Vishnudev Namboothiri@SKGS on Dec 28th,2019

[rajeshnat]

Vishnudev Namboothiri@SKGS on Dec 28th,2019
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Vocal : Vishnudev Namboothiri
Violin : Apoorva Krishna, student of Anuradha Sridhar
Mrudangam : K H Vineet , googled to find that he is student of Palghat mahesh kumar and now learning for few years with Patri
Tambura : Latha ??

Concert Type : Nirvana/Free
Time/Day : 06:30 to 08:30 pm , Saturday
Sabha/Hall : SKGS ,kamakOti hall

01.Missed the first song in sAranga , assuming it is varnam
02. gAnamoorthE (S)- ganamoorthi -T
swaras were there missed noting the mins

03. gAnarasamudan(S) - bEgaDa - papanasam sivan
7 mins swaras
04. nee chittamu (R)- dhanyAsi - T
9 mins alapana and 6 mins violin return

05. brOva bArAmA (S)- bahudAri -T
6 mins swaras

06A. inta sowkhya (R N S T) - kApi -T
12 mins alapana and 7 mins violin return
8 mins neraval in swara rAga laya sudhArasamandu
10 mins swaras
06B. tani for 12 mins

07. gangAdheeswaram shankaram - sindhubhairavi- swami surajananda

Concerts in plenty in december has the disadvantage of excessive spread with very less crowd for 95% concerts during december, but that is the worry for artists. But for me as a rasika, more choices within a day means i will atleast make it to one concert . Around 10AM looking at the paper thought of going to two NRI brain drained artist one is salem shriram and the other sangeetha swaminathan both successive afternoon and evening I concerts in vanimahal . Then wanted to make it to Ramana balachandran organized by kamalAmba. Work pushed me almost till 05:45 , with the work nee nama roopamulaku that late crossing mount road to east was ruled out from my home as there is teynampet and gemini traffic snarls came on the way.

Then decided to be either at Mudhra which had a drama and skipped that and went to SKGS mini hall to hear Vishnudev . I only heard vishnudev once last year in BVB Mini for Karthik Fine Arts . While there are two dozen artists from the school of PSN mama , personally apart say the musically brilliant abhishek and janaranjaka artist Ra Ga , this vidwan Vishnudev impressed me big time in yesterdays concert .

HE sings great alapana with superb brigas , despite 2 hours concert he superbly worked backward to present a very raga devata filled concert . Krithi rendition is clean with nice laya poruttam . Swaras and neraval were really well done with enough fireworks to enjoy , no imagination to chase a 19th century treatise singing that one gandharam for a minute and leaving another 25 mins to wait paitiently -Oh ok what next .

i went late to see two other artists , i had to confirm if it was saranga that came at the end . Not a bad miss thank god it was not a abhogi or bhairavi. He typecasts with a certain semmangudi trajectory with a lot of pidis like say a brilliant vidwan of our years TN Seshagopalan. GanamurthE brought in a tns typecast for me superb swaras with a dash of notes like ma ma mA ri sa ri ga ri was impressive. Begada came in next with a direct dash to the ganarasamudan nice diction with lovely swaras.

Dhanyasai unfolded as fractured submain with a superb alapana . Dhanyasi contours bit reminded like KVN for me, pracheena dhanyasi it was keeping the sadguru muse and mood with cittam - mind intact with the serenity of dhanyasi. Some one asked from audience to plan for a pallavi , but Vishnu said not today they asked me at 08 :30 . I thought it was a timely request as it was asked at the end of submain . Anyway great fireworks came in with bravO bahudari Rama with superb kalpana , Fast fillers with swaras cycle being long is not sung by 95 out of 100 musicians, vishnu was hovering around 80 percentile like Suryaprakash, Vishnu was semmangudish but the young and crisp violinist apoorva gave the MMI firework crescendo of play and stop returns in bahudari . I am assuming Lalgudi school refuses to accept any swaras other than ganakaladhara school as the best school which in my opinion is easily the most 100 percent perfect thought process

What a kapi it was so matured and elegant , alapana edutta vidam was bit offbeat ,did i find a trace of abheri there in kapi . I dont know but lovely slamdunk of sangathis to give a clear meditative 3 pointers and sharp two pointers with superb brigas. No points for my guess as the main was inta sowkya , lovely singing with superb neraval nallA anubhavichu paadinan. I personally think sadguru has created the most magical line for neraval there with swara raga laya and vishnu did very well. Last was a short finish with surajananda closure of sindhubhairavi , vishnu was obediant to stop at exactly 08:30

Young Apoorva krishna from california is a student of Anuradha sridhar. Anuradha must be proud to have two lovely student sruthi sarathi and apoorva krishna . She was slightly off in dhanyasi loosing proportion strength but her kapi return was really superb, essence of meditative sangathis with lovely brighas was well done . Her fast return in bahudari was a lalgudi special for me.

For me the biggest discovery was this mrudangist KH Vineet. I have never seen him , his play was very impressive with an arsenal of strokes. He keeps filling with so many patterns and if he develops bit more muscle he may fall in line with few matured youngsters like Arjun ganesh , Praveen sparsh . He is very unobtrusive and has great left and right touches , possibly that has been specially taught by his present guru Patri satish kumar . In the last 10 days i heard two students of patri , one is prashanth and now this Vineet , patri must be as deighted as Anuradha sridhar

All said vishnu brings an intense individuality and also a very pracheena typecast of working in search of his paramaguru Semmangudi.Best wishes for him to have a great GOD Father in this crowded circuit

Overall an excellent concert for 2 hours.

[thanjavooran]

Rajeshnat Avl,
Very good and exhaustive review. As you feel too many concerts in a day in a week make Rasikas and Vidwans in a head reeling situation. No doubt traveling from one end to other is very difficult. OK. We seniors are satisfied with reviews from experts. In fact Anuradha of Lalgudi school is the best Guru for all up coming disciples in Bay area. Thanks for the good review.
With wishes,
Thanjavooran
29 12 2019

[Sivaramakrishnan]

The original Degree Kaapi of the season...