A Three Day Celebration: Thiruvaiyaru in Bangalore

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 11 Mar 2007, 03:24

Alamelamma Patel Narayana Iyengar Trust--in association with Carnatica and Ananya Cultural Association is celebrating a three day Tyagaraja festival in Bangalore (March 9th, 10th and 11th). Yesterday, pancharatna kritis were sung by vidwans and vidushis, led by sangeetha kalanidhis Srikantan and T.N.Krishnan. A series of music albums--rAma vaibhavam--was released by Carnatica.

The second day started with a presentation of Tyagaraja Sangeeta Sahitya Vaibhavam, presented by Dr. Srivatsa and R.K. Srikantan. Mysore Subrahmanya provided expert opinion.
I could not attend any of the above mentioned events. Mini concerts followed. Dr. Govinda Rao gave the first one this morning. I arrived there around five in the evening. When I looked at the program sheet, I realized that I had missed our forumite G.Ravikiran's concert which took place in the aftrnoon--a pity. The duration of each concert was forty five minutes.

A Kaleidoscope of Performers

I entered the hall as Saketaraman was singing an emotive ETi janmamidi hA in varALi, followed by a nasikbhUshaNi (?) kriti, the opening words of which eluded me (sounded like mAra vairi ramaNI). Then KaruNA jaladhi dAsarathE in nAdanAmakriyA. I liked his singing even better than when I heard him recently in Bangalore.

Gayatri Vekataraghavan sang next. nAda sudhA rasambilanu in Arabhi, oka pAri jUdaga rAdA in kalAvathi (?) followed. She sang muripemu galigEgadA in mukhAri next. bhajana sEyavE in kalyANi followed, and then kanna talli nIvu in sAvEri. She ended her singing with eTula gApaDuduvO in Ahiri. Her emotive voice, nidAnam and phrasing is a pleasure to listen to. She packaged a rich fare for such a short time. Her rapport with Sudhindra on the mrudangam and her smiling face enhanced the presentation.

Suryaprakash, as is expected of him, started the concert with vibrant notes, essaying anupama guNAmbudhi in
aTANa. manavi nAlagincha rAdatE flowed effortlessly soon after. The next was a kriti in sArangA rendered unhurriedly and since I haven't heard the kriti before and what I scribbled down isn't legible (Shame on me! Suryaprakash is one of those singers who spells out words clearly), I cannot give you the beginning words. There is a JagadIsa in the first line. Then came a solid koluvaiyyunnADE in bhairavi, and yes, I liked it! The swarams were scintillating. Suryaprakash ended his singing with nIvalla guNa dosha in kApi.

Dr.Satyavathy started her concert with varashikhi vAhana in supradIpam. The swarAs just danced (after all, a peacock appears as the first word). I did not note down the next kriti in kannaDA. She sang lEkanA ninnu in asAveri next. anurAgamu lEni in saraswathi followed with pleasing swaram.s Dr. Satyavathy's voice wasn't in best shape. Yet, she delivered her goods with a stamp of her erudition and individuality.

Rudrapatnam Brothers were next. Chaste in their presentation as all of them hailing from Rudrapatnam are. Emani pogadudurA was the first kriti. A very nice yadukula kAmbOdi, nI daya chE followed, one of my favorite rAgAs, with all its appealing quality. samukhAna nilva galgunA in kOkilavarALi followed. lAli lAli came next, and then patiki hArati in suraTi.

Neela Ramgopal sang the final concert of the day. Veteran singer as she is, her voice is still young. Her disciple filled in whenever needed, in a voice very similar to hers. She started her rendering with shyAma sundarAnga in DhanyAsi, her swarms crisp and sparkling. The sahAnA which came after was dEhi tava pAda bhaktim vaidEhi! was delightfully new to me. nannu brOvakanu in sankarAbharaNam followed. shObAne was sung in--I was wondering, and a vidwAn sitting in front of me told me that it was sung in madhyama sruti of pantuvarALi.

The able accompanists I heard today were (there are more): H.K.Venkatram, Amrita Murali, C.N.Chandrashekar, srimushnam, sudhindra and Thanjavur Murugabhoopathi.

I really and truly enjoyed this spectrum of singing. I have never been to tiruvaiyAru and the twin stage concerts are new to me. What a clever idea, I thought, not wasting time over vacating the stage to accomodate a succession of performers.

Worth mentioning is the lack of delays in 'a cast of many musicians' situation. I applaud the organizers for this, and for a warm welcome which was evident on their part. The stage was edged with varied colors of REAL chrysanthemums and the cup of coffee Shashi Kiran and company offered me was very agreeable.
It has kept me awake into the night, since caffeine after three in the afternoon keeps me awake past my bed time. I would very much like the Bangalore rasikas who read this, to spend at least part of their sunday in Malleshwaram's Seva Sadan Hall in 13th Cross, to be part of this festival AND that least one of them would write a review on it!

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 11 Mar 2007, 03:40

Ehi trijagadIsha shambhO mAm pAhi is a kriti in sAranga by Tyagaraja.

meena · Post by **meena** » 11 Mar 2007, 05:57

Deleted

nivedita · Post by **nivedita** » 11 Mar 2007, 11:32

Day 1 of the Aradhana was held at the Bangalore Gayana Samaja. The programme began with a majestic Nadaswaram recital by Bangalore Shri Kodandaraman and his team, which set the stage for the wonderful evening of music that was to follow. He played shri gaNapati nI - sauraSTram, jAnaki ramaNa - shuddha sImantini, ADamODi galade - cArukEsi, sari evvare - srIranjani and nyAna mosagarAda - pUrvikalyANi.

This was followed by a rendition of cEtulAra by Shri Chandana Kumar and Shri Chaitanya Kumar and vEda ghOsham by students of the Hiremaglur Patashala. The pancharatna kritis were then rendered by musicians, led by Sangita Kalanidhi Shri R.K.Srikantan.

Following this musical homage was the release of a set of six CDs. Of the dignitaries on the dias (for details, see http://rasika.carnatica.net/viewtopic.php?t=1102), Hiremaglur Shri Kannan had the audience in splits for a considerable length of time - unfortunately, for me, it was all Greek and Latin, because he spoke in Kannada!

The highlights of the evening were the concerts of Sangita Kalanidhis Shri R.K.Srikantan (supported by Shri Ramakanth) and Shri T.N.Krishnan, with Smt Viji Krishnan. The concerts were out of the world - if you weren't there, you've missed some of the greatest music ever!

Song Lists:

Sangita Kalanidhi Shri R.K.Srikantan with Shri Ramakanth

1. shObillu saptasvara - jaganmOhini
2. rAma nIve - nArAyaNi
3. vADera deivamu - pantuvarALi
4. dasharata nandana - asAvEri

Sangita Kalanidhi Shri T.N.Krishnan and Smt.Viji Krishnan

1. manavyAla kincara - naLinakAnti
2. brOva bArama - bahudAri
3. gItArtamu - suruTTi
4. mangaLam

gravikiran · Post by **gravikiran** » 12 Mar 2007, 07:41

arasi,

i sang the following list:
1) devadi deva sadasiva - sindhuramakriya - adi
2) seethavara - devagandhari - adi (R)
3) alakallallaladaga - madhyamavathi - rupaka (R)
4) ennaga manasukurani - neelambari - adi.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 12 Mar 2007, 10:55

gravikiran,
A very nice selection of songs!
I see from the first day's review that many different kritis were sung. If someone would post the songs
rendered yesterday, it would complete the coverage for all three days.