Violin : Sruti Sarathy
Mridangam : B S Prasanth
Kanjira : B S Purushottaman
Location : BVB Mini Hall for Karthik Fine Arts.
Live review.
Songlist :
sri kAlahasteesha - husEni - khanDa chApu - Dikshitar
parAtpara paramEshwara - vAchaspati - Adi (1 1/2 eDuppu) - Papanasam Sivan - RNS -
mAyamma - Ahiri - Adi (2 kalai) - Shyaama Sastri - Short R
evarito nE delpudu - mAnavati - Adi 1 1/2 eDuppu - Thyagaraja
sarva jeeva daya pari - shuddha sAvEri - mishra chApu - Oothukadu Venkata Subbaiyer - R N S TA
Ela rADAyanE kAmini - bhairavi - Adi (-3/4 eDuppu) - Chinniah
paramapurushamanuyAma vayam sakhi - behAg - Adi 1/2 eDuppu - Narayana Theertha - R
tillAna - bhAgEshree - Adi - Chitraveena Ravikiran
Ok I missed the opening number, a rare kriti of Dikshitar due to the utter chaotic hell that is traffic and parking outside BVB. Let no wise person ever bring any vehicle of any kind onto Mada veedhi from now on, not even a bicycle, and strictly stick to one's god given legs. It makes peak hour traffic on Anna Salai feel much easier.
I didn't feel like doing the whole live review thing after last year as it demanded too much out of my thumbs and so far I have not been able to listen to more than half a concert. But Sunday is a godsend, so here I go.
I walked in as Apoorva finished an AlApana of vAchaspati and Sruti Sarathy gave a good reply. I was expecting parAtpara and wasn't disappointed with a cracker of a racy neraval at ari ayanu kAna followed by a shower of swaras with a few rounds of poruttams. The final korvai was dealt with very well by both the sisters and the violinist in her reply.
A short, but very moving AlApana of Ahiri by Anahita was followed up by a slow and soulful rendition of Shyama Sastri's masterpiece -- mAyamma. The occasional chatushruti D2 making an appearance. More on this in the Ahiri thread ( SD has written about a lot of possibilities in Ahiri and the BM school is known for it's emphasis on G2 over G3). The Ahiri was definitely the highlight of the concert in retrospect.
And while I am enjoying it, my peace gets broken by these damned mobiles, especially when someone plays FB or Whatsapp video (sounded like Vadivel comedy and probably needs a meme
) on them and does not know how to turn it off. Of all the things I have ever seen at the audience end..... A change of location solves the unsolvable. B S Prasanth and B S Purushottaman have been supporting splendidly helping out with the arithmetic in the swaras at one end and playing as delicately as needed for mAyamma.
The version of evaritO nE delpudu turned out to be a bit different in the opening line that descends from the upper S. I am sure it's the Brinda Mukta special edition.
The mic could be set up a bit better. It is a little louder on the percussion and slightly muffled in the higher notes for the vocals.
Next Anahita commenced a brisk classy AlApana in shuddha sAveri with long phrases. At the upper S Apoorva took over for a couple of phrases before handing it back. Sruti Sarathy's reply was comprehensive and laced with rich phrases. OVK's kamAkshi navAvarna kriti was the main course. A first time for me in live concert. The melody of this number goes at a medium tempo for the most part, but as usual the madhyamakala lyric based passages are found aplenty.
Neraval was taken up at nAna maya swaroopa, the sisters trading rounds. The percussion team was following like a shadow but never intrusive, and BSP's gumki was just exquisite. Still the mic volume could be just a tad lower so the vocals can be heard more. The leisurely pace of rendition allowed for a lot of details to shine in the neraval. After a round of slow swaras, the fast swaras started off on a rhythmically complex note before coming to sarvalaghu with a variety of endings. A ending pattern of SRMPD that stretched by one count more on every repetition to end right on beat caught my attention. This then became the template for all ending patterns on the kuraippu and Sruti Sarathy rose well to the challenge. Two rounds of naDai changes. Testy stuff. The final kOrvai was preceded by a small adventure up to the high D2 and the kOrvai itself was well done.
Tani avartanam started out strong, B S prashant taking the first round more straightforward while B S Purushottaman went for more complexity. The second round was tisra nADai before moving on to the kuraippu. Seriously it is utterly impossible to capture what they all play in a tani in words, but there was some good high voltage stuff in the kuraippu. The korvai had a decreasing pattern in the purvAngam and an increasing pattern in the uttarangam, that's about all I can say. Well played.
And with that a brisk run through the rest of the charanam to end the kriti with a flourish. On a side note, one should see the Srividya Navavarna puja conducted live to understand all the stuff that Dikshitar and OVK have packed into their navavarna kritis.
The bhairavi jAvali, Ela rADAyanE kAmini was next. I have heard BM on tape render this, as well as TRS mama, and it was first for me in live concerts.
A peppy AlApana of behAg with some aha phrases followed. parampurusham of Narayana Theerta was one number that these 2 had sung the daylights out of last year at Arkay and the memory of it hasn't faded.
As always they always wind up with a composition of their guru, Chitraveena Ravikiran, and this time I got to hear the bhAgEshree tillAna. A nice finale to wrap up yet another excellent concert. Sabaash!