VijayaShiva@Agastheewarar Temple (rasikas crt #16) on June 20th,2009
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Just few corrections in the song list that sridhar_rang had added (not adding time lines this time)
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2. pAhi SrI girirAja - Ananda Bhairavi (N,S)
3. karuNa jUDavamma - pantuvarALi (R, S) (corrected..thanks rbharath)
4. karuNAnidhi ilalO - tODi (R,N)
5A. SlOkam "gAndharva ... kAnchi puri devatham"
+ Kamakshi - Yadukua kAmbhOji
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7A. Slokam "nAdi nAratha thumbura vinuthE" - Ahiri
+ 7B. mAyammAyani - Ahiri
...
The temple I have been atleast 500 times , more frequented during my school days to clear few exams is generally crowd deficient . But being a piradOsham day, O my boy what a crowd we all could not even enter , atleast close to 1000 + potential new potential carnatic rasikas were there .
As cool rightly said the ether in a temple concert is much more than in a sabha , coupled with this musician vijayashiva who is my top #2 favourite of present artist
the carnatic music was becoming more and more karnatakam . I used to wonder for the last few years that possibly akhilAndeshwari-dwijAvanthi of Muthuswamidikshitar should be sung as a sub main and agastheeswaram -lalitha of muthuswamidikshitar should be sung as a main simply as the main deity is agastheewarar and submain diety is akhilAndehwari (that is perhaps reserved for the next concert here for the next artist). This temple used to hold concerts for few years before I was born or when I was too young , but it just started after many many years (thanks to mantra's dad kalyAnasundaram and one gentleman by name krishnan mAma who was an elderly gentleman who sat in the first row.)
The theme of shamA sAstri in a concert in a temple had its bliss moment(was it always there) , with this backdrop few superpluses,pluses and shortcomings of the concert.
Few super pluses of the concert:
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1. The serpentine queue was overflowing cutting across the 50 rasikas who were attentive , but it was just not possible to concentrate and get the music because of crowd .I lost half of begada as I was a waterboy for the concert and I tried to sit down where spilling crowd blocked the view. But in Ananda bhairavi the concentration of vijayashiva+rksk+manoJ to deliver a splendid neraval and swaras in a trademark DKP pAhi SrI girirAja was spectacular and kind of top 2 of the concert.
2. The top #1 belonged to the pristine yadhukulakAMbOdhi (he could have slowed a little bit but still it was great).Every line vijayashiva got the right emote of ykkAMbOdhi with the keyword kAmakshi was a splendid rendition.
3. The last punnagavarAli was a perfect drop that had a clean kAlapramanam and muse.
Few pluses of the concert:
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1. PantuvarAli was sung with a lot of vigour but he could have gone for few more swara patterns for this rAgam.
2. Todi was also perfect , the artist was in command and I was happy to hear this out of circulation krithi and more importantly this todi drop created a ykKamBodhi swarajathi which was perhaps very close to my liking.
3. The play of RKSK lifted the concert but at few places there was little off key nAdham perhaps that was a little excess press of the violin.
Few shortcomings of the concert:
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1. Vijayashiva when he sings a slokham should make it a point to repeat the starting lines atleast twice both before ykkAmbOdhi and Ahiri was something I found it difficult to catch.
2. The main of madhyamavati of vijay was not the super madhyamavati that he generally delivers . I especially found the alApanai not to my liking , but certainly he made it up well with N and S.
3. Mridangam of manOjshiva could have had more strokes that could have got mingled better with the flow of singer .Tani was also a quick pass.
This is just a pure speculation:
4.On a side note , Lord Shiva with his devotees created a little late start of the concert from 06:45pm to 06:55pm , but Lord varunA was kind of waiting to hear more of vijayashiva and it did not rain from 08:45 pm onwards though showing some signs , Perhaps vijay could have dwelled little longer in madhyamAvati and gone for few more rAgamAlika slokhams.
But when he concluded with my personal request that I posted in the web (the madhyamAvati mangalam slokham)it was just pouring , pouring so hard that I only could spot cool once and said bye and left with rajumds to be dropped near my house.
On a side note it was a very long day for me all the way driving from mahabalipuram and eating some so called 5 star food after work and conference , the meditative style of vijayashiva was very soothing.
Overall a
very good to excellent concert. Thanks to cool and the inspiration from his inspiration.
Let us go next in the same temple (may be not in a paradOsham) and
let us shoot for MD exclusive 3 hour concert as I wished before .