Sanjay Subrahmanyan @ Austin

[Sankar Narayanan]

I was fortunate to attend Sanjay's out-of-this-world concert organized by IFA at Austin, Texas on Sep 23rd (Sunday).
Sanjay and the 'men in white' (Varadharajan, Neyveli Venkatesh) had the audience spell-bound for nearly 3.5 hours. The song list is included here but the list or words cannot do justice to the superb sub-main (reetigowla), magnificient main (sankarAbaranam), and the rich RTP (darbAri kAnadA and other rAgAs).

Artistes:
Sanjay Subrahmanyan - Vocal
Varadharajan - Violin
Neyveli Venkatesh - Mridangam

Song List:
1. nee Vanti (varnam) - Neelambari - Ata tAlam
2. sadAchalESwaram - bhoopAlam - Adi tAlam - deekshithar; brief swaram in kamalESa vinuta vrushabha turangam

3. sAnthamulakA sowkyamulEdu - sAmA - Adi tAlam - Thyagaraja
4. janani ninnuvinA - reethigowlai - misra chApu -subbarAya sAstri; brief AlapanA, swarams in thAmasamu seyakanE (no niraval)
5. kAguhA shanmukA - kOsalam - rUpakam - kOteeswara iyer
6. manam vaitharuL thA - sankarAbaranam - Adi tAlam - Anai Ayya brothers; the song included elaborate R, N, S and and energetic thani
7. pAhi jaga janani - hamsAnandhi - Adi tAlam - swAti tirunAl
8. RTP - "gOvindA alarmEl mangai manALA vA tiruvEngata nAthA" - kanda jAti triputa - darbAri kAnadA, sahAna, varALi, mOhanam
9. lAlisidaLu magana - dEsh - Adi tAlam - purandarar
10. EmandunE muddu bAlAmani - saindhavi - Adi tAlam - dharmapuri subbarAya aiyar
11. tirisila giriyAr dharisanam - senchurutti - Adi tAlam - arunagirinAthar
12. ArumO Aval - mAndu - Adi tAlam - kannan iyengAr
13. UrilEn kANi illai ( AzhwAr pAsuram), followed by brindAvanam iduvO - suddha dhanyAsi - suddhAnanda bhArati
14. thiruppugazh - bAgEsree
15. mangaLam – saurAshtram – Thyagaraja


I am writing this is in a hurry as I have a plane to catch. So, as always, I welcome corrections, feedback and expansions. Regards.

[arasi]

sankar narayanan,

Thanks for writing about another three and a half hour concert by the trio in Austin.

DarbAri kAnaDa RTP after the traditional (but innovative) kalyANi in Chicago. Way to go! GOvindA too accompanying them to Texas!

9: lAlisidaLu magana

13: Ah, there was time for virutham here, unlike in Chicago where there was a delay and therefore a time constraint at the end.
Only, you have merged AzhvAr and Subramania Bharathi there in lyrics It would have been UrilEn kANi illai virutham, followed by brundAvanam iduvO? kANi nilam wasn't sung, right?

[Lakshman]

EmandunE muddu bAlAmaNi is in saindhavi.

[kunthalavarali]

Could 13 be UrilEn kANi illai, AzhwAr pAsuram?

6. mAnam vaitharuL thA - sankarAbaranam is by Anai Ayya brothers
Emandune by Dharmapuri Subbaraya Aiyar
tirisila giriyAr - Arunagirinathar
ArumO Aval - Kannan Iyengar

[arasi]

Kunthalavarali,
Yes, I think so too. See my post above!

[sureshvv]

Janani is a composition of Subbaraya Sastry.

[rshankar]

6. mAnam vaitharuL thA - sankarAbaranam is by Anai Ayya brothers

idu (is this) mAnamA (honor), alladu (or) manamA (mind/heart)?

[Sankar Narayanan]

Dear all, Thanks for the updates/corrections. I have added the missing info.

Dear arasi madam & kuntalavarali, thanks for the correction of the AzhwAr pAsuram lyrics. (I did mix up, indeed!)

Dear rshankar and all, Is the lyrics for the sankarAbaranam song "manam vaitharuL thA" or "mAnam vaitharuL thA" ? The word "manam" (heart) makes a bit more sense but the rendition elongates the word so it sounds like "mAnam" (honor).

[Lakshman]

It is mAnam vaittaruL.

[arasi]

I have heard it that way too.

Ravi,
In the abhimAnam sense.

Lakshman,
Do the anu pallavi, charaNam lines end with abi (abhi) to link with the pallavi's mAnam?I don't know all the words.

[Pasupathy]

Lakshman,
Do the anu pallavi, charaNam lines end with abi (abhi) to link with the pallavi's mAnam?I don't know all the words.

Yes,
the start of Anupallavi (rhyming with "mAnam" ) is gAnalOlan and it ends with abi.
(" gAnalOlan ayyARappan kaNmaNi en ammaNi manOnmaNi - abi )
கானலோலன் அய்யாறப்பன் கண்மணி என் அம்மணி மனோன்மணி - அபி

The charaNam (there are actually three ) also ends with "abi ”.

[arasi]

Thanks, Pasupathy

[Enna_Solven]

It was a blissful concert.

The alapana of Shankarabharanam was beginning to be extraordinarily beautiful; but Sanjay worries that his rasikas will get carried away, start levitating from their seats and bump into each other and the ceiling. So, he kept us in our seats by a bit of gymnastics with his vocal cords I was fervently hoping that he would continue his mesmerizing aakaaram. Happened in reethigowlai too. Shankarabharanam is big I know but there was something I had not heard before and the phrases he brought in were superb.

Sadachaleswaram and shAntamu leka gave me an idea that it was going to be very good evening. Shantamu leka was slow and sung with emotion and saukhyam of a master musician. Darbari kAnadA alapana was so soothing. He did thanam in the ragams mentioned in the list. Senchurutti is a divyamaAna ragam to listen to.

Varadarajan plays pure music, succinctly. It is a distinctly enjoyable moment when the vocalist's voice and the violin reach the notes in unison and you cannot tell them apart. Sanjay's voice and Varadarajan's violin came together like that so many times on Sunday.

Sanjay is going to sing without doing any vocal tricks one of these days and I am going to listen to an extraordinary concert.

[rshankar]

Sanjay is going to sing without doing any vocal tricks one of these days and I am going to listen to an extraordinary concert.

+1 I hope I get to be there too!

[arasi]

And he may sing mAnam vaitharuLvAi that day:)

Ravi, NJ is bound to be one of the venues for his concerts this coming spring.

[annamalai]

(" gAnalOlan ayyARappan kaNmaNi en ammaNi manOnmaNi - abi )
கானலோலன் அய்யாறப்பன் கண்மணி என் அம்மணி மனோன்மணி - அபி

Nice lyrics - அய்யாறப்பன் - Panchanadheeswara ; அய்யாறப்பன் கண்மணி - Dharmasamvardhini
The presiding deities of the famous temple of Tiruvaiayaru.

[kvchellappa]

The Hindu carries a review of Coimbatore concerts covering Sanjay amomg others:

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp ... 172320.ece

[mahavishnu]

This just in.
manam vaitharul by Sanjay from last Dec season: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE5tGqrI6uE