Sreevalsan Menon@nAdopasana(PS High School)on July 03rd,2011

[rajeshnat]

Dr Sreevalsan Menon@nAdopasana(PS High School)on July 03rd,2011
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Vocal - Dr Sreevalsan Menon
Violin - V Sanjeev
Mrudangam - K Madhwaprasad
Duration/Day - 2 hours/Sunday

1A.slokham "om namO bhagavathE vAsudevAya"
1B. Sami ninne koriyunnanu - shreerAgam - garbapurivAsar
2. sivalOka nAdhanai (RS,N,S)- mAyAmAlavagowlai - GKB
6 mins neraval in pallavi line
6 mins swaras

3. bhuvini dhaasuDanE (R S) - shreeranjani - T
6 mins alapana and 5 mins violin return
5 mins swaras

4. pancAshatpeeTa roopini - karnaaTaka dEvagaandaari(devagAndharam)- MD
5.sAramEgAni (R S)- paNtuvarAli - T
7 mins alapanai and 6 mins violin return
4 mins swaras

6A. bhavati vishvAsO(R N S T) - mukhAri - ST
8 mins alApana and 7 mins violin return
7 mins neraval in "??chitta nandashree padmanAbha murArE??"
6 mins swaras
6B. tani for 5 mins

7. sAgara sayana vibHo - bhAgeshri - MDR
8. bhagyAda lakshmi - madhyamavati - PD

Two years back the same nadopasana trust provided an oppurtunity to this Phd scientist Dr Menon, that was in gokhale hall at that time Sreevalsan looked very different . That was my first concert of him , he had a well groomed hair then. But as the curtains opened at dot 06:30 pm, I was seeing from a distance a bhagavathar hairstyle , I was wondering if it was Patri Satish kumar who had grown a moustache and started singing . Alas as he sang few lines of Om nAmo BhagavathE vAsudevAya with his melliflous voice , I atleast got connected that he is the same Sreevalsan ,though in a different visual avathar. Of course who cares what visual avathar a musician is , I am just worried about the 30 cms synaptic distance between vocalist mouth and the head of the microphone and not if the vidwan has a bhagavathar hair style or snooker ball shining head.

Sreevalsan has a lovely voice and a really high shruthi sudham . His enunciation of lyrics is really top class , one did not find any extraordinary alapana or a neraval or swaras that has so much of manodharmic firework pattern , but CM has a place for every musician to adopt one's style . His style was finding a right balance throughout with a continued sowkhyam , there was no iota of overstretching any thing.

After the slokham he went with a varnam of shreerAgam , there was a bit of volume problem , i could not hear violin and the mridangam artist was just settling. But from #2 he sang every number with a lovely carnatic precision and it was quite a joy to hear his concert. SivalOka nAdhanai was a cracker every thamizh sahityam word was at its place , the neraval was in the same pallavi line (I think he has a style of taking neraval in pallavi line , even last time I heard the same for jagadhA in nAttai), the swaras were rapid fire sequence of his semmangudi lineage and it was well done.

Shreeranjani alapana was bit less aggressive and bit soft but nevertheless well done , his krithi rendition was nice and the swara kalpana patterns were to the point and aesthetic.The filler of MD in devagandharam was well done , his diction in sanskrit was not that far from thamizh or telugu all reaching the zone of excellence.

PantuvarAli alApana was not a roll roll thunder of a semmangudi mama , that too when he sang sAramEgAni I thought it would be roll roll thunder like maharajapuram santhanam , he got that roll from anupallavi .The mridangist could have played bit faster for pantuvarali . In hindsight pantuvarAli was a daring choice to sing after RS, N,S in mmgowlai and R,S of shree ranjani.

There was something special for a thirsty rasika like me , after hearing Semmangudi's recording of bhavati visvAso I was thinking , will I ever get an oppurtunity to hear that lovely number in mukhari.May be I have to goto thiruvananthapuram was what I used to think . BUt Thiruvananthapuram with a most poignant mukhari came to me from sreevalsan. It was a lovely mukhari rendition , to an extent I would have been happier if he had sung bit more in neraval and swaras(especially) , but few neraval patterns was superb , his voice with impeccable shruthi sudham was a treat to my ears.

There were two tukkadas one a MDR number of sagara sayana vibhO which he sang beautifully with a lovely thrust of few repeated patterns in prabhO at the end was quite unique . I think if I recollect it right he ended up the same krithi bhagyAda in my first concert of his , but this rendition in my second concert was a slight let down , he announced he had to catch a train and with that pathaTTam(restlessness), the bharammA went bit rushed and was more pOlamappA.

Accompanist:
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Our fellow forumite Sanjeev's plus was evident in his returns and a really high shruthi sense , but almost every alApana return he did not follow the pakkavadhya rule of proportion, it was consistently long .I wish he works in that. I have not heard this mridangist madhwaprasad at all and he was just good , when it is sarvalaghu he was right there . But few changes in patterns there was a bit of delay in adjustment. At times the formations and the sound was bit too raw . His tani was quite quick making way for the return train journey of Sreevalsan.

THis is just my second concert experience of sreevalsan and I am very impressed by his music.Carnatic intensity is quite prevelant for almost every sangathi of his, there is not much of fireworks as his paramaguru SSI , but with a little approximation I can say it was a KVN sowkhyam with a DKJ proportion.

Overall a very good to excellent concert for 2 hours(I only wished his train left an hour later).

[arasi]

Rajesh,
A morning after all the Fourth of July fireworks sounds for me--and your brand of firecracker of a review to start the day with!
I like Sreevalsan Menon's concerts too--his sedate presentation which can have its own sparkle every now and then. I've heard him in person three or four times and find his music very agreeable. He has nidAnam and sukham in his music except when he has to catch that train! This is true of all performers. As we all do, they get a bit concerned if they have to be on a train soon after a concert--more so these days with the traffic snarls. Hope there were no speeches.
Good to hear that Sanjeev accompanied him ably. Haven't heard the mrudangist. Is he from Kerala?
As for your review, after all the paTTAsu, your muththAYppu (I only wish his train had left an hour later), the built-in refrain of the review made it a good finishing line.

[kssr]

Sri. Sreevalasan has a good voice and good knowledge. I have heard at least 3 full concerts. Sometime last year there was the special concert of Muthuswamy deekshitar's compositions at BTM academy. He has amazing information of the genius composer. Besides the musical content itself, the context in which a particular song has been written, its meaning, different "types" of compositions and so on. It was a lecdem kind of presentation, with HK Venkatram on violin . There was also a string of MD's "notes" in sankarabharanam.

The amount of hardwork that goes behind the making of good artists is simply awe inspiring.