Sangeetha Swaminathan: Rasikalaya, London, Sat 5 Feb 2011

[jayaram]

Sangeetha Swaminathan: Live at Rasikalaya, London, Saturday 5th February 2011

Vocal: Sangeetha Swaminathan
Violin: Jyotsna Srikanth
Mridangam: RN Prakash

Venue: Church of Ascension Hall, Ealing, London.
Time: Concert started at 5:30pm and lasted 3 hrs 20 mins.

(R : Ragam, N: Nerval, S: Swaram, T: tani Avartanam. The mElakarta rAgam reference is also provided in the body of the review.)
01. Evari bOdhana - Abhogi varnam - Adi - Patnam Subramania Iyer
02. PranamAmyaham - Gowla - Adi - Mysore Vasudevachar (S)
03. Na jIva dhAra - Bilahari - Adi (2 kalai) – Tyagaraja
04. Prasanna venkaTEswaram – Vati Vasantabhairavi - Tisra triputa - Muttuswami Dikshitar (R,S)
05. Vazhi maraittirukkude - Natakuranji - Misrachapu - Gopalakrishna Bharati
06. AruL seiyya vENDum ayyA - Rasikapriya - Adi - Kotiswara Iyer (S)
07. Chakkani rAja - Kharaharapriya - Adi (2 kalai) – Tyagaraja (R,N,S,T)
- Tani avartanam -
08. KanchadaLAyadAkshi - Kamalamanohari - Adi - Muttuswami Dikshitar
09. Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi - Hamsanandi - Misra triputa
Pallavi: "raghunAyaka raghunandana raghuvara rAmAbhirAma (nI) samAnamevaru"
(arudi after rAmAbhirAma) – samam eduppu
Ragamalika - takeoff on each word in pallavi: Hamsadhwani (raghunAyaka), Sahana (raghunandana), Pantuvarali (raghuvara), Darbar (rAmabhirAma), Kharaharapriya (samAnamevaru)
- followed by swaras in each raga
10. RAmanai bhajittAl - Mand - Adi - Papanasam Sivan
11. Nanda nandana - Shuddh sarang - Adi - Meera bhajan
12. Tillana - Sindhubhairavi - Adi - Tanjavur S Kalyanaraman
13. Mangalam - Paras - Adi

Smt Sangeetha Swaminathan's concert for Rasikalaya was full of sowkhyam and vidwat. Sangeetha comes from a strong musical background. She had her initial training from her father Shri Karur D Krishnamurthy, who is a disciple of vidwans Mayavaram Vaidyanathan Iyer, Madurai G.S. Mani, and vidushi Vidya Shankar (veena and vocal). He has also received special training under Sri R.M. Sundaram on Kotiswara Iyer kritis. Sri Krishnamurthy is a leading performer and has been running a music school in Chennai for the past 30 years.
Sangeetha has continued her musical training with Smt Sudha Raghunathan, and thus belongs to the great lineage established by maestros GNB and MLV. And this came through quite well in her concert for Rasikalaya.

Sangeetha started the concert with the classic Abhogi (mela 22) varnam of Patnam Subramania Iyer. There were a few brisk flourishes that reminded one of the great GNB and Kalyanaraman.

This was followed by Mysore Vasudevachar's vinayaka stuti in Gowla (mela 15). This ghana ragam sets an auspicious beginning for any concert, and Sangeetha presented a pleasant rendition of this kriti. She also included a crisp swarakalpana at the end, with nice phrases around ma and ni.

Next up was the rarely heard masterpiece by Tyagaraja swami in Bilahari (mela 29). In this kriti, Tyagaraja says to Rama that He is the crux of his life. Sangeetha brought out the bhavam of the song so well in her rendition. This kriti has a matrix of several (approx 16) sangathis in the pallavi line, that explore the nuances of this majestic ragam. Sangeetha exhibited her vidwat very well - the gliding phrases in the chittaswaram were done beautifully.

The sub-main item then followed. The alapanam for this brought out the raga bhavam so beautifully, within just the first few phrases. This is something I really like about Sangeetha's singing style, namely her ability to establish the raga swaroopam so well right away. The Vati Vasantabhairavi (mela 14) kriti of Dikhitar that followed was well constructed. I was expecting to hear the famous Tyagaraja kriti Nee dayarAdha, but Sangeetha chose to sing the rarely heard Prasanna Venkateswaram of Dikshitar. Our team member Rishi Sharma is a big fan of Dikshitar, and I could see a big smile on his face as this song was sung. The kriti, the rendition, all were soaked in sampradayam. Jyotsna's returns in the swarakalpana were quite good.

A few words related to this kriti that I received from Rishi Sharma are relevant here:
“This kriti extols the virtues of Lord Prasanna Venkatesa Perumal in Tanjavur (‘prasiddha tanja nagara sthitam’ in the samashti charanam). This temple was built in the period of Achuta Nayakar (16th century) by Maratha king Pratap Singh. The temple is right in the centre of the four Raja streets. The Lord is also referred to as ‘malai ERiya perumal’ (one who ascended the mount).
It is believed that Lord Vishnu appeared one night in the dreams of Pratap Singh as Venkatesa Perumal. Answering the King’s prayers, Lord is said to have asked the King to pick up the idol of the Lord along with the Thaayar lying in the temple tank and install them here at the temple. One has to climb about 10 steps to reach the temple. Believed to be a Prarthana sthalam, Prasanna Venkatesa Perumal is said to solve all the problems of devotees.
Other well-known Prasanna Venkatesa Perumals in Tamil Nadu are in Chennai, Gunaseelam and in Tirupparkadal (30kms from Kanchipuram).
To quickly digress, an interesting point to note about the Prasanna Venkatesa Perumal temple in Tirupparkadal (I assume that this is the hometown of renowned violinist Sri Veeraraghavan) is that the Perumal is in a standing position atop an avudaiyar (the base of the Shiva lingam) i.e. instead of the lingam we have Lord Vishnu. This can be considered the truest sangamam of Hari and Haran. Additionally, the sthala vriksham is the Vilva as opposed to the Tulasi.”

As soon as Sangeetha hummed the first few notes of the next item, one could hear Natakuranji coming through clearly. And what followed was an absolutely serene Natakuranji (mela 28). Sangeetha has a certain divine quality to her voice, and that came across so well in her rendition of this lovely Gopalakrishna Bharati kriti, taken from Nandanar charitram. The misra chapu talam it is set in gives this kriti a nice gait, which Sangeetha exploited to the full.

Here again, Rishi sent me the following relevant details:
“This kriti relates to the episode in Nandanar’s life at the temple in Tiruppungur (about 5kms away from Aadanur where Nandanar was born). Nandanar under the stigma of being a low-caste individual pines to see Lord Shiva at Chidambaram. His first step is to see Lord Shivalokanathan at Tiruppungur. As he was not allowed inside the temple, he seeks darshan from outside but he sees a bull in his way. Not realising that the bull is Nandikeshwarar, the greatest devotee of Shiva, he laments that a bull is obstructing his vision of the Lord. However, the Lord pays heed to Nandanar’s prayers and instructs Nandideva to step aside (‘sattre vilagi irum pillai, sannidhanam maraikkudam’). At Tiruppungar today you still can see that the Nandi is not in a straight line with the Garbha griha and is shifted about 4 feet to the right.”

After this sedate kriti, what followed was a brisk Rasikapriya (mela 72). Kotiswara Iyer's evergreen classic was rendered with great energy and vigour. Sangeetha included a detailed swarakalpana, and the phrases around ga, ri swaras of this vivadi ragam were sung so well. Equally competent returns came from Jyotsna on the violin, ably supported by Prakash on the mridangam.

Next up was the main piece of the evening in that raga of ragas, Kharaharapriya (mela 22 - vEda chakra). Sangeetha gave us a detailed alapana of this soothing ragam, caressing notes deftly. I especially liked her thara sthayi delineations. The kriti that she sang was the Tyagaraja swami classic Chakkani raja, where the saint tells us to stay on the virtuous path. She brought out the sowkhyam of this kriti so well. Sangeetha sang the neraval at the charanam line 'kaNTiki sundara'. She explored the beauty of the ragam in both the neraval and swaras, with good support from Jyotsna on the violin.

Sri Prakash then gave us a superb thani avarthanam. The energy level that he brings to his mridangam playing is amazing. Prakash’s mridangam playing is crisp and each stroke comes across with full clarity.

After the thani, Sangeetha sang the popular Kamalamanohari (mela 27) kriti of Dikshitar. I liked her bringing out the swarAkshara in a few places, e.g. kAmAkshi, where she wove the ‘ma’ so beautifully with the swara. The kriti was rendered briskly, indicating to us that another major item was coming up.

The major item was Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi in Hamsanandi (mela 53). This is one of the ragas in the Carnatic repertoire that can have a Hindustani flavour (corresponds to Hindustani Puriya), besides being a solid Carnatic ragam. I felt Sangeetha brought out an occasional Hindustani shade nicely.

During tanam singing, Prakash joined in on the mridangam, giving it a lovely Navaratri mandapam ambience!

The pallavi lyrics gave us an indication of the ragamalika to follow. The misra triputa talam was well chosen, providing enough aksharas to include all the words in the pallavi. Sangeetha gave full justice to the pallavi, and executed the anulomam-vilomam part very well, with strict adherence to layam. The intelligently crafted ragamalika part was delivered next, using the pallavi words as starting points for famous Tyagaraja songs in those ragams. The takeoff point for each ragam’s word was at the appropriate akshara – so e.g. ‘samAnamevaru’ started right towards the end of the tAla cycle. I enjoyed this part very much - the transition to Darbar was especially exquisite.

When I asked Sangeetha after the concert about the pallavi structure, she told me that she had modeled it after a similar pallavi concept that Smt Charumathi Ramachandran employs.
The RTP lasted a total of 45 minutes – very satisfying indeed. And the audience showed their appreciation with a long applause at the end of the RTP.

The post-RTP section included a nice Mand kriti by Papanasam Sivan, a Meera bhajan, and a Sindhubhairavi tillana by the great Tanjavur Kalyanaraman.
The mangalam in Paras (Om mangalam OmkAra mangalam) was elaborately sung. I have never heard this particular mangalam before. If anyone knows who the composer is, please do fill in.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable concert. Sangeetha represents an upcoming group of younger artistes who are serious singers, who believe in delivering solid concerts devoid of gimmicks. May their tribe grow.

The accompanists Jyotsna and Prakash provided top-class support, and helped to elevate the kutcheri to a high level. Jyotsna is a disciple of violin vidwan (late) Sri RR Keshavamurthy. She is a leading violinist based in London, and has been a regular accompanist for various artistes from India. Prakash is a disciple of vidwan Sri KN Krishnamurthy of Bangalore, and has been in London for several years, performing for several artistes from India, in addition to teaching students in the London area.

The post-concert audience feedback has been very positive. As has been the practice with our concerts, we ensured a few points were adhered to:
1. Start on time - we started at 5:30pm sharp, even though we had a last-minute emergency issue with the audio that we resolved with amazing alacrity.
2. Audio system performed well (personally, I feel we still need to work on this a bit more).
3. Audience was attentive and quiet. Sangeetha mentioned that she was really impressed that they stayed on till the end. This is an accomplishment for us, especially because London audiences are still not used to 3+ hours concerts as yet. This concert lasted 3 hrs 20 mins.
4. The intro and vote of thanks were brief and to the point.
5. Packed dinner in the form of home-made pulioyoharai and curd rice were provided at the end of the concert. This again was well appreciated by everyone who attended the concert.

In addition to all the Rasikalaya volunteers who worked hard to make this event a success, there is one person who deserves special mention. Sri Vedanarayanan ('vEda chakra' mentioned above!), the father of our team member Rishi Sharma, was full of enthusiasm and coordinated the seating arrangements and also took the photographs of the event with meticulous care.

A few of the pictures he took on the evening are provided with this concert review.

As Rasikalaya completes one year, we are proud of our achievements to date. At the same time, we do realise we have quite some distance to cover as we move forward. We are confident that with the support of our well-wishers we can accomplish our goal of bringing quality, sampradaya sangeetham to our fellow London rasikas.
To get an idea of our origins about a year ago, you can read a review of our inaugural concert (held in May 2010) here: http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=13156
(This review by Rishi has set a gold standard for reviews, in my opinion.)

Jayaram
(with input from Rishi and Ajit – and the rest of the team)

http://www.rasikalaya.org.uk

[jayaram]

[rajeshnat]

Jayaram and Rishi
Brilliant one , not a gold standard perhaps much more. Are you bringing sangeetha swaminathan from US to UK or is she asked to sing in UK when she goes enroute to US from india.I heard her so far only once in a concert , last year in Mini-BVB, the kalyAnavasantham was just haunting. Prof Trichy sankaran ---> Salem Shriram---> Sangeetha swaminathan "Brain Drain Loss at its worst". Sangeetha Swaminathan has a real soothing voice.

[PUNARVASU]

A beautiful review of a beautiful concert! And the 'pillaiyar vigraham' is beautiful too!
Beautiful photos!
Enjoyed reading/seeing the post/photos.

[Nick H]

3 hours 20 minutes! With a 45-minute RTP! Wow, what a concert!

I am sorry that I missed Jyotsna's concerts here in Chennai, this year (I missed most concerts this season ) as I wanted to hear her and also talk. I think that Prakash and his brother visit their home town, but we don't see them here.

Your attention to detail in presenting of the concerts seems amazing: I'm sure it is appreciated by performers and artists. I really hope that one of my London visits coincides with one of your events. I don't know if I will be this year.

[Rishi Sharma]

Dear Rajesh/Punarvasu/Nick and all

Thanks for your kind words. We at Rasikalaya are doing our best to promote 'life's ruling passion' that is carnatic music. We hope that we are able to host such concerts for the forseeable future.

Abraham Lincoln mentions in his Gettysburg Address that 'this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth'.
Rasikalaya was formed with the same ideals; paraphrasing the above, that carnatic music in London shall have a new birth of freedom - and that sabha will be of the rasikas, by the rasikas and for the rasikas. We pray to Pillaiyar that this continues....

Rajesh: Sangeetha Swaminathan is a friend of our team-member Ajit and this concert planning started in May 2010 right after our first concert with Smt. Vasundhra Rajagopal. She came to the UK en-route to US from India.

Nick: I do hope that you will be able to attend our concerts soon.
On a side note, in a previous concert review of mine, you mentioned that you had regular practise sessions at 253 East Lane, North Wembley, London. As you will know, there is a high school opposite 253 East Lane namely Wembley High Technology College formerly known as Wembley High School. If you were at the above address between 1996-2002, there is a good chance that I would have bumped into you, as I studied at that school during those years. It is a small world indeed!!!!

[Karnatika]

All:

We at Rasikalaya are pleased to present Sangeetha Swaminathan's recent concert in its entirety with all of you online at mycarnatic.org

The concert link is: http://mycarnatic.org/concerts/?title=13

We invite you to view the concert and hope you will help spread the word about our focus on sampradaya sangeetham here in London.

Regards,
Ajit (for Rasikalaya)

[Nick H]

Nick: I do hope that you will be able to attend our concerts soon.
On a side note, in a previous concert review of mine, you mentioned that you had regular practise sessions at 253 East Lane, North Wembley, London. As you will know, there is a high school opposite 253 East Lane namely Wembley High Technology College formerly known as Wembley High School. If you were at the above address between 1996-2002, there is a good chance that I would have bumped into you, as I studied at that school during those years. It is a small world indeed!!!!

I remember that there is a school there, and also that part of the school was used for weekend classes by the local Tamil community.

I was quite often at 253, up to when I left London in early 2005, maybe as early as 2002, maybe 2000 even.

[weird.world]

awesome concert.Her brilliance and creativity is clearly seen in her performance.Few stunning sangati's seems like spontaneous presentation. I am going gaga for rasikapriya swaram. RTP : I have heard Sudha Ragunathan rendering the same pallavi 2004@ Cleveland. Thanks to Rasikalaya for uploading this video.

[rajeshnat]

I just heard this concert in the last few days, enjoyed a lot for most of the part. In particular the rasikapriya and also that haunting vasanthabhairavi (which had touches of the brilliant SKR). I have personally heard sangeethA only once live last year,came up with a feeling then that hey I have to hear more of her after her kalyAna vasantham pallavi then. Now after a long time , that too staying in a land of near zero CM I got this concert .Thanks to raghukumar and Jayaram/Rishi to upload this lovely concert .

The pallavi was bit long to an extent stringing 5 ragas in both pallavi and swaras possibly got me a bit of tiresome feeling (again that could be a reason of me hearing concerts along with multitasking with daily work, possibly I must have been engrossed a lot if I had heard her in live).

All said , sangeetha gives a luminous touch of a vidushi who has the most endurance in my opinion , none other than Smt ML Vasanthakumari who is her parama guru . Also looking at the song list and hearing a lot of her effortless brighas , one can say possibly she is one of the finest torchbearers of Smt MLV -GNB , and one can also mention a lot of touch of SKR in atleast vasanthabhairavi etc.

Kudos to Jayaram/Rishi/Ajit and rasikAlaya team for achieving what he usually calls a pure sampradhAya music , rasikAlaya achieved that with this brigha inbuilt MLV in the making vidushi with a sound support from both violinst and mridangist(who in particular I am hearing for the first time).

[Karnatika]

Thank you both for your encouragement and feedback. Yes, the concert proved to be a great experience for all of us at Rasikalaya as well as the rasikas who attended. It was opportune as well when Raghu reached out to us from mycarnatic.org

SS herself mentioned that she was very inspired by and a fan of Sri Kalyanaraman's music and style, so your observation is accurate!

The rasikapriya swaras were a nice touch indeed, and if anything, when we listened to the concert live, we would loved to hear a longer tanam but the concert from start to finish clocked at around 3 hrs 20 min, which is a true rarity in London these days. The vasanta bhairavi piece proved to be a big hit with the audience as well.

Regards,
Ajit