Sanjay Subrahmanyan @ Denver Colorado Fine Arts - April 26, 2015

[Sankar Narayanan]

Team:
Sanjay Subrahmanyan - Vocal
Varadarajan - Violin
Neyveli Venkatesh - mridangam

Denver, in Colorado, is the gateway to the Rockie Mountains. Hence the (music) mountain-chief navigated a spell-bound audience thru this gateway into a new world of peaks and valleys – no, peaks and more peaks. The 3 special peaks of the day were an emotive subhapantuvarALi (submain?), a majestic karaharapriyA (main), and a soothing kamAs (RTP). Wait, wait – let me also add the leisurely and touching Ananda natana prkAsam in kEdAram and kAlai thUkki nindrAdum in yadukulakAmboji!! Oh no, how can I leave out the I vasudhA nIvaNTi deivamu in sAhAnA & the nandagopAlA in yamunAkalyAni. Well, I might as well give the song list below.

The mountain-chief was ably supported, as always, by VaradarAjan and VenkatEsh. VaradarAjan’s violin was an inseparable and at-times-separable twin of Sanjay’s voice & manOdarmA! Venkatesh’s anticipation was brilliant and many times his fingers (and palm) did gumki magic on the thoppi!!
The post-concert Question-Answer were entertaining & informative.

The almost 4-hour marathon’s song list is below:
- viribOni – bhairavi varnam
- I vasudhA nIvaNTi deivamu – sAhAnA – thyagarAjA
- Ananda natana prkAsam – kEdAram – dIkshithar (this piece started with a mellifluous AlApanA, and included nice niraval/swarams @ sangIta vAdya vinOda tAndava; Sanjay – we loved your swarAkshari – “sA-ma sangIta”!)
- enna rakshisO – subapantuvarALi – purandarar (I am happy(!) to say VaradharAjan’s response to Sanjay’s tear-producing AlApanA triggered more tears)
- kAlai thUkki nindrAdum – yadukulakAmboji – marimuthA piLLai (this piece started with a brief slOkam – ‘petra thAi thani’)
- sathatham thAvaka – karahapriyA – swAti tirunAl ( Sanjay did elaborate swaram in the pallavi line & Venkatesh gave a brilliant thani, playing multiple kOrvais in electrifying speeds).
- nandagopAlA – yamunAkalyAni – dIkshithar
- rAmanukku mannan mudi – hindOLam – arunAchala kavi
- RTP – kamAs – pallavi line was “jAlamE seivadazhagAgumA jAlamE seivadazhAgumA | vadivElA enmEl” in Adi 2 kaLai; the rAgamalikA swarams were very fast-paced and included Anandabhairavi, kadanakudukulam, bahudAri, Abheri / bhimplAs)
- manamE kaNamum maravAdE – Abheri?
- kaRpagAmbikai nI allavO – behAg – pApanAsam sivan
- nanda tanaya gOvinda – bAgesri – purandarar
- viSvESvar darSan kar chalO man tum kASi – sindubairavi - swAti tirunAl
- tunbam nErhaiyil – dEsh – bhArathi dAsan
- a very elaborate rAgamAlikA slOkam in kalyAni?, sAvEri, kannda, mOhanam, nAttakurinji, (the list goes on..!) followed by ArAr AsaippadAr in nAdhanAmakriya
- thillAnA - dwajAvanti
- mangaLam

[kunthalavarali]

kAlai thUkki nindrAdum is by Marimutha Pillai;
manamE kaNamum maravAdE – Abheri/ Bhimplas;
tunbam nErgayil is by bhArathidAsan
and the pallavi line is from a composition by mAyavaram viswanatha sAstri.

[arasi]

Sankar Narayanan,

A review as fresh as the mountain air...
A 'how can you go wrong with it?' list.

I vasudhA nIvaNTi deivamu
jAlamE seivadazhagAgumA ??
kaRpagAmbikai nI allavO?
viSvESvar darSan kar chalO man tum kASi

Was the SlOkam in tamizh or sanskrit?

[Sankar Narayanan]

@kuntalavarali: thanks for the corrections, I have updated my post. However, I still have the question as to how do we resolve the 'Abheri/ Bhimplas' conundrum? Is it like the photon's particle-wave duality in quantum mechanics?

@arasi madam: thanks for the corrections, I have made these updates as well. The slOkam preceeding ArAr AsaippadAr was "mAnAda mazhuvAda madiyAda punalAda mangai sivakAmi Ada...", sorry for not mentioning.
On the transliteration corrections - thanks again; we have had this discussion before and I am still learning! Can you kindly point me to a write-up that describes the rules and grammar and examples please ?
Also, wondering if there are ways to depict some nuances - for example, he sang "viSvESvar darSan kar chalO man tum kASi" with a slight kArvai at the end of some words (if kArvai is the term for that) - his diction was more like "viSvESvaru darSanu karu" (not a full 'u' but more like a half 'u' - if I am not wrong this might be he spoken version?). Your thoughts please ?

[arasi]

On the condition that you won't call me madam!

Well, RShankar and others are experts, but if you can imagine a Rafi song, listen to how he says the words. In a bhajan, many words as they are written down would sound abrupt, harsh, and unmusical when you voice them. Try singing, phal bhar giridhar ghar AnEki...

Again, experts will guide you better with transliteration.
Some like to use double a-s ( kaaSi). We stick to capital A.

The best bet for you is to go to the sAhiytA threads and start browsing. Better still, write some down. That's all!You got all the As in mAnADa mayilAda, but the d-s need to be changed to D-s. Easy!

Well, what better virutham than 'mAnADa mayilADa'? To me, the best version you can hear outside of Sanjay's live concert is from his London concert on youtube. 'thiruvaDi caraNam' also from that concert, is a main to reckon with.

[Sundara Rajan]

Regarding slOkam vs virutham: Usually, if it is in samskritam (sAnskrit) it is referred to as "slOkam" and if it is in thamizh
( Tamil) it is called a virutham. What about other languages such as Telugu or kannaDa ?! Any guesses/suggestions ?

[rshankar]

kannaDA - ugabhOga
telugu - padyam

[Sundara Rajan]

Thank you, Shankar for the information. I was somewhat familiar with the term "ugabOga", but "padyam" is new to me. I have listened to such preludes in concerts to krithis/compositions in thamizh and samskritham, but do not remember any in Telugu or in Kannada.

[maduraimini]

Sankar Narayan:
Thanks for your review of Sanjay's concert. I did not know Denver had so many Tamil speaking people to have Sanjay's concert. The list is a long one. Sanjay seems to entertain the rasikas with his beautiful music for more than 3+ hours. Nobody can complain that he/she got a bum rap. You always get more than you bargained for.
Sundararajan: I think Swathi Tirunal wrote his Bhajans in Brij Bhasha- not Hindi. Surdas wrote his dohas in Brij Bhasha, which is like a dialect of Hindi. In Kashi (varanasi) the villagers and servants speak a version of Hindi which sounds like Brij Basha. I guess that Brij may be a synonym for Vrij, the land of the cowherds. Krishna is mentioned as Vrij bala and in Sanskrit Va and Ba are interchangedable. . These are my thoughts. People who know more, like rshankar, V.kokilam and CML can explain better.

[Sankar Narayanan]

@arasi: Thanks for all the tips! (sorry for late reply - I was out-of-pocket for a couple of days).

@maduraimini: Thanks. Yes, this was an almost 4 hours concert but we were kept spellbound every minute of it. The audience included people from Devnver but also nearby cities - Boulder, Colorado Springs.
btw, I also had the great fortune of listening to him for another 3 hours at Houston just the previous day. But I can categorically say the 2 concerts, though back-to-back, were totally different in their character, songs selection/organization, technical dexterity/complexity, emotional aspect, etc., etc. The only commonality was the high energy from Sanjay and his team! (btw, the main in Houston the appropriate "sundareswarAya namaste in sankarAbharanam" in reference to the sthalam! For details please read kedaram's excellent review in another thread in this forum).

@rshankar & other forumites: thanks for all the new info. I am always learning a new thing everyday here!
Can; wait for your reviews of Sanjay's West Coast concerts this weekend which I am missing from the East Coast (NJ)