gItam 'varavINA mrdu pANi' as first elaboration of concert

On 8th October, 2019, Vidwan Sikkil Gurucharan concluded the 85th Avatara Mahotsava, of Jagadguru Jayendra Saraswati, at Shri Kanchi Kamakoti Shankara Matam in Malleshwaran with an excellent concert. He was accompanied by Vidwan C N Chandrasekhar on the violin and Vidwan Sumesh Narayanan on the Mridangam.

Vidwan Gurucharan wished everyone on the occasion of Vijayadashami and mentioned that since he was singing last in the series, most ragams and songs may have been explored already. He was in a difficult position and would do the best possible. He definitely excelled in that effort and we were treated to a very melodious concert with many intricacies included too.

He began the concert with a very short AlApanai as introduction to nirOshTA rAgam before he announced that he will take up Shri Tanjavur S Kalyanaraman's varnam in the rAgam that begins with 'kannin maNiyE'. The beauty of this rAgam and the various cittaswarams rendered added to the good beginning of the concert. He then took up the durgA pancaratnam, composed by Jagadguru Shri Chandrasekhara Saraswati, which is well known from Srimathi M S Subbulakshmi's renditions. This is set to karnAtaka shuddha sAvEri rAgam (S R1 M1 P D1 S, a janya of kanakAngi the first mELakartA), and sung in kaNDa cApu tALam.

For the first elaboration of the evening (I am not a fan of terms like sub-main), Vidwan Gurucharan took up mOHanam. The AlApanai was quite thorough and Shri Chandrasekhar also played a good follow-up in this rAgam. Then came the surprise of detail rendition of the mOHanam gItam, varavINA mrdu pANi. He rendered in a kriti style, with extended sangatis of each line and all the gamakams allowed in mOHanam. If one did not know that this is a gItam, they would have mistaken it for a kriti. He included neraval at the starting line itself and followed by kalpanaswarams.

After the rendition he mentioned that his gurus have always asked him and fellow students to sing gItams on Vijayadashami day as part of their start to the next year of learning. He also encouraged the many young children in the hall to keep practicing the basics regularly. Finally, he also mentioned that this was the first time he was rendering the nirOshTA varnam and the mOHanam gItam in a concert.

Next he sang parvatarAja kumAri in shrIranjani composed by Shri Muthuswami Dikshitar. This medium tempo song led us to the second exploration of the evening. nAsikAbhUshani was the chosen rAgam for presentation and Vidwan Gurucharan sang beautifully. Vidwan Chandrasekhar also followed-up with his AlApanai in this rAgam nicely. The extended step by step rendition made us think it would be the main piece for the evening. mAravairi ramaNi, a composition of Saint Thyagaraja, was taken up and they did full justice to the song. Vidwan Sumesh Narayanan provided very soft and appropriate support along with the mood set by the two artists.

The main rAgam for the day was tODi which, he had been informed by the organizer in the matam, was not presented in elaborate form by anyone earlier in the 9 concerts of the festival. It was a melodious and brilliant AlApanai by both the artists. Included in the AlApanai by Vidwan Gurucharan was a rendition of akArams without the shadjam and pancamam, leading to the mOHanam scale, with the tonic note set to ri of tODi, for a couple of minutes, before dramatically introducing the shadjam again to bring us back to the world of tODi. They presented ninnE namminAnu sadA of Shri Shyama Sastri, set to misra cApu tALam. The neraval at kAmAkshi kancadaLAya tAkshi was beautiful followed by kalpanaswarams and the thorough laya vinyAsam of Vidwan Sumesh. Rain was pouring heavily by this time, as though the goddess was very pleased with their music.

In contrast to many concerts, where experiments lead to phases of loudness overtaking the musicality, this was one of the few concerts where melody and softness of music were the only focus. The sound engineer had also set the speaker settings at a nice medium level (I hear many artists are to blame for requesting loud settings in many places; and in some cases each artist in the team asking for their mic output to be increased, like a competition).

Vidwan Gurucharan concluded the concert with two songs - first a rAgamAlika composed by Shri N S Chidambaram, in which the names of the rAgams appear, and the shrI rAgam kamalAmba navAvarnam, shrI kamalAmbikE with the mangaLam. The rAgams in the rAgamAlika are jaganmOHini, Anandabhairavi, sunAdavinOdini, kIravANi, kalyANi, nAyaki, ranjani and dEvagAndhAri.

Now, what happened to the other 9 concerts? Well, I had earlier posted brief notes about 3 of the first 4 concerts. I will followup this post with notes on the 4 other concerts of 4th-7th October, in the coming days.

Laya Vinyasam treat - Guru Karaikudi Mani and Vidwan Giridhar Udupa

On 3rd October, Guruvaaram, at Shri Kanchi Kamakoti Shankara Matam, we were given a special treat of laya vinyAsam by Guru Karaikudi Mani on Mridangam and Vidwan Giridhar Udupa on the Ghatam. I haven't heard a better laya vinyAsam live, where both the artists not only played intricate patterns, but also were completely in synchronization on all the long korvais that they played together. Whether it was superb anticipation of Vidwan Udupa to the Guru's playing or whether it is his knowledge and vidwat over period of time to know what the Guru would play, only the artists or experts can enlighten us. In most concerts, we have the followers trying to anticipate / guess the main laya vidwan, which leads to either gaps during unsure steps, or alternate korvai being played in parallel. Here, it was not the case at all. In each round of exchange, both the vidwans joined in last few avartanams and played the exact korvai in total syncronization. The final joint exposition by both ,over many minutes, was perfect & complete as a team! No difference in korvais. Amazing. I wonder if anyone would have a recording, so others can enjoy this treat too!

Coming back to the complete series of concerts, this laya vinyAsam was included in the Carnatic vocal concert of Vidwan Kunnakudi M Balamuralikrishna, accompanied by Vidwan H N Bhaskar on the Violin. This was a very good concert, as can be expected from such stalwarts. Earlier, Guru Karaikudi Mani was honoured by the Matam on occasion of Anusha nakshatram and guruvaaram, beginning his 75th year. Coincidentally, this matam in Malleshwaram was begun in the 75th year of Jagadguru Jayendra Saraswati Swamigal, now celebrating his avatara's 85th year in this mahotsav.

After felicitation of Guru Karaikudi Mani, he recounted some memorable interactions with Maha Periyava... Including how HIS touch of his injured hand, with multiple plates and screws, became better quickly and within a month he started playing again... and he is still playing with all the plates and screws in his hand.
Vidwan K M BMK made a nice choice of compositions, each from a different composer. Beginning with viribOni in bhairavi, he chose gowLa kriti on maHagaNapati by Shri Muthuswami Dikshitar. A brief AlApanai in asAveri followed by shrI kAnci nAyikE by Annaswami Shastri was the third item for the day. A viruttam-like rendition of a Purandara Dasa lyric in Purvikalyani was followed by another kriti of same composer mAnava janma doDDadu.

A brisk sarasa sAma dhAna in kApi narAyani was followed by the main for the day in madhyamAvati. Being navarathri mahotsav, pAlimcu kAmAkshi of Shyama Sastri was the main. As mentioned before, the laya vinyAsam that followed was a treat I have never felt in ANY concert - ever. The last two items were a kriti in HamIr kalyANi of Kamalesha vittala folowed by the brindAvani tillAnA of Dr. M Balamuralikrishna. A complete veritable feast from the stalwarts.

On the previous day, the 2nd October, Wednesday, another good concert was held, rendered by Vidushi Sangeetha Sivakumar accompanied by Vidwan RK Shriram Kumar on violin, Vidwan Sivaraman on Mridangam and Vidwan Guruprasanna on kanjira. Beginning with vidulaku mrokkeda, a Saint Thyagaraja kriti in mAyAmALavagowLa, she gave a brief AlApanai in jayantasEna followed by vinatasuta vAHana. The third song was prefaced by a good AlApanai from both, in bEgaDA, shankari nIvE being the appropriate kriti for the day.

Then a brief dEvi brova samayamidE in cintAmani was followed by very detail presentation of pUrvi kalyANi. mInAkshi mEmudam dEHi was sung in detail with usual neraval and kalpanaswarams, followed by the laya vinyAsam. The last three items for the day were pUnkuyil kUvum of Kalki Krishnamurthi in kApi, innudaya bAradE in kalyAnavasantam (prefaced by viruttam in HindOlam, saHAnA and kalyAnavasantam) and an abhang, dhAva vibhO karunAkara mAdhava, in yamunAkalyANi. The audience were suddenly left in lurch as she indicated the concert had ended.

Everyone was confused and people dispersed without any claps, leave alone an ovation. That was a bit odd, especially as the good concert seemed to end unappreciated. She has a booming voice and resonated in the hall. Hope the modified structure of such concert is explained to the audience for everyone's better understanding.

The 2nd concert of the series held earlier on 30th September, was by Vidushis Akkarai sisters Subhalakshmi and Swarnalatha. This concert had a very meditative tone, both in terms of choice of kritis as well as the renditions. It seemed very appropriate for a presentation at the matam's hall with Ambal's sannidi. They began the concert with tODi svarajati of Shyama Sastri, rAvE Himagiri kumAri. That set the pace and the mood for the entire concert. sItammA mAyamma in vasantA was the next song presented, followed by a very detail AlApanai of naganandini. Vidushi H M Smitha also presented a crisp version of the AlApanai. This AlApanai was followed by a composition of Akkarai Swarnalatha in naganandini, the lyrics of which I am not sure of - so I am not mentioning here. Vidwans Jayachandra Rao (mridangam) and Lakshminarayanan (mohrsing) played very well within the same mood of the concert with apt accompaniment.

The sisters surprised us by singing HiranmayIm in lalitA (as they had sung vasantA as second item). The main rAgam chosen was kalyANi, the AlApanai of which was followed by a viruttam (vandE mAtaram ambikAm) before taking up kamalAmbAm bhajarE. Another new composition we heard was one of their grandfather (Suchindram Shri S P Sivasubramaniam bhagavatar) kalai amudam, in rAgam nIlamani. Then came pAlaya vEnkata ramanA in a north Indian rAgam, probably related to shubhapantuvarALi. This was set by Hyderabad sisters, they announced. They completed the concert by singing karpagamE in madhyamAvati followed by mangaLam.