Madurai R Sundar – Abu Dhabi – 27th Jan, 2012

[nri]

Vocal: Sri Madurai R Sundar
Violin: Sri. S. Varadarajan
Mrudangam: Prof. Sri. Trichy Sankaran
Kanjira: Sri. B.S.Purushotham

List of songs:

1. erA nApai – tODi – Adi - PSI
2. vallabha naayakasya - bEgaDa – rUpakam – MD [ raga sketch, S @ vallabha ]
3. marivErE gati – Ananda bhairavi – misra cApu – SS [ raga sketch, S @ marivere ]
4. birAna brOva idi – kalyANi – Adi - Thanangampadi Pancanaada Aiyyar [ A, N @ neranammina, tani]
5. marukElarA – jayantashrI – dEshadi - T
6. saraguNa pAlimpa – kEdAragowLai – Adi - Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar [ A, S @ saraguna, N @ varada venkatesa , tani]
7. kanDEn kanDEn - vasanta - Adi - Arunachala Kavi - [ raga sketch]
8. kANa vEnDum laksham kangaL – surutti – cApu - Arunachala Kavi
9. ----
10. mamava pattabhirAma – maNirangu - MD
11. nI nAma rUpa mulaku (mangaLam) – saurAshTram – Adi – T

Few firsts about this post: My first concert review and first of an Abu Dhabi concert on rasikas and my first listening live to Madurai Sundar. Incidentally the vocalist is a namesake.

Concert was to start at 06:00 pm; and welcoming, artists introduction started at 06:30, which took a good 20 minutes. The actual concert began at 06:50 pm.

erA nApai was a brisk beginning and set the pace for the rest of the day. Begada was well executed by all. Marivere was slow and pleasing to hear. I am a fan of NSG’s marivere and it was equally pleasant to hear that from Madurai R Sundar, from the same school. Varadarajan’s violin returns were a must mention in this piece.

Until now, Trichy Sankaran seemed to be pretty unconvinced of his mridangam tuning and he was taking some time in between each song to fine tune his instrument. Then came an elaborate kalyani alapanai, and wonderful violin returns. The kriti was well sung with no glitches, that I could trace. Since Trichy Sankaran was on the mridangam, there was a huge audience expectation on him and his tani was just superb. Purushotham was a good support to the percussionist and the duo went on to a firecracker sort of exchanges for nearly 30 minutes. The vocalist finished it off with a nI pAda pankajamu, as if reverencing to the senior artist on behalf of everyone.

Marukelara was again neatly done. Saraguna palimpa was very elaborate with a quick neraval and swaras at vara guna seshadri varada venkatesa, followed by brilliant violin returns and another aggressive round of 20 minutes tani.

After this, artists were felicitated. I did not pay much attention to this part, as I had to return some of the missed calls on my silent-mode phone. But I did hear that this was the first concert of Trichy Sankaran after the SK award.

Post main items were a very good rounding off. I particularly enjoyed that they were peppy and yet classic. All of 7, 8 and 9 were new to me and I just could not make out the lyrics of item 9. It was in Tamil and was on Pazhani Murugan. Manirangu was an audience request, I suppose.

The comradie among the artists was visible; each one tried to offer their best and was equally appreciative of the others. Trichy Sankaran, the senior of all stole the show which was quite a taken. There was nothing amiss on the vocalist part, just plain neat singing. I thought that he had short breaths during the pallavi part of saraguna but certainly the best part to me was his kedaragowla swaras. Varadarajan was just not plainly following the vocalist, he was adding subtle nuances which added to the melody. Purushottam, I guess was too inspired by Prof Sankaran and he very aptly supported the tani. My daughter and I enjoyed every bit of the teamwork.

Endnotes: The concert finished at 09:20 and the mini-hall had still 50-60 odd among the audience. Madurai Sundar wore a sprightly bright parrot green kurta, which looked good on him. My daughter got carried away by Madurai Sundar’s marukelara and her next agenda now is to learn the kriti properly.

[rajeshnat]

Tx NRI for madurai sundar's review . Keep continuing with future artists in abu dhAbi.THe song list has a lot of numbers that shri TNS popularized.

[fduddy]

Tx NRI for madurai sundar's review . Keep continuing with future artists in abu dhAbi.THe song list has a lot of numbers that shri TNS popularized.

I dont see any kriti specifically popularized by TNS. These are popular kritis for ages and have been sung by yesteryear greats and the current. There is no single piece that is rare and thus popularised. No comments against the music..

[rajeshnat]

I meant shri TNS sings so well numbers like saraguna pAlimpA, point well taken, I should have not said popularized. This song list is a Ariyakudi like list

[arasi]

nri,
Thanks for the review. Good to know your daugher enjoyed the concert too.
Any picture of the concert? Sundar in parrot green kurta (the man from green parrot carrying MInakshi's city)?

[Ramasubramanian M.K]

Nice review--Hats off to Sundar for sustaining the sampradaya and the quality amidst his professional career commitments. First I heard him--based on my late father's raves--when he was Freshman @ IIT @ his aunt's house almost three decades back and since then he has excelled and I am sure has made his Guru TNS proud.

Lineage helps and I am sure Arasi would agree!!!

[arasi]

Ramesh,
Sundar certainly does, but he has ''EARNED" it--as the old ad goes

[nri]

arasi, Here's a picture. I had to figure it out with the moderators on how to post this, tx to them.

[arasi]

Thanks for a very nice picture! The very first one from Abu Dhabi, I guess.
Sangeetha Kalanidhi in command, and the three vaiNavAs keeeping tALam