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This was thematic 2 hours and 5 minutes concert titled "purandaradAsar day", expectedly all renditions were from the sangita pitamaha of CM.
Accompanied by mysore shrikanth - violin and R.Ramesh - mrudangam
1A. short alApanai in nAttai
1B. slokham "Adi ali.... shAdujana hella kEli..dayAnidham vaNdE??" - nAttai
1C. vandisuha(S) - nAttai
2. nambi keTTavar illavO (R N S)- kalyAni
5 mins alApanai,4 mins violin return
4 mins neraval in "garuda gamana shree purandara vittalA', swaras for 3 mins
3. maNavani suvadhu (R)- nAttaikurinji
5 mins alApanai and 2 mins violin return
4. yENO dhaNya lOla lakhumi (R N S) - tOdi
6 mins alApanai, 4 mins each for violin return , neraval and swaras
neraval in the lines "sarva sthanAdi vyApyAntha sarva dOsha rahikAnatha"
5. yENtha puNyavE gOpi (R) - sahAnA
3 mins alApanai and 2 mins violin return
6. rAma rAma rAma yeNirO - vasantA
7A. hari neeNE gathi yeNthu (R N S T)- kharaharapriyA
6 mins alApanai, 5 mins violin return ,4 mins for neraval and 5 mins swaras
neraval in the lines "siri ramaNa nE yenna karuna yeLLani kanO"
7B. 11 mins tani
8A. slOkham like "kArva dhevamu neeNE kulavu deivamu neeNE" - Anandabhairavi + bEgaDa + sindhubhairavi
8B. tamburi meetidava - sindhubhairavi -
9. jaya jaya mangalam nithya subhamangalam - dhanyAsi ?
* - I may have commited few mistakes for sure with the krithi's (as many were unfamiliar to me),ramakriya, Lji and others can correct it.
Bangalore Shankar is perhaps one of the most qualified vidwan to present a purandaradAsar thematic concert. PAppu venugOpal rao who spoke before the concert for about 10 minutes giving a brief introduction about dAsar ended with the lines "vidwan shankar informed me that he was running a slight temperature ,and I wish him that purandara dAsar will take care of him".
On the other hand , I personally had an expectation for many years wanting to listen to exclusive purandaradAsar concerts,though listened to few in NCA but all those were more bhajans .Infact about 20 years back I was particularly enthralled listening to Smt MLV and santhAnam few purandaradAsar longish tukkadAs. Most of the time the maximum that I have heard was a sub main nambi keTTavar illavO in kalyAni.
Shankar started with a nice slOkham and a fairly well charged nAttai krithi and swaras. My maximum sub main popped up in kalyAni and he rendered the expected nambi keTTavar quite well .The main in kharaharapriya was very well rendered though the neraval was not adequate at all and swaras were little dipping in quality, I am always used to a very vistAramana kharaharapriyA which I did not get it. The preceding vasantA was nice though half of the other musicians sing the same no in thillang (perhaps one of the many dAsar krithis which is generally sung in more than one rAgas for the same krithi).tamburi meetidhava was perhaps sung for
who was not there. The last mangalam in dhanyAsi? was quite good.Easily the best four numbers was that rAgamAliga slokham . I loved this nAttaikurinji krithi it was quite similiar to OVK pAlvadiyum mukham in structure. sahAna was beautifully sung with his temperature enabled voice suited very well and he got the his idol kVN touch very much there. THe pick of the day was definitely tOdi, I definitely liked the entire rendition of the krithi especially the "sarva sthanAdi" neraval was superb.
The violinist played beautifully throughout and his shruthi suddham was very good. I personally feel in all these thematic concerts the vocalist have notes to refer and to an extent they are saved(Shankar did for few krithis), but the mridangist have to anticipate the unanticipated krithis. To an extent rAmesh did not cope up well here , his play despite having good azhuttham did not gel that well.
Overall a good to very good concert from this vidwan. He is singing this weekend in mylapore please make it(am I right cool) ,with a risk of repeating the same lines again , this vidwan falls in the slot bracket somewhere between neyveli and OST.
Interestingly I am yet to even hear a live or a recording of a vistarAmana purandaradAsar main krithi or that matter any long krithi in kannada something as magnum opus as say chakkani rAja in telugu or KArthikeya kAngeya in thamizh / bala gOpAla in sanskrit(magnum opus as in XL krithis not as L krithis). Did I get one of that kind from any musician unfortunately that is/was not the case (perhaps some present vidwan/ushi can challenge me here, may be smt mlv and prof TRS just made it quite close ) ,till then my search will continue...
