Sumitra Nitin - VV Sadagopan centenary @rAgasudha on Feb 10th,2015
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Vocal : Sumitra Nitin
Violin : Charulatha Ramanujam
Mrudangam : B GanapathyRaman
Occasion : V V Sadagopan Centenary Celebrations
Concert Type : Nirvana - No concert to follow
Day/Duration : Wednesday/ 1 hour and 55 mins concert
Concert Type/Crowd : Free concert - 250 peak - hall was full for the preceding function and almost the crowd till half point of the concert
Sabha / Hall : Ragasudha Hall , Mylapore
All compositions that were rendered were tuned by V V S
01.pallAndu pallAndu - gambeera natttai with kalyani , bhairavi and shuruTTi - divyaprabhandam
02. sadA unadu tiruvadi (R,S) - manOhari - V V S
a min of alapana and violin return each and 4 mins swaras
03. paanam seiya vAreer(R, N ,S) - simmhendra madhyamam - AK
7 mins alapana
3 mins neraval in kaliyil kanda thyagaraja swami namakkalitha gAna amudha paanam
04. kamba ramayanam verses - oDimAn odunga??? .... uttaman seethai tan nadaiyai - shenjuruTTi + sindhu bhairavi - kambar
05. aadaram nee thAN - kharaharapriyA - V V S
06. RTP in quad four ragas in adi thalam
mohana velai idE vasanta kalamidE malayamArutham veesum Anandabhairavi arulum
RTP was for 42 mins with 15 mins alapana , 9 mins taanam , 10 mins pallavi and 8 mins swaras
07. yEn enru kEtpAr illayO - mohanam + kamboDhi + ??? - V V S
08. ninnai sharan adainDen - punnagavarAli - subramania bharathiyar
09. mangalam kOsalendrAya - shurutti in kanda chapu tuned by V V S
======
some correcections that Arasi sent by personal email to me on Feb 12,2014, adding that now
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Odimam (swan) odungak kaNDa (seeing it move towards the bank) uthaman (rAman) ,seeing anna naDai of sItai, he broke into a smile.
oru pOdagam naDappa (seeing a young elephant walk, )she smiled anew.
The mega one rAgamAlikA was sung by JS (with me in the audience aiding). she sang a pUrvi kalyANi one too. kaNgaLil theLiyak kaNDAn.
Padma Srinivasan (cousin) sang VVS's two other songs so very well.One in vAchaspathi.
The last rAgam in EnenRu kETpAr illayO? is nATTaik kuRinji--and the second is sAmA.
VVS's daughters sang the other rAgamAlikA eNNi eNNi manam puNNAgudE kaNNan innum vara illaiyE.
Sumitra Nitin - VV Sadagopan centenary @rAgasudha on Feb 10th,2015
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rajeshnat
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Sumitra Nitin - VV Sadagopan centenary @rAgasudha on Feb 10th,2015
Last edited by rajeshnat on 12 Feb 2015, 11:09, edited 2 times in total.
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rajeshnat
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Re: Sumitra Nitin - VV Sadagopan centerary @rAgasudha on Feb 10th,2015
I could not go on time for the speech and presentation as it was a 6 pm start but as i entered Arasi was kind of giving a vote of thanks . Arasi is a bundle of emotion and a bundle of true love , her every phrase in her speech was adequately juxtaposed with emotion and love. As with every function arasi kept the limelight on a truly then renaissance man V V sadagopan .
I cannnot write more as I entered arasi just had 5 mins of speech .I am sure she is going to write of how the previous speaker N ramanathan and what she spoke. Arasi speech was in thamizh and I got it with Nick always getting it with his extra telepathy skills.Post arasi speech sujatha vijayaraghavan gave an intro of artists of the day and some one thanked a veteran tambura artist who put tambura for a v v s concert many many decades back.
As i glanced around ragasudha i could see Mrs YGP , Vidushi R Vedavalli , vidushi Jayalakshmi santhanam and many others whom I did not know. The family of V V S did take special care with photos of V V S and more importantly posters of thyagabharathy were in the sidewalls . I just walked around to see all the posters of thyaga bharathy , I wish there is just a reprint of all of that in a book soon (Attn Arasi), they were indeed lovely.
All the compositions sung by Sumitra Nitin were tuned by V V S , some he wrote the lyrics too . Sumitra Nitin was bit like arasi giving more limelight to her periappa thatha V V S . She spoke very well just few lines for every composition explaining what V V S did and then sang each of that . Certainly the speech did not eat the music - any case one has to give her that freedom - as the occassion was V V S centenary.
The first Divya prabhandham was tuned in many ragamaliga ragas by V V S . Sumitra mentioned that fact and sang only four ragas , the gambeera nattai start was very much mallarish
, it sagged with kalyani 
, bit woke up well with bhairavi 
and finally coiled back with shuruTTi 
.
The next was in manohari. I have not yet got that raga in my head , there is indeed a trace of sudda saveri ??? to me . THe alapana was bit short but V V S composition in manohari was simply superb as sumitra sang i could notice very distinct swara aksharam points and sumitra indeed took up that cue in her swaras with quite a lot of sa da patterns . Certainly V V S was a great composer.
Many of Ambujam krishna compositions were tuned by VVS and out popped a rare AK krithi in simmhendra madhyamam. Sumitra sang very well the alapana , the composition was in praise of sadguru Thyagaraja and sumitra took an apt line to praise sadguru , certainly a lovely composition. I am guessing V V S took a cue from poochi iyengar who composed ini nammokkoru in bilahari ,where poochi has also composed few lines praising thyagaraja.
V V S has tuned a lot of verses of kamba ramayanam . Sumitra mentioned that the rendition that she is rendering were based on Lord rama and goddess sita anna nadai (walk), the kamba ramayanam start was in madhyama shruthi shenjuruTTi . Though i was afraid if she is ending the concert , it did not turn out that way as it went on . Shenjurutti is a raga with equal drama and equal music temperament
and i enjoyed it more than the sindhubhairavi . Certainly musicians of today can take all his verses that he has tuned and present to us .
The next was a short filler in a majestic kharaharapriya . V V S has sung wonderfully with his majestic sareeram this aadharam neeyE , it is quite a challenge for any one to match his majestic rendition .Sumitra did a good job there , i was expecting a neraval there but that did not happen. Sumitra thanked Vidushi jayalakshi santhanam mami who taught her the kharaharapriya . JS is arasi's chitti.
Surprise of surprise was her four raga rtp . Sumitra did not reveal the raga names at all but said V V S has tuned a pallavi in four ragas and she said let that be a surprise . Personally for me the lines and ragas were not a surprise as I remember posting a long post on many 4 raga rtp ,where arasi put a post on a v v s 4 raga pallavi. Sumitra thanked arasi who passed the pallavi line by word of mouth since hearing it atleast 50 years before .
There was a right proportion of all four ragas , the alapana transition to mohanam to vasantha in particular was most impressive . I get bit annoyed when vocalist outsource ragas to violinst or the taanam to violinist , but that did not happen . In taanam sumitra sang mostly in madyama kalams with few shoots of mel kaalam in malayamarutham. V V S embedded all raga mudras in pallavi line .Musically 4 raga pallavi is tough , but as a listener it did not bore me or intellectually burden me with a feeling what the hell is V V S doing with four ragas . Sumitra did a nice trikalam bit slow yes but ok. Swaras were just there , not a show of manodharmam there.
Sumitra thanked all and rendered three tukkadas. THe first ragamaliga did not come with that much crisp raga bhavam and transition . The next VVS tuned composition of subramania bharathi in ninnai sharan adainden is catchy and I always love punnAga varali extra konjal. THe last was a kanda chapu finish mangalam of the popular mangala kosalendraya.
Few words about sumitra nitin, ganapathyraman and charulatha:
------------------------------------------------------------
The last time i heard was when sumitra nitin sang for arasi first cd release. Yesterday was my second concert . Sumitra indeed has taken a bit more of Vidushi neela ramgopal . There is always a flair to present some thing new and her family connections makes it more tough for her . Her confidence in presenting numbers is high , I wish there is bit more manodharma in swara kalpana , a little more charge with quick turns can make it more interesting . Charulatha played the best in pallavi and her proportion sense is so nice . Ganapathyraman could have played bit more sarvalaghu- bit more speed could have taken the concert bit more up . At the end of pallavi he just wrapped the tani in a minute - one can say there was no tani in the concert. Certainly went well with the occassion for most of us.
Few words about V V S that i felt in this concert:
--------------------------------------------------------
There are musicians who are great in one form of either presenting to lay men or more to super initiated carnatic rasikas . If one traces V V S as a musician he has indeed represented every gamut . I have no clue about his literary skills but just hearing him as a composer in manOhari gave me a facet like Prof TR subrahmanyam. Hearing him render Aadaram neeye gives me a facet like a semmmangudi kharaharapriya .His job as a tune smith to help out Ambujam krishna is one thing that many have done ,but kamba ramayanam is just damn tough to tune and he presenting the choices of shenjurutti and sindhubhairavi was lovely then. Singing 4 raga RTP gives me goose bumps , may be then only ariyakudi and V V S did . Ariyakudi took the help of some one else to bring his 4 raga rtp in shankarabharanam , todi kalyani and darbar . This 4 ragas of mohanam , vasantha , malayamArutham and anandabhairavi was more futuristic in choice of ragas many years ago for sure, I have heard atleast two or three quad-4 raga live rtps done by very few topnotch musicians in the last 10 years .V V S was futuristic and never trivialized CM. V V Sadagopan was indeed
far far ahead of his time .
Overall a very good to excellent concert for 1 hour and 55 minutes.
I cannnot write more as I entered arasi just had 5 mins of speech .I am sure she is going to write of how the previous speaker N ramanathan and what she spoke. Arasi speech was in thamizh and I got it with Nick always getting it with his extra telepathy skills.Post arasi speech sujatha vijayaraghavan gave an intro of artists of the day and some one thanked a veteran tambura artist who put tambura for a v v s concert many many decades back.
As i glanced around ragasudha i could see Mrs YGP , Vidushi R Vedavalli , vidushi Jayalakshmi santhanam and many others whom I did not know. The family of V V S did take special care with photos of V V S and more importantly posters of thyagabharathy were in the sidewalls . I just walked around to see all the posters of thyaga bharathy , I wish there is just a reprint of all of that in a book soon (Attn Arasi), they were indeed lovely.
All the compositions sung by Sumitra Nitin were tuned by V V S , some he wrote the lyrics too . Sumitra Nitin was bit like arasi giving more limelight to her periappa thatha V V S . She spoke very well just few lines for every composition explaining what V V S did and then sang each of that . Certainly the speech did not eat the music - any case one has to give her that freedom - as the occassion was V V S centenary.
The first Divya prabhandham was tuned in many ragamaliga ragas by V V S . Sumitra mentioned that fact and sang only four ragas , the gambeera nattai start was very much mallarish
, it sagged with kalyani , bit woke up well with bhairavi and finally coiled back with shuruTTi .The next was in manohari. I have not yet got that raga in my head , there is indeed a trace of sudda saveri ??? to me . THe alapana was bit short but V V S composition in manohari was simply superb as sumitra sang i could notice very distinct swara aksharam points and sumitra indeed took up that cue in her swaras with quite a lot of sa da patterns . Certainly V V S was a great composer.
Many of Ambujam krishna compositions were tuned by VVS and out popped a rare AK krithi in simmhendra madhyamam. Sumitra sang very well the alapana , the composition was in praise of sadguru Thyagaraja and sumitra took an apt line to praise sadguru , certainly a lovely composition. I am guessing V V S took a cue from poochi iyengar who composed ini nammokkoru in bilahari ,where poochi has also composed few lines praising thyagaraja.
V V S has tuned a lot of verses of kamba ramayanam . Sumitra mentioned that the rendition that she is rendering were based on Lord rama and goddess sita anna nadai (walk), the kamba ramayanam start was in madhyama shruthi shenjuruTTi . Though i was afraid if she is ending the concert , it did not turn out that way as it went on . Shenjurutti is a raga with equal drama and equal music temperament
and i enjoyed it more than the sindhubhairavi . Certainly musicians of today can take all his verses that he has tuned and present to us .The next was a short filler in a majestic kharaharapriya . V V S has sung wonderfully with his majestic sareeram this aadharam neeyE , it is quite a challenge for any one to match his majestic rendition .Sumitra did a good job there , i was expecting a neraval there but that did not happen. Sumitra thanked Vidushi jayalakshi santhanam mami who taught her the kharaharapriya . JS is arasi's chitti.
Surprise of surprise was her four raga rtp . Sumitra did not reveal the raga names at all but said V V S has tuned a pallavi in four ragas and she said let that be a surprise . Personally for me the lines and ragas were not a surprise as I remember posting a long post on many 4 raga rtp ,where arasi put a post on a v v s 4 raga pallavi. Sumitra thanked arasi who passed the pallavi line by word of mouth since hearing it atleast 50 years before .
There was a right proportion of all four ragas , the alapana transition to mohanam to vasantha in particular was most impressive . I get bit annoyed when vocalist outsource ragas to violinst or the taanam to violinist , but that did not happen . In taanam sumitra sang mostly in madyama kalams with few shoots of mel kaalam in malayamarutham. V V S embedded all raga mudras in pallavi line .Musically 4 raga pallavi is tough , but as a listener it did not bore me or intellectually burden me with a feeling what the hell is V V S doing with four ragas . Sumitra did a nice trikalam bit slow yes but ok. Swaras were just there , not a show of manodharmam there.
Sumitra thanked all and rendered three tukkadas. THe first ragamaliga did not come with that much crisp raga bhavam and transition . The next VVS tuned composition of subramania bharathi in ninnai sharan adainden is catchy and I always love punnAga varali extra konjal. THe last was a kanda chapu finish mangalam of the popular mangala kosalendraya.
Few words about sumitra nitin, ganapathyraman and charulatha:
------------------------------------------------------------
The last time i heard was when sumitra nitin sang for arasi first cd release. Yesterday was my second concert . Sumitra indeed has taken a bit more of Vidushi neela ramgopal . There is always a flair to present some thing new and her family connections makes it more tough for her . Her confidence in presenting numbers is high , I wish there is bit more manodharma in swara kalpana , a little more charge with quick turns can make it more interesting . Charulatha played the best in pallavi and her proportion sense is so nice . Ganapathyraman could have played bit more sarvalaghu- bit more speed could have taken the concert bit more up . At the end of pallavi he just wrapped the tani in a minute - one can say there was no tani in the concert. Certainly went well with the occassion for most of us.
Few words about V V S that i felt in this concert:
--------------------------------------------------------
There are musicians who are great in one form of either presenting to lay men or more to super initiated carnatic rasikas . If one traces V V S as a musician he has indeed represented every gamut . I have no clue about his literary skills but just hearing him as a composer in manOhari gave me a facet like Prof TR subrahmanyam. Hearing him render Aadaram neeye gives me a facet like a semmmangudi kharaharapriya .His job as a tune smith to help out Ambujam krishna is one thing that many have done ,but kamba ramayanam is just damn tough to tune and he presenting the choices of shenjurutti and sindhubhairavi was lovely then. Singing 4 raga RTP gives me goose bumps , may be then only ariyakudi and V V S did . Ariyakudi took the help of some one else to bring his 4 raga rtp in shankarabharanam , todi kalyani and darbar . This 4 ragas of mohanam , vasantha , malayamArutham and anandabhairavi was more futuristic in choice of ragas many years ago for sure, I have heard atleast two or three quad-4 raga live rtps done by very few topnotch musicians in the last 10 years .V V S was futuristic and never trivialized CM. V V Sadagopan was indeed
far far ahead of his time .
Overall a very good to excellent concert for 1 hour and 55 minutes.
Last edited by rajeshnat on 11 Feb 2015, 23:36, edited 1 time in total.
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rshankar
- Posts: 13754
- Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 22:26
Re: Sumitra Nitin - VV Sadagopan centenary @rAgasudha on Feb 10th,2015
Thank you Rajesh!
Arasi - you must be very relieved that all is done from your end.
Arasi - you must be very relieved that all is done from your end.
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arasi
- Posts: 16873
- Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 09:30
Re: Sumitra Nitin - VV Sadagopan centenary @rAgasudha on Feb 10th,2015
Rajesh,
It was very good to see you, though briefly. Thanks for the detailed and descriptive review.
Nick,
Good that you were there too, and we had a bit of time to chat after the concert. I did see Rajani in the audience, but could not say hello
Among luminaries, Dr. Chandrasekhar and Jaya Chandrasekhar were also there...
Rajesh,
You speak of the emotional content of what you heard of my concluding remarks. You have no idea how almost everyone at every place sounded during the three day long programs--except Dr. Ramanathan perhaps (who delivered a scholarly lecture!). You wanted to know the content of his speech. Let's wait until the video comes, to get it all accurately.
We felt nothing but a sense of the power of music when we heard the children of Sadagopan Patashala sing; when young adults and women sang his thirukkuraL compositions.
Ravi,
What I did was very little compared to how much work many participants put in. Yes, I'm tired, and yes, I'm hoping to relax now...
You also missed the kamba rAmAyaNap pADalgaL which JS sang, the mega piece being kaNDanen, describing HanumAn's reaction on beholding sItA for the first time.
Padma Srinivasan,another niece of VVS, sang two compositions of his which I thought were beautiful.One in Vachaspathi on tiruchendUr murugan: kandan karuNai thandaruLvAn.
VVS's daughters Vijaya Srinivasan and Devika Raman and niece Jaya Venkatesan and young Ahalya (Vijaya's d-in-law) also sang eNNi ENNi manam, another ragamAlikA composition.
Son Krishnakumar brought back the memory of some of VVS's popular recorded songs by singing them sweetly.
A pleasant surprise it was, when grandson Aravind and his wife Ahalya sang a duet from VVS's film, singing and enacting it the old fashioned way (their sense of fun in doing an oldie showed)!
It was very good to see you, though briefly. Thanks for the detailed and descriptive review.
Nick,
Good that you were there too, and we had a bit of time to chat after the concert. I did see Rajani in the audience, but could not say hello
Among luminaries, Dr. Chandrasekhar and Jaya Chandrasekhar were also there...
Rajesh,
You speak of the emotional content of what you heard of my concluding remarks. You have no idea how almost everyone at every place sounded during the three day long programs--except Dr. Ramanathan perhaps (who delivered a scholarly lecture!). You wanted to know the content of his speech. Let's wait until the video comes, to get it all accurately.
We felt nothing but a sense of the power of music when we heard the children of Sadagopan Patashala sing; when young adults and women sang his thirukkuraL compositions.
Ravi,
What I did was very little compared to how much work many participants put in. Yes, I'm tired, and yes, I'm hoping to relax now...
You also missed the kamba rAmAyaNap pADalgaL which JS sang, the mega piece being kaNDanen, describing HanumAn's reaction on beholding sItA for the first time.
Padma Srinivasan,another niece of VVS, sang two compositions of his which I thought were beautiful.One in Vachaspathi on tiruchendUr murugan: kandan karuNai thandaruLvAn.
VVS's daughters Vijaya Srinivasan and Devika Raman and niece Jaya Venkatesan and young Ahalya (Vijaya's d-in-law) also sang eNNi ENNi manam, another ragamAlikA composition.
Son Krishnakumar brought back the memory of some of VVS's popular recorded songs by singing them sweetly.
A pleasant surprise it was, when grandson Aravind and his wife Ahalya sang a duet from VVS's film, singing and enacting it the old fashioned way (their sense of fun in doing an oldie showed)!
Last edited by arasi on 12 Feb 2015, 01:10, edited 3 times in total.
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mahavishnu
- Posts: 3341
- Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 21:56
Re: Sumitra Nitin - VV Sadagopan centenary @rAgasudha on Feb 10th,2015
Does that mean Nick and Rajesh are not luminaries? Sorry, couldn't resistarasi wrote:Rajesh,
It was very good to see you, though briefly. Thanks for the detailed and descriptive review.
Nick,
Good that you were there too, and we had a bit of time to chat after the concert. I did see Rajani in the audience, but could not say hello
Among luminaries, Dr. Chandrasekhar and Jaya Chandrasekhar were also there...
Congratulations on another wonderful event, Arasi! I'm so glad that you are having such a productive season in India.
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arasi
- Posts: 16873
- Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 09:30
Re: Sumitra Nitin - VV Sadagopan centenary @rAgasudha on Feb 10th,2015
Says the all-pervading luminary Mahavishnu
Seasons come, seasons change--
Spring, summer, autumn and now
In the winter of my existence--
Another year added--seasons?
Let me hope for a few more
To keep me out of mischief
And to keep my mind ticking
Seasons come, seasons change--
Spring, summer, autumn and now
In the winter of my existence--
Another year added--seasons?
Let me hope for a few more
To keep me out of mischief
And to keep my mind ticking
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kvchellappa
- Posts: 3636
- Joined: 04 Aug 2011, 13:54
Re: Sumitra Nitin - VV Sadagopan centenary @rAgasudha on Feb 10th,2015
Power of Mahavishnu has issued as poem.
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rajeshnat
- Posts: 10123
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04
Re: Sumitra Nitin - VV Sadagopan centenary @rAgasudha on Feb 10th,2015
There are few more points that i have added just now after arasi and i had a mail exchange . just adding that in blue , go back to the first post in this thread where in blue color I have added.