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HAMSADHWANI MUSIC FESTIVAL Concert Reviews |
[Editor's
Note: The concert reports and song lists appearing in this page are
contributed by a rasika Sri. N. P. Haran. Any views and
opinions expressed here are entirely his own]
Mambalam Sisters
– Vocal, Dr. R. Hemalatha – Violin, Mannargudi Srinivasan – Mridangam, K. S.
Rangachari – Kanjira Instead of beginning the concert in a routine manner with a varnam, the opening item rendered was “Sri Vighnarajam Bhaje” of Uthukkadu Venkatakavi in Gambhiranattai. The brisk tenor of the song set in madhyama kala immediately arrested the attention of the listeners. This was followed by a somewhat rare piece “Mudhumomu” of Tyagaraja in the 17th mela Suryakantam, giving a welcome scholarly contribution to the concert. Swaram was rendered for a couple of minutes in an attractive manner in this item. Next came raga alapana in Abhogi by Chitra and Hemalatha. In this raga, Dikshitar’s kriti “Sri Lakshmi Varaham" with swaram was rendered in an impressive manner. This was followed by the Tamil kriti “Chitham Irangathathenaiya" of Papanasam Sivan in Sahana. Though the plain kriti alone was rendered (without raga alapana) full justice was done to it by its exposition in a detailed and appealing manner for 9 minutes. This was followed by “Bhogindra Sayinam” of Swati Tirunal in Kuntalavarali. Thus all the first five items were by different composers in different style and tempo providing ample variety. Thodi was taken up next and a detailed alapana was done by Vijayalakshmi and Hemalatha for 11 minutes. The well known kriti "Raju Vedala" of Tyagaraja was presented in this raga. This used to be a favourite of Ariyakkudi in olden days. Just like him, niraval was also done in the latter portion of the charanam at “sevanugani suralu”. This kriti is said to have been composed in the raga Desya Thodi by Tyagaraja (The differences between Desya Thodi and Thodi being only in the Arohanam: It is sgmpdns for Desya thodi while is sampoornam for Thodi). But in fact none of the kritis composed by Tyagaraja in Desya Thodi is ever being rendered in that raga. Either they are rendered in Thodi or in some case in entirely different ragas, e.g. “Ne pogada kunte” composed in Desya Thodi is being rendered in Varaali by Ariyakkudi, T. K. Rangachari & T. N. Seshagopalan or in Subhapantuvaraali by Balamurali, with the result that the identity of the original raga Desya Thodi has become unknown to us. The next item rendered was “Narasingham” of Mysore Sadasiva Rao in Kamalamanohari. This also is a rare item which we do not hear often in concerts. From the way the concert was proceeding it was apparent that there might be a RTP and the artist did not disappoint us, though the raga taken up for RTP was the common and often rendered Kalyani. Due to paucity of time, raga alapana by all the three sisters was confined to 11min. and tanam to 4 min. The lyrics of the pallavi was “Sadha nine nammithi kalyani saama gaana lola”. Refreshing and appealing ragamalika swaram were presented in Bhairavi (Vijayalakshmi), Saraswathi (Chitra and Hemalatha), Bagesri (Vijayalakshmi) and Revathi (Chitra and Hemalatha) and the names of the ragas were innovatively included in the pallavi itself. There was a short thani and it was remarkable that most of the audience chose to stay glued to their seats till the end. The RTP was followed by an interesting fare of appealing and absorbing thukkadas. However the names of the ragas and composers are never mentioned in a concert even by those who mention them in the main body of the concert. It was begun with Papanasam Sivan’s “Maname kanamum maravaathe” in Bhimplas followed by an interesting and hilarious piece “Sambandhi sappidave maattal” in the well known tune of “Bhagyada lakshmi baramma” of Purandaradasa. The innocuous opening sentence was followed by a formidable array of large quantities of food items swallowed and gulped by the sambandhi. The next item was a moving Tulasidas Bhajan in Vasanth Bahar and the penultimate item was a western note “Rama Janardhana” by Muttuswami Dikshitar. Instead of the usual Saurashtram, the concert was concluded with a mangalam in Kedaram, “Mangalam Nithya Mangalam”. It was a successful and impressive concert providing variety and appeal in a wholly satisfying manner. Vaishnavi Rajagopalan - Vocal, V.
Ananthanarayanan – Violin, Karaikkudi Mohan Ram – Mridangam |
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