Sanjay at Venugopala swamy temple for Mahara sankarnthi fest

rajaglan · Post by **rajaglan** » 14 Jan 2008, 12:43

Details of artists :

Venue : Shri venugopala swamy temple at Malleswaram 11th croos.
Vocal : Shri Sanjay Subramaiam
Violin : Varada rajan?
Mritangam : ?
morsing

1. Vanajakshi Kalyani (Varnam) - PGI or SI

2. Santhana Gopala Krishnan - Khamas - Dikshithar (S)

3. Nannu Vidachi kadalakura ramayya rama kothanda rama - Thyyagaraja (R )

4. Appa nan venduthal ketu arul purithal vendum - Poorvikalyani - (R)
Tappedum nan seithalum ne poruthidal vendum (N) - Arutpa by Ramalinga swamigal

5. Paramukham elanamma paradhina patita - GNB - Kannada - filler

6. Rasa vilasa lolo lasati - kamboji-swati tirunal (R [12 min by Sanjay] , S [long one] , Thani )

The concert started at 6.15pm and I left at 8.00pm just when Thani started as I had to travel back a long distance.
Also I had a feeling that RTP is not going to be there as the concert was delayed by 15 minutes for the sayaratsha deeparathana of the deity.
Please come forward and add details for later part of the concert. The audio reception was pretty good related to what I initially thought looking at the place.

It was a well attended one though the auditorium is small and when I was leaving people were waiting outside. Sanjay was in his very good form and his voice highly cooperated
with all his attempts. Especially his kamboji raga alapana which lasted for 12 minutes still rings in my ears. The last five minutes of the alapana was a very good one and he took enough pauses to get the maximum air in to his lungs several times. He didnot rush through.

I have an album "Dvayam" by him which has 'only' two songs both have alapanas (kamboji and reethigowla) and by coincidence he sang both ragas here . And I realised what kind of great demonstration a live concert can bring comapred to an album where you always have to worry about perfection and then not try risks. The kamboji song he took was "rasa vilasa" which I have never heard. Looks like it is a season of reintroduction of songs like "mari mari" and "rasa vilasa".

His poorvikalyani song was drenched in bhava (feeling) and I could easily understand the lyrics. Later I went back and understood this is an Arutpa. Can anyone tell whether
ramalinga swamigal arutpa are in the song format like "pallavi-anupallavi-saranam.

Very satisfying to attend such concerts. I especially wonder why the TN govt not give Sanjay a state award or some sort of recognition for popularising tamil krithis. After listening to Sanjay few times, I really feel tamil krithis can outperform the trinitie's as we understand the lyrics and appreciate. In the list of songs I enjoyed the rendition of "Appa nan venduthal".

Svaapana · Post by **Svaapana** » 14 Jan 2008, 17:19

rajaglan,
Sanjay received the prestigious Kalaimamani award from the Tamil Nadu Government in August 2007. It was for the year 2006.

Sanjay was accompanied by S Varadarajan on the violin, Neyveli Venkatesh on the Mrudangam and Bangalore Rajasekhar on the morsing (there was no konnakol as mentioned by rajaglan. The rest of the song list is as follows:
7. Kandhu dhanya - Behag - Rupakam, Kamalesadasa
8. Srutva guna - Viruttam in Bagesri, Tilang, Jonpuri and Mohanam
9. Bansri - Swathi thirunal bhajan - Mohanam (Bhoop rather)
10. Engum - Kuranji - PS
11. Tillana - Sindhubhairavi - MDR(?)
12. Mangalam

Yes it was a very satisfying concert for 2hours and 45 minutes. As mentioned by rajagln the kalpana swara for kambodhi had all that one look's for and more. With two bases one at Ghandharam and the other at dhaivatham, the rendition was spellbinding. I have heard Raasa vilasaa sung by Alathur Brothers at the Navarathri mandapam.
I heard the tillana for the first time. Beautiful jathis sung so well that the Sindhubhairavi still rings in my ears! The Sivan song has been a Sanjay masterpiece this season.

It was a small hall, fully packed, with people standing. With no requirement for AC and fans in Bangalore, the speaker volume could have been lower, I thought.

rajaglan · Post by **rajaglan** » 15 Jan 2008, 08:21

hi Svaapana,

Thanks for providing the rest of the details. I actually was thinking morsing and wrote as konnekool.

grsastrigal · Post by **grsastrigal** » 16 Jan 2008, 15:59

From the above concert, It seems he sang one kriti (purvikalyani) in Tamil. Nothing new. Everyother artist is doing this in a concert.. His repetition of commercial releases is also not new !!. Kambodhi-he is taking 3rd or 4th time in a row in the last one month. Nothing new too !!. Starting the concert without Ganapathi on the first day of "holy month" by now a days artist is also not NEW !!!!
But, yes, after he started, there is a great awareness of Arutpa and Tevaram etc., in general. He is learning this from a "designated expert"
This effort is commendable. But there are many aRutpas, not only "Appa Naan", which we have heard from Sanjay before. And also the Kambodhi Kriti is rarely heard. Good one.

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 16 Jan 2008, 16:06

rajaglan wrote:hi Svaapana,

Thanks for providing the rest of the details. I actually was thinking morsing and wrote as konnekool.

Oh goodness me . If you are thinking Morsing , you should think Nick

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 16 Jan 2008, 16:27

grsastrigal wrote:From the above concert, It seems he sang one kriti (purvikalyani) in Tamil. Nothing new. Everyother artist is doing this in a concert.. His repetition of commercial releases is also not new !!. Kambodhi-he is taking 3rd or 4th time in a row in the last one month. Nothing new too !!. Starting the concert without Ganapathi on the first day of "holy month" by now a days artist is also not NEW !!!!

Nothing NEW about your gripes either.

rajaglan · Post by **rajaglan** » 16 Jan 2008, 18:04

cienu,

How is nick related to morsing? Is he a morsing player or an admirer of morsing.

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 16 Jan 2008, 18:10

Hi Rajaglan,

Nick , a Rasika Forumite is a Morsing Player. You can see him deeply involved in playing the morsing in one of Vijay's set of photographs !

Thanks for the understanding....

rajaglan · Post by **rajaglan** » 16 Jan 2008, 18:19

Yes, I saw him yesterday in the album and most of the photos from Rajesh's website. I am able to relate to lots of the people who are writing here. Thanks to Rajesh for keeping the website. I used to think when people write here " Bangalore Shankar's concert at Soumya's residence", it is one rasika soumya in chennai. After seeing the photo I realised it is non other than our great musician Soumya, I was surprised.

Svaapana · Post by **Svaapana** » 16 Jan 2008, 19:31

grsastrigal , you seem to have some real problem with Sanjay's music. KP Arunachalam was one of my favorite artistes in those days. He kept on playing the same krithis concert after concert, but every time his treatment of the raga. swara, etc would be so different. IMHO Sanjay not only excels in those aspects but he has a very large repertoire too and I have never seen him refer to notes that so many front ranking artistes do these days. In fact even the same krithi gets better embellished each time he sings. Yes, I have also heard him sing kambodhi many times, but in the concert under review swaras came as a torrent sometimes, and the beautiful patterns that he weaved while anchoring on the ghandhara or dhaivatham was so refreshing that it was totally new to me. I have just mentioned one point here; Experts will be able to do much better.

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 16 Jan 2008, 21:54

I don't believe any artiste is obliged to serve up something new in every concert....what a strange objection! More so when one considers that the list includes Rasa Vilasa as the main piece! The only other artiste I have heard this kriti from, is KVN!

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 16 Jan 2008, 22:53

The rAgas are safe, but the kritis are not, with Sanjay. He rotates them so much that to hear something which you really relished doesn't come round often, and you may not hear it again. But for the tukkaDA part which itself is a TukhDa in his case (meaning, there is very little of it), I haven't come across repetitions of the same old kritis in his concerts...

rajaglan · Post by **rajaglan** » 16 Jan 2008, 23:32

Grsastrigal and others,

Sanjay has done some research in Gopala krishna Bharathi's life and his nandan charitham . This helps him to deliver such pieces in a better way. (This is what I read about him).

Whenever I heard Sanjay in a concert , his submain or main is a tamil compositions. He makes it a point to do neraval in that. This may not be the correct statistics and this data may not be sufficient to generalise.

As you said lot of artists are singing tamil songs. But my point is that he is 'one of the most popular artist as of today' who has special affinity to tamil songs and verses. In that sense it helps tamil isai more than others doing it. That is how it is more important for the Govt to award such people to motivate them.

On a similar note, I am thinking even Madurai Mani Iyer popularised so many Papanasam Sivan songs and he also had lots of tamil RTP pallavi lines given the period was very hostile to tamil. Wonder who is the most popular person of 60s to have enriched CM using tamil songs?

Just to add to Svaapana's point: After some stage , Madurai mani iyer had to deliver similar things again and again in concerts. Maharajapuram will sing a short sketch of Arabhi and will ask the crowd that is what you want ( I have a recording where he does that). I am sure they all had variations.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 17 Jan 2008, 09:23

In the season, we heard many tamizh songs, many different kritis--which is a good sign. Some performers realize perhaps that they don't have to serve up the same fare. An inspired rAgA rendering and imaginative svarA patterns can make all the difference, even if the kriti is heard often. Some kritis, because of their own beauty, wear well. Add to it the neravals.
As always, one can expect something different, something new in the handling of the classic old kritis in Sanjay's concerts. Add to it the number of tamizh kritis he sings. I don't know if it is his understanding of the meaning of the kritis or his ability to bring out the bhAvA in them, or both--the end result is what I look for in a concert...

jnaanasoonyam · Post by **jnaanasoonyam** » 18 Jan 2008, 12:16

Quite funny how quickly labels such as 'rare', 'unique find', etc. are affixed on certain compositions.. and with such fanfare when the singer in question happens to be Sanjay or Krishna. 'Rasa Vilasa' has been on the concert circuit for ages... Alathur Bros have sung it time and again, KVN has done it in many concerts both at Navaratri mandapam and outside. His neraval at 'madanatura gopika' is spellbinding. Among current stars, Vidushi Sowmya sings it quite often and was main piece at MFAC couple of yrs back. So... what exactly is so 'rare' about this kriti? :rolleyes:

rajaglan · Post by **rajaglan** » 18 Jan 2008, 15:45

jnaanasoonyam,

I think gsastrigal said 'rarely heard'. This is true for non-chennaites. It is natural that you can get this in navaratri mantapam. Again defintely in chennai due to so many concerts. But for people in blore, it is heard once in a while and thus rarely heard.
Again usage of rare is relative here i guess.

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 18 Jan 2008, 17:48

Rajaglan, it is posted in sangeethapriya.com's main site and classified under music season 2007. You can get there from their landing page. It is only as legal as the stuff that usuallly gets posted there... So I am not posting a direct link to it.

.....Sorry wrong thread. I've moved the post.

Enna_Solven · Post by **Enna_Solven** » 18 Jan 2008, 20:12

I am a fan of Sanjay. My respect for him grew tremendously after I read his interview (in Tamil) here:

http://www.kalachuvadu.com/issue-80/interview.htm

It is easy to gripe about an artist but we need to realize that he/she is on a journey of his/her own with its ups an downs, discoveries and disappointments. My take is that when I am not happy with something, I am not happy with myself...

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 18 Jan 2008, 22:36

May sound odd, but in all the concerts that I have been to in the past dozen years, I haven't heard rasa vilasa.
I would say, in a few hundred concerts...

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 18 Jan 2008, 22:39

Enna_Solven: Our resident poetess Arasi has translated that entire kAlachuvadu interview to English. There is a long thread about it somewhere under General discussions.

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 19 Jan 2008, 00:02

Concur with Arasi...only other person I've heard sing Rasa Vilasa is KVN and that too, in a recording...my sample size would be about 500 odd concerts...but maybe it's just my luck! In any case, irrespective of the "rareness" or otherwise of this particularl krithi, there ought to be no doubt about the width of Sanjay's repertoire and the variety in his presentations.

vasanthabhairavi · Post by **vasanthabhairavi** » 19 Jan 2008, 09:27

Sanjay sang Rasa Vilasa just a few days back at Bhairavi Gana Sabha as main here in Chennai....

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 19 Jan 2008, 10:00

In a sabha the Bangalore rasikAs would hardly have a chance to step into...

vasanthabhairavi · Post by **vasanthabhairavi** » 19 Jan 2008, 10:43

Thats correct, arasi.... I just mentioned it as an info....just to say the Krithi as such isn't that rare....have heard DKJ sing it once, if my memory is right.

rajaglan · Post by **rajaglan** » 19 Jan 2008, 10:55

enna_solven,
Thanks for the posting. I have read this from (excellent ) translation by Arasi. But reading it in sanjay's spoken tamil gives a different feeling.

Arasi,
I agree with you on the oppurtunities of bloreans to listen to CM vidwans. We probably have few occasions 1. fort high school for rama navami, 2. guruvayorappan samaj for gokulashtami and then 3. Gayana samaj on their yearly fesival. Other small sabhas are not regular every year (may be fund crench) . Even if they have, it is not like MA or KGS long list of all artists (except the fort high school). Even the popular artists like TMK , sanjay, TNS, Sudha visits 4-5 times an year.. right! Vijay siva, U srinivas, Soumya are h(e)rardly 2-3 times.

Also on the same line ' padasanti munijana' in kamboji - has anybody heard in concerts. I have a album by Maharajapuram which has that.