Violin: Sri B V Raghavendra Rao (BVRR)
Mridangam: Sri Patri Satish Kumar (PSR)
Venue: Broomfield Auditorium
Date & Time: April 15th, 2012 -- 4-730pm
Organizer: Colorado Fine Arts Association
Legend: R - Ragam, N - Neraval, S - Swaram, T - Tani Avartanam
1. sAmi ninnE nammi (varNam) – kAmavardhini – Adi – ShaTkAla narasayyA
2. sujana jIvanA rAmA – khamAs – rUpaka – tyAgarAjasvami
3. ora jUpu juchE idi nyAyamA – kannaDagouLa – Adi – tyAgarAjasvAmi (RS): svarams at orajupujuchEdinyAyamA
4. sadA sAranga nayanE – ranjani – Adi – yOgam narasimham (RNS): neraval and svaram at prEmajita jananAnta rINa bhartrukE kAmAri manOranjani
5. endraikku Siva kRupai – mukhAri – miSra chApu – nIlakanTa Sivan: started from anupallavi kandrin kurali kETTu
6. kAya ArOhaNa ISam bhajarE rE – dEvagAndhAram – Adi – muttusvAmi dikSitar
7. dorakunA iTu anTi – bilahari – Adi – tyAgarAjasvAmi (RST): svaram at rAma brahma tanayuDau tyAgaraju tA pADucuNDagA
8. bhagyadA lakShmi bhAramma – miSra bouLi – Adi – purandaradAsar
9. rAgam tAnam pallavi – dharmavathi – catursrajAti tripuTa catusranaDai: “kaNNai paNi manamE anudinamE, maNi vaNNanai tAmarai”. rAgamAlika svarams in hamsadhvani, karNATakaSuddhasAvEri, bEgaDa, Anandabhairavi, hamsanAdam, mOhanam, nalinakanthi, kalyANavasantham, bEhag, dvijAvanthy, nIlAmbari, amRtavarSiNi, hindOLam, sindhubhairavi, madhukauns, valaji, brindAvani, nATTai, gouLa, Arabhi, varALi, SrI.
10. Sandananum javvAdum (viruttam) – karnATakadEvagAndhari
11. kANa Ayiram kaN – karnATakadEvagAndhari – Adi – aruLavan
12. jagati viSati mantram (SlOkam) – Sindhubhairavi
13. rAma rAma ena rAdA – Sindhubhairavi – Adi – prayAga rAngadAsa
14. nArAyaNa hari – rAgamAlikA – eka tALam kanDa naDai – mangaLam gaNapathi. rAgamAlika in Anandabhairavi, bAgESrI and SyAmA.
15. SAnti nilava vEnDum – tilang – Adi – sEtumAdhava rAvu
Dr. (Smt.) Nityashree Mahadevan was one artiste whom I have always given less importance ever since I started listening to karNATaka sangIta since I never thought she was a good singer and shouts too much. Of course, I have to admit this was my first full concert of NM. But this concert organized by CFAA has made me change my opinion about her and her music. She was simply phenomenal! Simply stupendous! Not exaggerating but I haven’t heard any other artiste with more perfect Sruti alignment in the current lot of vidUSis. IMHO, the crown jewel of India and the tavapudalvi of maduraimAnagar was Ms. Sruti Perfection! NM seems to have reduced her Sruti a bit from before which made her extremely pleasant to listen too. Her perfect renditions of songs makes me respect her pATAntaram very much. Also, this was the first concert I have attended since December of 2007 where I have heard an RTP. This was one of the most satisfying concerts I have heard in the recent past.
NM started her concert with the beautiful DKP-DKJ favorite varNam which can be heard over and over again from their school. Not only she gave perfect (spot-on) renditions of songs like sujana jIvanA, endraikku Siva kRupai and kAyArOhanESam, she also sang astounding rAga AlapanAs for kannaDagouLa, ranjani and dharmavathi. As far as the perfection in renditions of the songs, she sound exactly like her grandmom. The sedate rendering of the khamAs and the mukhAri kritis was the reason I have changed my opinion about he. I felt cannot be any better way to sing those two songs. mukhAri is one rAga which if sung in the right way can bring out ample soukhyam instead just sounding as if the artiste is crying. SrI nIlakaNTa Sivan's plea to SivaperumAn to grant him eternal place in kailAsam through the song endarikku Siva kRpai is one such song in mukhAri with full of soukhyam. NM did ample justice to the scope of the rAga as well as bringing out the emotive appeal of SrI Sivan extremely well.
She also gave us a brilliant main bilahari song, dorakunA iTuvanTi sEva and the svarams at the end was also pretty weighty. This song brings goose bumps to me when I listen to the song each time and think of the puNya phalam of tyAgarAjasvAmi to sing this song in front of SrI (bAla) rAma while performing the TOTTilsEva. Next to kulaSEkarAzhvAr, he is one (may be the only) singing about the Child rAma in TOTTil (cradle). The same feat performed by kausalyA to SrIrAman and yaSOda and periyAzhvAr in yaSODai bhAva to bAlakRSNan. The more I listen to tyAgarAjasvAmi's songs, IMHO, I feel this one janma is not enough to understand the nADa yOgi's state of mind and his devotion to SrI rAman and enjoy it through his songs. Coming back to the rendition by NM, I am listening to this song as a main first time on stage (live). Of course, I have a recording of my guru DrSR with LGJ and UKS singing a neraval at rAma brahma tanayuDau ta pADuchuNDagA. I felt she could have also done it which would have made it perfect.
The rAgam tAnam pallavi was also very good. She treated us to a long list of rAgams in the rAgamAlikA svarams. She moved on so quickly from one rAga to the other that at one point I couldn’t identify karNATakaSuddhasAvErI and madhukouns at all. Other wise I was able to identify everything else. Post RTP she sang some really pleasant pieces. The miSra bouLi and the sindhubhairavi pieces were both worth remembering for a long time. The tune for the miSrabouLi was the popular one by the bhArata ratna, the great bhImasEnar in the movie nODi svAmi navirODu hIgE for SrI ananth nAg. One more thing to this concert was that like her grandmom and granduncle, she has awesome control over her diction. Every single word in each song was shining brightly under each note (in tamizh we would say paLicchunu irundudu). She brought back some fond memories when she sang the tilang piece and completed her concert.
BVRR on the violin ably supported her though at places (like ranjani rAgam and dharmavathi tAnam), I felt he could have been little bit more relaxed. Otherwise, it was a pretty decent performance from him. PSR on the mridangam, on the other hand, was super energetic and remarkable. His accompaniment during each sangati was noteworthy. At times I felt, he matched in soukhyam along with NM in the khamas, the mukhAri and the dEvagAndhAram uruppaDis. His taniyAvarthanam was on par with taniyAvarthanams of stalwarts like PMI, PSP, TS and UKS. I felt his tALam and kAlapramANam during the pallavi was one point better than NM's tALam and kAlapramANam. I have heard him live earlier before but his taniyavarthanam Sunday night made me want to listening to him more.
All said and done, NM needn’t have chosen ranjani and dharmavathi for the same concert. There were places where I felt that some phrases she sang in the AlApanA for rajani crept in for dharmavathi as well. During the pallavi neraval, I felt she didn’t come to the samam at a few places while singing anudinamE and tAmarai kaNNanai. Two songs in karnATakadEvagAndhAri (bhimplas) also was a bit of overkill. IMHO, NM, being such a down to earth person, hopefully will take care of these details such as selection of so that she improves professional presentation skills.
I thank the organizers CFAA was bringing NM to Colorado after a gap of 17 years and even NM and PSR felt the rasikas were very enthusiastic and at one point NM quipped if you are going to give such a response I would be singing until 9pm. She was also very happy to hand over the prizes for the winners for the vocal and the instrument competetions held at the Rocky Mountain Thyagaraja Utsavam held the previous weekend. Now, the Denver Rasikas are eagerly waiting for Vidushi Soumya (Fall ’12).
For further information, contact CFAA at [email protected].