that the trinity was also born here. Sekkhizhar worshipped and she talked about 64 shakthi peetas. She talked about utsava moorthi and Lord vishnu rested his head on valmiki natha

Music
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Musically Kambhoji was very apt for its big 5 status . This krithi was great. JEyaraaj announced he will also play taanam , he quizzed the raga in between kambhodhi and shankarabharanam that both of them played .No one in audience answered the intermediate shankara raga , I heard a bit of behag in my ears but i did not volunteer to answer behag as i knew for sure MD could have not tuned anything in behag. Shankara raga in taanam was also elaborate and was not a touch and go at all. The krithi is quite a revelation I personally hope i hear a vocal rendition soon of shree valmikalingam.

[rajeshnat]

10. Chidambaram - chintayE sabha(nottu swaras) - Shankarabharanam

Narration
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Rajni really rocked with her conclusion. I was thinking O gosh why from kambodhi to shankarabharanam . She kind of started with a bang . She connected Tirucitrambalam , cosmic dance of Lord nataraja , the mastery of western notes and how MD even did the impossible of metering with western notes but having the sahitya of chintayE sabha. Narration wise it was extremely apt to end with chidambaram and musically it was also apt with notes.

Music
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The note was a brief 2 minute musical note and i enjoyed it . There was a lovely vote of thanks by some gentleman whom I dont know, the team of veenavaadhini and volunteers were explicitly thanked . Jeyaraaj took the mic and specially thanked Tanjavur Kumar . Vidwan Kumar is a master of playing for veena concerts.

Conclusion and Shortcoming:
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- For two krithis the parasu and one more which i dont recollect the singing quotient of jayashri was completely eclipsing the veena of jeyaraaj. With ranjani already giving narration and highlighting the parts of krithi , I just dont get why these brilliant vainikas are singing so much for veena concert . For those who say it is customary for vainikas to sing parts of krithis, I can only say the great veena balachandar has not sung when he played veena . WE all are coming to hear primarily only some pristine veena sound , that too for ragas like the whole song of paras singing does not augur well. I am kind of ok though not fully in mind for them to sing few snippets but i still prefer vainikas to have total vocal advaita mounam.

+ All said J and J despite for almost all krithis where Jayashri sang critical phrases of pallavi anupallavi and few hotspot sangathis during charanam they were both musically great. They both played with saraswathi veena and I am still not able to disambiguate that much between their saraswati veena AND Radel veena . I do know Sivaramakrishnan will be furious on me with that , he was there in the concert with Nick they will add more.

++ Rajani Narration was exceptional in content . She almost spoke atleast 95 percent without even referring . She liberally quoting at times thamizh quotations like thirumoolar , sambandar,sekkhizhar was very apt for folks like me who have trouble in comprehending every second quote of sanskrit. (This has got nothing to do with Loksabha elections). I am assuming if KFI school tamil teacher is absent she will double up easily there too and may even do even better as tamil teacher.

++ Rajani gave some elements of surprise at regular intervals . Like i was wondering O why shankarabharanam after kambodhi.She gave an exceptional closure on chidambaram . She was not interested in any repetition at all, and did not do any NOvember Fest MC like thank you for your Anandabhairavi and let us go to srivanjiyam. Her anecdotes sequence etc was so deep and more importantly crisp . The only attention that she did was to wait for the Arkay camera man to swing the camera from vainikas to narrator She was very prepared and didnot see the notes . She internalized everything and then only spoke.

+++ Just looking at the song list the most known krithi is only shankaram abhiram and kAyarOhanesam . Almost all the other krithis are very very rare.As a team the entire team was serious and they only had their focus on presenting how Dikshitar travelled to each of this shiva shrines with perhaps a very thin line on presenting advaita philosophy with the most important musical muse always staying consistent.

I am attending concert after near 5 to 6 weeks . I generally like vocal concerts and with such a long absence I was only initially thinking about tambaram where there was a vocal concert of TMK on saturday , apart from that and this there was few more concerts in hourly capsules which ended with some lecdem . The IPL first match visuals killed that drive and I just lost and settled away from tambaram to mylapore.

I immensely thank the artists and the narrator for doing their musical and narrative job with a great adherance to give a great a new angle , I only wish in general atleast the vocal quotient of vainikas do come down considerably in general or atleast as a compromise bit more cut will immensely help J and J in hopefully presenting to more venues that is a KambOdhi wish. Having said There is also arkay recording available i hope that does not cannibalize their future exclusive siva presentations to a more wider live audience across other cities other than chennai. That is just a shankarabharanam note.

Overall an excellent concert-lecdem for 2 hours and 35 mins.

[veenajj]

Dear Rajesh,
At the outset we thank you for having taken time out and attending the program. We also note and wholeheartedly appreciate your very detailed observations. As fellow forumites we are taking the liberty to respond to some of your takeaways from the program . Normally we do not come in between the forumite and her/his observations...we are making a small exception in this case as we feel the focus of this program has not been fully recognised ... I do understand your heavy prior commitments that does not give you enough time to attend our other concerts... else you would have realised that we DO NOT sing in our concerts... only the neraval portion is sung to showcase the sahityam ... we trust our instruments to do the needful. In this case the fact remains that the sahitya gets prominence ...hence singing becomes essential ...else magnum opus rare kritis like Mara Koti (Arabhi) and chintaye mahalingamurtim in very rare pathantharam, will go unnoticed....the prime focus is to show how Dikshitar has composed the kritis h- both the sahitya and the musical content (our very humble attempt to bring to the audience the "vainika gayaka" element in those of his kritis which are not familiar ). The kutcheri element takes a backseat ... now how much is enough is a matter of individual assessment. ...please feel free to disagree sir ... but hope you appreciate our approach... maybe if you feel inclined you can download our app (veenajj - both android and Apple versions are available) as demonstration of our assertion as above where nothing has been sung, it is all rendered on the veena only ... once again we welcome your observations ...we are also very thankful for finding time to come for the program and patiently describing every single detail.. we wish to see you more.

[rajeshnat]

VeenaJJ,
Few years back I have attended few of your concerts and I recollect that you did not sing . That is nice to hear as default You Donot sing. Having said a humble thought most of the veena concerts always come(atleast in chennai) with only a thematic angle. So there is a chance that your strategy of singing few sangathis here and there will get too often repeated,that too with more choice of rare MD krithis which appears as your forte . Your explanation is partially convincing yes .Thanks for writing .

Also I forgot one other part which I did not mention that you may have to pay bit more attention in future. Jayashri had the contact veena microphone and I am assuming the second microphone that was placed in front of microphone for her to sing also picked up bit more volume when she played in comparison to jeyaaraj's play which only had the contact microphone . During kAmbodhi when jeyaraaj was leading with jayashri repeating it was very very slightly odd with more volume for the secondary player . I am not saying to jack up jeyaraaj volume, but if you work on that bit more in balance of relative volume that would be great . Special kudos to Tanjavur kumar who never robbed with even one single HIT despite the theme being Lord Siva with so much asura anecdotes thrown in liberally by Rajani.

All,
I just reedited the second post to put all the song list in one straight through post .

[arasi]

J&J and Rajani,
Everything you do, means Sraddha to me. Add to it vidvat, care and refinement in expression. Several concerts of yours that I have attended during the course of our Rasikas.org years mean one thing which is precious to me--a tranquil, meditative state they creates. People who know a bit of music (like me), scholars and even those who are not exposed to CM at all, can all listen to you and feel peaceful as they come out of the hall. I wish II could hear you in person in the near future. It has been quite some time.

Rajesh,
Indulgent as I am with you and am in awe of your fervent rasika capabilities, this is a review where your akku vERu ANi vERu (expert take-apart-and analyze) approach just doesn't work for me. An excellent concert doesn't need a review which goes on emphasizing an aspect of it which didn't sit well with you:) Deja vu? Ahem...

J&J's art springs from a refined culture of music. Their response too speaks volumes of it.

[rajeshnat]

Click on the below link to see a photograph tracing their gurus which was there in Arkays Hall . They trace all the way to Muttuswami Dikshitar, this photo is just awesome and divine . Fyi, mridangist Anantha R Krishnan is also paternal grand son of A AnanthaRama Iyer.

https://imgur.com/a/nQI3JHO

[Rajani]

Thank you Rajesh for your detailed review and Arasi for your warm words.

There was a handout given at the end with a gist of the narrative and of the songs. If anyone would likea copy, please send me a mail through rasikas and I shall mail it to you.

A few factual corrections in Rajesh's summary :
1.The form of Shiva in Tirukkadavur is Kala-samhara-murthy ( destroyer of Yama)
2.Madurai is also called Halasya kshetra
3.Mayavaram is one of the six places on the banks of Kaveri that are equal to Kashi
4."We have 5 ganga secretely residing in cholanadu" - I am not sure which statement I made led to this conclusion. Ganga resides secretly only in Srivanjiam as far as I know. (I liked your comment on inviting all secret rivers out
5.The story in Tiruvaiyaru is LIKE Markandeya, but of another boy, Sucharita
6. I only quoted Sekkizhar describing Tiruvarur and did not say he worshipped there (though very likely he has visited)
Vishnu rested His head on His bow, not on Valmikanatha

Just in case someone takes these on the basis of the review. I know the narration was fact-filled so it is very understandable that these minor errors have come in.

[Rajani]

The Chidambaram song was "cintayEham sadA cit sabhA nAyakam". The mention of Dikshitar's mastery of western notes and how he even did the impossible of metering with western notes but having the sahitya in Sanskrit, was done by Smt. Jaysri,