Sanjay Subrahmanyan@BGS On Dec 14th,2016

[rajeshnat]

Sanjay Subrahmanyan@BGS On Dec 14th,2016
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Vocal : Sanjay Subrahmanyan
Violin : Nagai Muralidharan
Mrudangam : Mannargudi Easwaran
Kanjira : K V Gopalakrishnan
Concert Type : Nirvana - no concert to follow and Ticketed concert

Day/Duration : Wednesday 3 hours and 10 mins
Sabha : Brahma Gana Sabha

1. nee vanti daivamu - neelAmbari - Tharangampadi panchanatha iyer
2. shree ganapathini(S)- sowrashtram -T
4 mins swaras

3. vallakAdanaka sitA vallabhA(R,S) - harikAmbOdhi -T
8 mins alapana and 3 mins violin return
4 mins swaras

4. rAma ninnE nammitini(R, 2 rounds of Cittaswaras)- sarangA - Poochi Iyengar
5. enneramum undan - devagandhari- GKB

6A. endhuku dayarAdhurA (R N S T)- todi -T
18 mins alapana and 6 mins violin return
neraval in tyAgarAja vinuta for 5 mins
and swaras for 6 mins
6B.tani for 22 mins

Any concert @ BGS is a special motivation for me , chiefly the reason is the 6 pm start . The submain ,main and RTP has its own space and there is definitely not much of a time constraint at all to rush any krithis . Sanjay started with the neelambari rasa, the neelambari in varnam was slightly week in raga devata , at times the varnam gives too much of quick turns and it gives a loss to a raga like neelambari which needs little more leisurely treatment . But certainly great start in varnam with the lovely team joining well .

Sadguru standard opener in sowrashtram was sung with gusto and I wish sanjay went with more swara patterns . The terrific #2 slot of harikambodhi started with an alapana , that gave a lovely thrust to the concert. There were few pockets of anavsiyam with some borderline voice losing music and shruti . There were few rounds of unwanted patterns- that was typical sanjay'esque sangathis. I have not heard this krithi googling gives me few references and I liked his presentation of this rare T krithi in harikambOdhi.

THe next heavy or rather carnatic heavy raga sAranga alapana was sung with nice carnatic idioms , saranga alapana was well done and detailed and the contrast of a poochi krithi was bit fast . Saranga poochi krithi was pepped with few rounds of cittaswaras and I liked sanjay rendition.

THe devagAndhari was sung very well by sanjay , his assertion with few key words like ponnamabalam, balakrishnan etc , I could really connect to the musical muse that a typical song from the land of Chidambaram gives. I missed a fast filler before main .

Sanjay gives a lot of nadaswara pidi and what a joy to hear his todi alapana. THere were few distinct pockets of madurai somu type cast todi sangathis. He really built so well the queen of ragas - Todi. The krithi was well sung , the neraval and swaras could have been more than what he sung , but Sanjay preferred to keep it censored there .

[rajeshnat]

7. Thantatukku nee vanthathukkum kannakku sari pArthu??? - BEgaDa -??
8.RTP in jayanthasena for about 47 mins
11 mins alapana and 5 mins violin
Taanam in jayanthasena + kannada + paavini+ anandabhairavi + behag for about 15 mins
pallavi and swaras for about 14 mins
Pallavi line was sAgasamA kiliyE sonnadhai sEidhida

9.gOpala bhakthim Dehi(Cittaswaras) - bhageshri -ST
10. kadaikann parvai - kamas - PapanAsam sivan

11. pannamE unnAl enna ... gunamE dandam panninEn... thEdi unnai yAr moodiyar - maand - Vedanayakam Pillai

12. nee Nama + vazhiya senthamizh


Post main todi , there was a begada. I certainly did not like this begada krithi , there was more athattal there - possibly the words were very heavy thamizh. THe day's best was indeed RTP. HE sang jayanthasena alapana and announced after a minute or so the raga jayanthasena .At times Sanjay anchored it with the most popular thyagaja krithi vinatha suta. I recollect he has sung this Jayantasena pallavi many years back and also Vijaysiva has sung a Pallavi in this jayanthasena. I always welcome ragas to be taken in RTP , that way the raga devata will get more mileage as it is RTP.

The taanam was taana ragamaliga . Nice round of rotation between both vocalist and violinist ensured enough oomph within me . The kannada and anandabhairavi and behag was a nice janarajakam choice, he intermediately announced the paavini raga in taanam . If I am right the song from tamil film guna -pArtha vizhi pArtha padi sung by KJ YEsudas was tuned in paavini. The pallavi line was very cute and musically intense , no extra words and with the phrase starting with sAgasamA gave him a lot of swaraksharam combination . He did a great neraval but the swaras were bit measured in jayanthasena - I am not complaining there as possibly the scope of raga was fairly exhausted in raaga and neraval and jayanthasena was not coupled with any ragamaliga swaras (we only had taanamaliga).Also some time in trikaalam i thought he was singing kuntalavarAli instead of jayanthasena (may be there is a lot of proximity in those ragas)Sanjay usually jumps to swararagamaliga and continues with the last raga and then into that krithi.

The pallavi swaras did not end with bhageshri . But he continued to sing with the bhageshri krithi . This Swati krithi is lovely with a lovely round of cittaswaras giving run for money for sagara sayana vibho. THe kamas was short and crisp . THe pannamE unnAl enna was definitely a musical and as well as a drama esque krithi .The lines had a contemporary flavour and he dropped that with the modi demonetization in mind. We all lapped up the lines and with many understanding the contemporary lines on the evils of money , it was a great gallery choice given by sanjay.

Nagai Muralidharan and Mannargudi easwaran were seasoned artists . Muralidharan kept a clean watch on raga and I was glad that the volume of his violin was kept right and his proportion sense was great. I particularly liked his returns of taana maliga . Easwaran kept up with his smile and he never bangs the instrument . The patterns were not robbing the voice of sanjay and i loved his play . The younger KVG gave lovely support and his tani aggression was the best part of the concert.

Sanjay's music always has a lot of rare numbers , I would have been bit happier if there was more quantum of neraval and swaras in todi and may be even a fast filler .Overall an excellent concert for 3 hours and 10 minutes.

[thanjavooran]

Shri Rajeshnat,
Thanx for the interesting review.
Thanjavooran
15 12 2016

[kvchellappa]

A true connoisseur's review that holds Belgian mirror to the performance. Thanks.

[arasi]

KVC,
A mirror, a belgian mirror, a beveled belgian mirror Rajesh's reviews certainly are, and in this case, add--with a touch of an amusement hall mirror ;

Whatever, Rajesh seems to have relished the concert

Hoping to catch one such concert soon...

[grsastrigal]

Nee vanti- interestingly, there is another song in bairavi.

I did not want to miss this because of 2 reasons. A sure 3 hour concert (6PM) and good accompaniments besides Sanjay. Last minute, I had to cancel as I was running for water and vegetables..."shifting from Sanjay effect to varadA e(a)ffect !!!

The begada song may be for you. Thantadukku (the amout you had given), nee vantatukkum (you had come without disappointing SS and of course "Us (by a good review), kaNakku sari (tallied) !!!

I remember he sang Jayanthasena RTP in NGS. Nagai Muralidharan only accomanpied there also. Then only Sanjay and now, SK Sanjay.

[pattamaa]

seems like another awsome concert by thalaivar !

#7 - begada composer is papavinasam mudaliyar

mand composition - he presented this in MMU program few days before, part of vedanayakam pillai thematic concert. There was a "once more" request in that concert, and he said, he will sing in BGS concert on Dec 14th...

glad to hear that sanjay sang - vallakAdanaka , a rare keerthana of the bard of thiruvayyaru. There is a shanarabharanam version of this keerthana too.