4 Concerts during Navaratri at Malleshwaram

As part of Jagadguru Jayendra Saraswati Swamigal's Avatara Mahotsav held in Shri Kanchi Kamakoti Shankara Matam, Malleshwaram, every year, 10 concerts were held during the Navatri period this year. Following up on the earlier posts covering other concerts, here are the notes of the remaining 4.

The concerts on 6th to 9th days of the Mahotsav featured excellent concerts of Smt Gayatri Venkatraghavan (Friday, 4th Oct), Vidwans Mysore brothers (Saturday, 5th Oct), Shri Abhishek Raghuram (Sunday, 6th Oct) and on Saraswati Poojai evening Shri Rajesh Vaidya (Monday, 7th Oct). Each of these concerts had a unique touch. While the artists in the first two of these concerts asked the audience to suggest the compositions to be rendered, right at the beginning of the concert, the next two concerts seemed like predominantly artist choice.

Smt Gayatri Venkatraghavan began the concert with shlokam in rAgams yamunA kalyANi and nATa, before taking up the nATa kriti pAHimAm shrI rAjarajEshvari set to tisra gati Adi tALam a composition of Shri Shyama Sastri. She then took up Shri Uthukkadu Venkatasubbayyar's navAvarna kriti in kalyANi, vAcasiyadi. A brief AlApanai of kamalAmanOHari by her and Shri C N Chandrasekar was followed by kancadalAyadAkshi composed by Shri Muthuswami Dikshitar. Another of his lilting compositions followed, amba nIlayatAkshi set to nIlAmbari rAgam.

tAyE tripura sunDari composed by Shri Periyasami Thooran, set to shuddha sAvEri rAgam was followed by an elaborate presentation of bhairavi. The main composition for the day was janani mAmava, which was followed by a compact laya vinyAsam by Delhi Sairam. His accompaniment throughout the evening was in step with the prayerful mood of the concert. Then there was a flurry of small kritis, per the requests from various rasikas in the audience. nAn oru viLayATTu bommaiyA in navarasakannaDa, kanakashaila viHAri in punnAgavarALi, a tirupugazh on Maha Periyava (vEdam nAnginai kaTRu kodutta) in cencuruTTi followed by tUmani mADattu in HamIr kalyANi were soulful renditions. The concert was closed by brisk rendition of tiruppugazh agaramum Agi in sindhubhairavi and karpagamE in madhyamAvati.

The following day, on the birthday of Shri Mysore Manjunath, the concert of the Mysore brothers Shri Nagaraj and Shri Manjunath was held at the matam. They were accompanied by Shri Thiruvarur Bhaktavatsalam on mridangam and Shri Sundar Kumar on the kanjira. In this concert, they presented the compositions in leisurely manner and gave elaborate treatment for each AlApanai and rendition. We thoroughly enjoyed the 4 pieces played on the day. The concert began with a very sedate Anandabhairavi AlApanai followed by marivErE, a composition of Shri Shyama Sastri. vAcaspati was the second rAgam played by the brothers, and the composition chosen was parAtparA paramEshvarA. The third song of the evening was Maharaja Swathi Tirunal kriti, sArasAksha, after detail delineation of pantuvarALi.

As per audience request, a rAgam tAnam pallavi in beHAg was played by the Mysore brothers, with the pallavi line being dEvi shrI tripura sundari kAmAkshi, set to Adi tAlam. Very traditional touches were played, as well as some Hindustani style sangatis. This was followed by rAgamAlika swarams in kAnaDA, sAvEri, Arabhi, which led on to a flourish of nAgaswaram-concert-like tandem rAgamAlika swarams for 1 avartanam or 1/2 avartanam in a myriad of rAgams. This type of tandem rAgamAlika swarams I have not heard from other instrumentalists, except the nAgaswaram. Rasikas may kindly comment on whether this type of playing rAgamAlika is a regular feature from the Mysore brothers, or others in instrumental concerts.

On 6th October, it was an overflowing hall for Shri Abhishek Raghuram's concert, accompanied by Shri Vittal Ramamurthy (violin), Shri Thiruvarur Bhaktavatsalam (mridangam) and Shri Alathur Rajaganesh (kanjira). The concert started with a sedate shankarAbharanam AlApanai followed by somber rendition of svara rAga sudhA. The second song rendered was sUryamUrtE on the Sunday evening, the navagraHa kriti in sowrAshTram composed by Shri Muthuswami Dikshitar. With a brief and crisp AlApanai in jayantasEna, Shri Abhishek took up vinatAsuta vAHana, a composition of Saint Thyagaraja.

Shri Abhishek then sang a brief kIravANi followed by the Appar tEvAram 'vAnanai mathi sUDiya' (Thiruvannamalai kshetram), starting off from the second half of the verse. The next song chosen was jAlandara supItastitE, in valaci rAgam, a composition of Shri Harikesanallur Muthaiah Bhagavatar, which was sung from the anupallavi after a brief AlApanai.

The first major elaboration of AlApanai was reserved for dEvagAndhAri. After both the artists had completed the AlApanai, Shri Abhishek took another minute to explore a few phrases in the upper octave as though he felt he had missed it in the initial AlApanai. He took up from the anupallavi of shAradE vINA vAdana, that is, at nArada jananI catur nAyaki, a composition of Shri Papanasam Sivan. This was followed by an excellent laya vinyAsam by Shri Bhaktavatsalam and Shri Rajaganesh, where the mridangist even goaded the other to complete some interesting korvais. At the ending korvai of one exchange Shri Rajaganesh's closure indicated a start of next pattern. Catching the pattern, Shri Bhaktavatsalam asked him to complete it, even if it seemed to extend beyond the usual exchanges.

Following this major item, Shri Abhishek sang two kritis of Shri Muthuswami Dikshitar. A soulful and slow presentation of rEnukAdEvi samrakshitOHam in kannaDa bangALa and bruHadIsvarO rakshatu mAm in gAnasAmavarALi (gAnamUrti). These seemed to indicate that we may have a second major song to follow. He sang a short AlApanai in Anandabhairavi, and then rendered nanganallUr ezhundaruL sarva mangaLE rAjarajEshvari, beginning with the caranam 'un perumaiyonDrum ariyEn', a composition of Shri Papanasam Sivan.

As time seemed to be running out, as it was already 9:10 PM or so (with most concerts ending between 9:10 and 9:30), the artist decided to take up an elaborate AlApanai of kalyANi. So, the lack of tukkadas seemed to rightly indicate that there was more to the concert. And what a kalyANi it was. Both Shri Abhishek and Shri Ramamurthy gave full justice to this majestic rAgam without any glance at the clock. Shri Pallavi Gopala Iyer's nIdu carana pankajamulE was the second elaborate composition of the evening. With the neraval and kalpana svarams, it was a full hour rendition of this piece. Shri Abhishek however indicated to the accompanists half-way through, that this would be the last item for the day. If Shri Rajaganesh did not have to rush to catch a bus / train, there may have been a second laya vinyAsam, as per Shri Abhishek's initial indications. The percussion artists closed the item with a very short kuraippu, following which the mangaLam was sung, well beyond 10 PM! A superb treat for all the rasikas, many of whom stood through a major portion of the concert!

Saraswati poojai evening was graced by a vINai concert, quite appropriate offering to the Goddess of Learning. Shri Rajesh Vaidya was accompanied by percussionists Shri Mohana Ram on mridangam, Shri Praveen Narayanan on the tabla and Shri Sai Hari on the ghatam. This concert was a typical fast paced offering from Shri Rajesh Vaidya, with many of the regular compositions suited for the instrument. He began with obeisance to all Periyavas with endarO maHAnubhAvulu, followed by brisk renditions of nIdaya rAdhA in vasantabhairavi and telisi rAma in pUrnacandrikA. Then came the first AlApanai of amrutavarshini followed by Shri Harikesanallur Muthaiah Bhagavatar's sudhAmayI sudhAnidE.

He then alternated the brisk manavyAlakim in naLinakAnti, a slow simHendra madhyamam kriti kAmAkshi kAmakOTi (of Shri Muthuswami Dikshitar), and a fast raghuvamsha sudhA in kadanakutUHalam. He next announced he would render a rAgam tAnam pallavi, and the rAgam chosen was pantuvarALi. A brilliant and elaborate rendition, with some gimmicks of playing long sangatis with single hand included, was followed by the pallavi on Mahaperiyava Jagadguru Chandrashekara Swamigal - 'aruL tarum jagadguru candrashEkarA anusham dinattil avadaritta' in Adi tALam. Elaborate kalpanaswarams and a boisterous laya vinyasam by the three percussionists rounded off this RTP. The laya vinyasam also included Shri Rajesh Vaidya's participation with some appropriate strumming at the end of korvais.

The concert rolled forward with several instrumental favorites, like ratipatipriya composition jagatjanani of Shri Ghanam Krishna Iyer, bArO krishnayyA of Shri Purandaradasa in rAgamAlika, bhO shambhO of Guru Dayanand Saraswati in rEvati, venkatAcala nilayam in sindhubhairavi and krishnA nI bEganE in yamunA kalyANi. Shri Rajesh Vaidya rounded off the concert with the wonderful maitrIm bhajata, poem of Mahaperiyava Jagadguru Chandrashekara Swamigal, continuing onto veda chanting phrases and concluding with candrashEkarA IshA in sindhubhairavi.

I have only two concerns about the two instrumental concerts. The addition of technology to provide different effects, with second output directly from the instrument, amplification, etc., were a bit intrusive in this smaller hall. Those may work out to be excellent presentations in bigger auditoriums which have good acoustics. However, these could have been appropriately adjusted for this simple hall of the matam. At times, the sound engineer could not perfectly adjust the artist-provided additional equipment to work along with regular equipment. Loudness, some interferences, etc., caused unnecessary interruptions, which can be avoided.

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.