To sum up the experience, it was a delightful musical celebration of Vishu and the songs she presented were the Vishu Kani (‘விஷுக்கணி’)
. (it was not thematic, just my manner-of-speaking!).Song List:
1. duDukugala - gowLai - T
2. kaDaikkaN vaittennai ALammA (‘கடைக்கண் வைத்தென்னை ஆளம்மா’) - bEgadA – RS (rAmaswAmi Sivan); R sketch;
3. suma sAyaka - karnAtaka kApi - ST
4. kanaka saila vihAriNI - punnAgavarALi - SS
5. mAra jananeem AshrayE - nAtakapriyA - NC krishnamAchAryulu; elaborate R; elaborate N & S ; Mini Thani
6. ninnu jeppa kAraNamEmi manasA – mandAri – PS (patNam subramaNya iyer)
7. RTP - un darisanam kidaikkumO natarAjA (‘உன் தரிசனம் கிடைக்குமோ நடராஜா’ ) - kalyANi; elaborate R; kalpanAswarams in kalyANi, no ragamAlika; Thani
8. kanaka mayam AyIDum kamala vAhanam atin mEl kanattOru kAntiyODu gamikkunnatAravanO? – huseni - ST
9. enthu jnAn iha cheyvu - nIlAmbari - irayimmAn tampi
10. irakkam varAmal pOnadenna kAraNam – behAg – GKB
11. ERumayil ERi - thiruppugazh - aruNagiri nadhar – rAgamAlikA (bAgEsri, aTANa, …)
12. mangaLam
Dr. NJ Nandhini gave a majestic start with tyagarAjA’s gowLai gana-pancha raga kriti duDukugala. With her voice well settled from the get-go, she showed her control in the lower sthAyi as the song warranted.
The majestic start continued with a majestic, albeit brief, sketch of bEgadA followed by Ramaswami Sivan’s weighty tamizh composition - 'kaDaikkaN vaittennai ALammA' (‘கடைக்கண் வைத்தென்னை ஆளம்மா’). She also included a few rounds of N @ S at the Pallavi line, bringing out the elegance of this rakthi raga and the beauty of the lyrics where Sivan addresses the divine as gauri, rAjarAjEshvari, karuNAkari, shivashankari.
She continued the majestic and weighty start by launching an equally weighty swAti tirunAL’s karnAtaka kApi pada varnam – ‘suma sAyaka’, once again bringing out the raga elegance and the lyrical beauty. The svara sAhityams and the rAgamAlika svarams had everyone dancing in their seats! The laya vidwans - Murugaboopathi & Guruprasad were in full form here as well,
This was followed by a punnAgavarALi raga sketch and syAmA sAstri’s ‘kanaka saila vihAriNI’. What better raga for pleading to the divine? And that too in a mesmerizing slow tempo?
The main started with an elaborate AlApanA of natakapriyA, where she gave a chaste and elaborate presentation of this beautiful sampoorna raga which is not often explored. The kriti she rendered was “mAra jananeem AshrayE” on the divine mother. I was aware of only one other kriti in this ragam - tanjAvur sankara iyer’s ‘geeta vAdya natana natakapriyE’. After the concert I was made aware of a mysOre vAsudevAchAriar kriti as well.
The prosody of the kriti is very close to MD style; similarly powerful and beautiful (obviously sans the guruguhA mudra). There is a beautiful madhyamakAla stanza ‘hAridrya-varNa shobhinIM kaluSa-hAriNIM…’, the rAgamudrA is there, and there is also a MD-esque gOpuccha (cow-tail) gati as below:
‘vasumahitAM
sumahitAM
mahitAM
hitAM
tAM’
(Sri Lakshman Ragde may have posted an authoritative version of the full lyrics elsewhere; if not, my humble request to him to do so).
Next was a quick ‘ninnu jeppa kAraNamEmi’ in mandAri by patNam Subramanya iyer.
Time to sit back for an RTP, the acme of manodarma sangeetham.
• A very sedate kalyANi AlApanA traversing all octaves (and lowering the BP of anyone who needed it) gave Nandhini a big applause usually reserved for the end of the concert. Good return on the violin by Ananthakrishnan with a lot of matching jArus and nicely ending with a few staccatos as a precursor to the tAnam. In the AlApanA there were phrases not popularly heard from Chennai musicians, I request esteemed forumites to chime-in if there are geographical dimensions & variations to raga delineation.
• Nandini presented a crisp and energetic tAnam in slow and high speeds. Her word-play in singing the phrase ‘ananthA’ and waving/pointing her hand towards the violinist (ananthA) added color
.• Nandhini chose the yester-year, ever-popular, SSI-GNB-fame, iconic, (need I say more!) pallavi line - ‘un darisanam kidaikkumO natarAjA’ (‘உன் தரிசனம் கிடைக்குமோ நடராஜா’). The pallavi was presented with proper grammar and aesthetics. The trikAlam, anulOmam, pratilOmam were done elegantly with able melodic and laya support from all the accompanists. The kalpanaswarams were enjoyable, with many swara-laya patterns. Nandhini chose to not include ragamalika swarams, and hence, this was pure unadulterated kalyANi from end-to-end!
• The Thani that followed was delectable. Murugabhoopathy’s mridangam play was a very pleasing aural experience, with his effective and balanced use of both sides. Guruprasad’s ghatam replies were fast-paced with nice combinations of hard (வல்லினம்) and soft (மெல்லினம்) strokes including nice gum-kAarams.
Next Nandhini took a special kriti of swAti tirunAL 'kanaka mayam AyIDum'. She announced that she chose this to commemorate the Thrissur Pooram temple festival that just finished a few days ago. She explained how in this krithi swAti tirunAL poetically describes the beauty of the sthala deity Sri padmanAbhA in maNipravALam using a question-and-answer style.
She followed this with a soporific nIlAmbari rendition of ‘enthu jnAn iha cheyvu’, a composition of irayimmAn tampi, another royal composer from Kerala.
Nandhini concluded the concert with a soulful Irakkam varAmal in behAg and a tiruppugazh + mangaLam.
The standing ovation at the end was a true endorsement from a very appreciative crowd. After the concert I heard good feedbacks and also a desire that she should sing again in NJ, given this was her maiden visit. tathAstu!