Suryaprakash@swarna venkatesha deekshitar on July 20th,2011

[rajeshnat]

Suryaprakash@swarna venkatesha deekshitar Jayanthi on July 20th,2011
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Vocal : Suryaprakash
Violin : S VaradarAjan
Mrudangam : Tanjavur Murugabhoopathy
KanjirA : KV Gopalakrishnan
Concert duration/Day : 2 hours and 45 minutes / Wednesday
Occassion : Exlusive Swarna Deekshitar Compositions by Swarna Jayanthi trust
Hall : Narada gAna sabha - Mini Hall

1. shivAthraya mahAgaNapathim (RS ,S) - nAttai
swaras for 3 mins
2. manam iRangAdhA iRaivA (N,S) - mAyAmAlavaGowlai
neraval for 5 mins in the line "pAdi thirinda bhakthAr intha pAriniLE uyRNDhAr"
swaras for 3 mins

3. taayE dayai purivAyE thaRuNamidhE (R,S) - ranjani
7 mins alApanai in ranjani and 4 mins violin return
5 mins swaras

After hearing very very few Swarna VenkatEsha deekshitar compositions , decided to go this concert , it turned out to be a aesthetic feast . The start in nAttai with a voice that usually takes no time to warm up is the usual sareeram of suryaprakash. But when nattai becomes just not I ,when the team gels early on , it is a really kalaikattufying concert .THere were few rounds of cittaswaras and swaras at the end where percussion got well settled.

One of my goosebump song is the rendition of KVN's manamiRangAdhA . Suryaprakash started in a very vilambit giving lot of spacing and he started with the anupallavi line kanaka sabayiL dinamum and looped back to the pallavi manam iRangAdhA , it was very aesthetic and swaras were very manOdharmic kind of more musiri touch.

The submain in ranjani was very well done , this krithi had a right spacing and lovely lines with a really nice return by varadu. Swaras were done dazzling fast and I liked the last round a lot with varadu giving a great return.

4. vanDEham chandra tarAtmajam (RS)- bEgaDa
5. kaNdavarkku kaNavilum - kuntalavarAli

6A. devAdi devA nee vA thiru uru murugA (R N S T) - shanmughapriyA
19 mins alapana and 10 mins violin return
neraval in the same pallavi line devAdi devA nee vA thiru uru murugA guhA shanmughA for 6 mins
swaras for 15 mins
6B . tani for 7 mins

The concert took a bit of definite dip in bEgaDa , it was a case of either the words were not giving enough space to give more gamaka shake of begada or may be a case of little faster vOttam by mridangist ,certainly could have been better . The usual flagship krithi of deekshitar in kuntalavarAli was sung beautifully.

The best was indeed the whole of shanmughapriyA . In my psyche , I like three shamughapriyAs , Madurai Somu, S kalyAnaraman and maharAjapuram santhAnam . Suryaprakash took a unique attribute of each of them. It was Somu's vocal power, KalyAnarAman's brigha embellishments and santhanam's sustained pitch and it was indeed a finest alApana. The krithi had so much of rhythmmic gait and he sang beautifully and neraval was very good . THe swaras were unique and it was truly innovative , I could not map it to any of the artists in the past .ShanmughapriyA swaras was exquisite and had a lot of nishAdam centered pidis. The whole krithi went for 1 hour and ended with a brief energetic tani was very good. Paricularly I liked varadu's return with some excellent support by both percussionists.

[rajeshnat]

7. kaDaikaNN pArthAyE karpAgambikayE - kAnadA
8. nAdathinAL namakku nalam peravE thillai(RS) - LathAnthapriyA
9. agnayOkham aNugraham kuru (S)- mOhanam
2 mins swaras

KAnadA was very nice , but there was a bit of slightly excess percussion for few sangathis , (possibly bhoopathy took more time to unwind from shanmughapriya). THe days second best was the rare lathAnthapriya , nice lines with a lot of cognent and emotive lyrics. THe mohanam with a round of brief sprinkle of swaras was very good , i think the whole mOhanam krithi resembled some what like the mohanam part of bhavayAmi raghuramAm of ST.

10A. viruththam - AdimoolamE eNra athikku aRuL - chandrakowns
+ aivarin manaiviyAna - kEdAragowlai
+ vEdanayiL vAduginREn - kApi
10B. pArthu pArthu uNNaiyE pAdi paniyum eNmanam paraNthAmA - kApi
11. oNru iRuNdhAl pOdumE - sindhubhairavi
12. eLLORum sukhamAi vazha iRaivA - madhyamAvati

Viruththam was splendid in chandrakowns and kApi , especially the lines vEdanayiL vAdugiNrEn in kApi and the krithi pArthu pArthu uNNaiyE on Lord krishna was very picturesque. The final windup of madhyamAvati was well received than sindhubhairavi.

Accompanists:
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VaradarAjan was really wonderful if I could say his returns were matching as much as andre agassi for borris beckers serve especially in shanmughapriya center court. There were quite a few rounds of applause and I particularly liked his ranjani play. Murugabhoopathy has nice nAdham and really lifted the concert .KVG played well , when there were lots of sangathis in shanmughapriyAs , he played his best.Their tani was brief and making more way for the vocalist. As I walked out some one told me that the tAlam of shanmughapriyA was in mishra jampai and the whole team took a daring choice . I am not sure if shanmughapriya krithi was indeed mishrajampai talam , but the talam was a tight rope walking one.

Few goosebump moments of sAhithyam in Swarna Venkatesha Deekshitar:
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I never knew SVD could compose so many fine gems . Just two goosebumps to share with you all .

1. The viruththam line that suryaprakash took was the charanam line of the subsequent kApi krithi that he sang . The krithi appeared like a call of Draupadi to Lord Krishna .Few lines like "vEdanayil vAdugiNrEn nAn vEdikkai pOdum eNdAi " were superb and emotive feel was high.

2. In the rare lathanthapriyA (he announced the raga scale of karnataka sudda sAveri ,ekambaresa krithi of MD is same as lathanthapriyA???).The krithi words were beautifully spaced with so much of rhythmic gait. The pallavi line was

nAdathiNAl namakku naLam pera thiLLai nAdan azhaikiNdrAn naDanathuDan uDukkai where naDanathudan uDukkai was a sudden flash of rhythm in intense rAga bhavam of the previous line of pallavi.The krithi has a lot of visual imagery.

p.s :sorry for not translating from thamizh to english, I am not good in that.

Swarna Venkatesha Deekshitar is an intense rhythm based composer , all of the krithis did not have any sarvalaghu runway for suryaprakAsh to easily click . The team clicked as they internalized very well the rhythm aspect of SVD and they did not drive the concert with any iota of theoretical insight and explanations . It was expressive classical music at its best.

On a side note in the cloth banner that the trust put up the lines were nice "Not only for music Lovers but for all lovers of GOD". That perhaps summed the fairly unknown Swarna venkatesha deekshitar who is a real uttama vageyakkarA .

Overall an excellent concert for 2 hours and 45 minutes .

[rshankar]

Rajesh - thank you for the review; seems to have been a great concert - wondeful that Sri Suryaprakash has put together such a lovely string of Sri SVD's compositions. The songs are all (except for a couple) new to me. Do you know if the concert was recorded?

[arasi]

Rajesh,
I am not familiar with SVD's songs. I do hope Surya is going to sing some of these lovely songs during the season. Look forward to listening to the lathAnthapriya song.
A concert I wish I had heard--with Varadarajan playing the violin!Good percussion too!

[bilahari]

Arasi, KVN used to sing some SVD krithis. I've heard items 1 and 2 of this concert from him. Manam iRangAdA is a particularly beautiful krithi.

Rajesh, thanks for the review!

[cacm]

The AUTHORITATIVE 2 cassette renderings of S.V.D's compositions by K.V.N. IS BRILLIANT. I had the good fortune to be with S.V.D., K.V.N., & SSI when we traveled together for his lec/dem some few years back. The EXPERIENCE can only be compared to being present when SIVAN & MMI discussed Kanakkakodi!...It truly is an other worldly experience to be fortunate to be present when a composer & a giant discuss brilliant outporings!...VKV

[vasanthakokilam]

Rajesh: Thanks for the review. Very well written. Got curious about this composer and searched for his songs. Found this very bright rendition by a talented singer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGyfyAJq1K8 Sorry for the digression from Suryaprakash.

[arasi]

Thanks, Bilahari!
I do know this song though! I have an odd feeling this was sung in a movie?

VK,
Yes, she sings very well. I'm wondering if she's the same Janani that I know. I have met her a few times. Is it her, in her concert costume? I'm not sure.

[rajeshnat]

Rajesh - thank you for the review; seems to have been a great concert - wondeful that Sri Suryaprakash has put together such a lovely string of Sri SVD's compositions. The songs are all (except for a couple) new to me. Do you know if the concert was recorded?

Ravi
For me 9 were new. The concert was video recorded by the organizers , not sure if it will find its way from their almirahs to general public

[rajeshnat]

Got curious about this composer and searched for his songs. Found this very bright rendition by a talented singer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGyfyAJq1K8

The kai viDa mAttAn in valachi is by kallal ramanathan or Chidambaram Natarajasundaram(not SVD),Smt arunA sairam renders this number where there is a commercial recording , janani sings well.
Refer the URL
http://rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php? ... iDa+mATTAn

[mahavishnu]

Rajesh: thanks for your post. I do not know much about Sri SVD's compositions. So this was an eye-opener for me.
Arasi: Is the Cuddalore Janani you have in mind a disciple of BMK?

[arasi]

Mahavishnu,
There aren't more Jananis out there, I hope. Beautiful names soon become popular names. Multiple Gayathris in CM! Several years ago, I heard that she was learning from our own NSG at one of his concerts. I saw her during the season when she came over and said hello to me before Jayalakshmi Santhanam's concert. I could not recognize her (a growing kid!). She has been singing ever since she was a little kid. Her family is very keen on seeing her as a star Guru-hopping is another trend these days!
The Cudaloor bit made me wonder. Her grandmother was all gushy when I met her at a wedding some years ago saying her grand child was in a TV contest--did I see her? I also bought a CD of hers, which is not here with me.

[satyabalu]

Arasi, KVN used to sing some SVD krithis. I've heard items 1 and 2 of this concert from him. Manam iRangAdA is a particularly beautiful krithi.

Rajesh, thanks for the review!

Kudos to those who have rendered his kritis.
May I add "Kandavarkku kanavilum kalabayamedu"in kunthalavarali is yet another favourite of KVN.It used to be a different experience (IFAS) KVN rendering each kriti after a brief intro from SV Dikshidhar.I expected someone from KVN school to present these kritis as well.

[veeyens3]

If my memory serves me right, then Sri Swarna Venkatewa Dikshidar was also a.M.L.A I could nnt digest such a soul hobnobbing with our politicians. Strange are HIS ways!