SRI PARTHASARATHY SWAMI SABHAEmail : parthasabha@gmail.comhttp://sriparthasarathyswamisabha.com/

Volume: 6 Issue: 4

For Private Circulation Only

Dec.27 2019

Music Marathon

Dr. Sriram Parasuram presentedan interesting lec-dem on

'Shatsruti’- the concept andaesthetic of Shatsruti Ragas

on Dec. 22, 2019

Vidwan N. Vijay Siva’s fast paced concertwas no less than a Marathon race withoverflowing compositions of variouscomposers in a variety of languages (a totalof 14 compositions) and Manodharma! Theconcert began with the majestic Darbarvarnam-Calamela by TiruvotriyurThyagayyar. Followed by a beautifulcomposition of Mysore Sadasiva Rao in HariKambodhi ‘Saketha Nagara’ presented witha short niraval at Rajita Amara pala. A briefraga alapana with trademark sangatis ofKashiramakriya was followed by Sri SundaraRajam bhajeham with Swara Kalpana. Quickafter this came, Sariyevvare ma Janaki inSahana.

Traditional Todi raga alapana with raresancaras were elaborately sung for the krtiEnduku dayaradura of Tyagarajar withniraval. Mridangam vidwan Prof. TrichySankaran ended the krti with a beautifulmuktai. A grandiose Bilahari raga pravahafollowed by a Tamizh virutham on Kanchi

Kamaksi and a krti by Muthuswamy Diksitar- Kamaksi Sri Varalakshmi, with fascinatingNiraval, swaram at different ‘edupu-s’ was abrilliant one. There was an amazing korapuconversation between the vocalist and theviolinist that led to a sparkling firework like“tani” by the percussion duo - TrichySankaran & Anirudh Athreya. Intricate layacombinations could be attributed to Prof.Sankaran’s brilliance.

At the point where the concert was alreadybrimming with such fine music, came in asublime Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi in RagaAnanda Bhairavi. A quick Virutham onVishnu in ragas Ananda Bhairavi, Begadaand Purvi Kalyani was followed by theTiruppavai : Kudarai Vellum Seer Govinda.Hari has been praised, and so Madhar piraiKanniyanai- Raga Kurinji, sung by Apparperuman in praise of Lord Siva with sangatisin the Othuvar marabhu came next.Bhagyada Laksmi baramma in Sri raga wasvery appealing with the mridanga nadai! As

per RK Shriramkumar’s (violinist) request, asoothing Sindu Bhairavi Krti of MayuramVisvanatha Sastri- Shanta ahimsa murti was

presented. With a super fastrendition of the Tirupugazh inHamsanandi - Nirai Madhimugamenum by Arunagirinathar,followed the mangalam. It washeartwarming to see theinclusiveness and appreciation ofthe artist in letting his student singa few avartanas of manodharma;undoubtedly a promising talent!The accompanists on the Violin,Mridangam and Kanjira made asupportive and complimentingteam.

- Bhairavi Meenakshi

2 DECEMBER 27, 2019

Impressive choice of ragas and kritisNisha Rajagoplan's morningconcert on Dec. 22, 2019 gave afresh start to the day. Her choiceof ragas for the morning was anice mix of rakthi ragas as wellas bright numbers. In 'SivakamaSundari' of Papanasam Sivan inMukhari, Nisha rendered thecharanam line beginning with'Kelayo' evoking pathos. TheBilahari alapana that followedthis was brimming with joyousphrases. Thyagaraja's'intakannanandam emi' waspleasingly presented. Swarakalpanas at thecharanam 'Nee japamulu' had the effect ofmarbles rolling, across the delightful raga.

Nisha began her concert with Pantuvaralivarnam 'Sami ninne', a rarely heard one thesedays. Establishing the continuity offreshness, she followed it with TirupatiNarayanaswamy's 'Ikanainanaa moravinarada' with the customary neraval at theanupallavi line 'alalanga neeve'. The play inthe upper octave notes during the neravaland swara segment set her voice perfect forthe morning.

Another rakthi raga Ahiri came by, with

'Mayamma' of Shyama Sastri. The slow-paced, absorbing rendition of the kriti andfollowing it up with ‘Velayya dayavillaya’ inSaveri by Koteeswara Iyer laid down a grandplatform for the day's main raga Simhendramadhyamam. Her portrait of the raga wasaesthetic and she built up the ragasystematically and presented a vivid imageof the raga. In the Mysore Vasudevachar'sninnE nammitinaiya, Nisha receivedapplause many times during the renditionof the kriti, neraval and swarakalpana. Thecaptivating tani by Delhi Sairam on themridangam and S. Krishna on the ghatam

Young Krupaa Lakshmi'sconcert on Dec.22, 2019was lively and of neatpresentation. R.S.SudhaIyer on the violin and S.Shankar Prasad on themridangam providedexcellent support.

A marvellous blend of two stylesof classical music - Carnatic andHindustani - by two flutistsS. Shashank and Pt. RonuMajumdar enthralled the audienceon the evening of Dec. 22, 2019.Parupalli Phalgun on themridangam and Ravindra Yavagalon tabla added vigour to theconcert.

too received huge appreciation from theaudience. The duo filled the spaces in theentire concert, admirably well. Violinist L.Ramakrishnan approached the ragasrendered by Nisha with a dash of freshnessand handled Simhendra madhyamamextremely well to bring out the grandeur ofthe raga.

Nisha rounded off her concert with Eppadipadinaro, beginning the kriti from anupallaviand an abhang to an ovation from theaudience.

- Revathi R

DECEMBER 27, 2019 3Sparks of intelligenceSticking to the tradition and still showinginnovations is always a tight rope to walkon. And to do that within a short span oftime, needs a lot of courage and knowledgeand many other things.

When Vishnudev Namboothiri startedKalyani alapanai, right after a briskmaravakavE O manasA, it was surprising achoice. One did not expect a main already,but the alapanai began in a grand mannerand indicated of something big. It was donein a very relaxed and elaborate manner.Neatly dwelling in each svara and showingthe essential sancharams and moving ahead,it gave a fitting prelude to the navAvaraNamthat was going to be taken up. VS GokulAlakonde, on the violin, was following welland gave a good alapanai in his turn. Thekriti was rendered beautifully, both Gokuland NC Bharadwaj on the mrudangamplayed each line and sangati so very wellgelled with Vishnu's rendition of the kriti.

But, thats not all, there was a neraval at 'nityakalyanim katyayanim' which was again verygood and sang with many interestingsangatis. Then came an elaborate round ofsvarams in 2 speeds along with a korappu,which was designed in a very aestheticmanner to fit the start of the line. Gokul wasgood in his responses in these sections.Bharadwaj and Vellattanjoor Sreejith played

an elaborate tani in stages that suited thegrandeur of the kalyani presented. Overall,this kalyani was very impressive andmemorable to this writer.

Earlier the concert had begun with ShyamaSastri's ‘tarunam idhamma’. Then came a racyrendition of ‘manasuloni marmamulu’. Onewas not sure if the concert would end soonor if there was anything else coming up.When Vishnu started an alapanai of Kamalamanohari, it was clear that a pallavi was inthe offing. After an elaboration of Kamalamanohari in the lower half of the octave, hemoved to Deva manohari in the next half.Then the two ragams were alternated duringthe alapanai before handing the baton overto Gokul, who gave a similar and fittingresponse. Both of them chose to do analapanai alternating between the tworagams, once in a few phrases, instead of

doing one ragam at a time. The tanam wascrisp and again in both ragams, similar tothe alapanai. The pallavi 'Sri kamala manoharipaavani - paramesvari deva manohari' wasset in tisra jhampai, misra nadai. Thepoorvanga and uttaranga were in Kamalamanohari and deva manohari respectively.The neraval of the pallavi was done wellalong with tri kaalam. The swarams weresung in both ragams ending up in thecorresponding sahitya, to finally finish offwith a korappu and korvai in kamalamanohari.

On the whole, it was an impressive concertby Vishnu who showed his grip of traditionand training with the Kalyani and hisintelligence with his pallavi. Gokul,Bharadwaj and Sreejith supported him well,during this outing.

- Bharathwaj R

Chitravina N. Ravikiran presented a musical discourse on Bhajanamrutham -Oothukadu Venkatakavi's songs for Harikatha and importance of Bhajana, afirst of its kind by the vidwan. Anahita & Apoorva supported him in singingthe beautiful compositions. The discourse was held on Dec. 23, 2019.

4 DECEMBER 27, 2019

Tradition meets novelty

Shruthi ShankarKumar's concert onDec. 23, 2019, wasbright and full ofenergy. ShivkumarAnantharaman on theviolin and SunaadaKrishna on themridangam provided awonderful support.

Palghat R. Ramprasad, in hisconcert on Dec. 23, 2019,rendered a slow yet attractiveReetigowla and the beautifulcomposition Janani ninnuvina.The highlight of the concertwas Dikshitar's Maara KotiLavanya in Arabhi. The teamNagai Sriram on the violin,Patri Satish Kumar on themridangam and K.V.Gopalakrishnan on the kanjirareflected the vocalist'spoignant presentationthroughout the concert.

Sanjay Subrahmanyan’s concert began withthe aesthetic Kanada ata tala varnam Neranammiti in madhyama kala leading to dhuritakala Carana. Following this was ArunachalaKavi’s Anumane in Malayamarutham withSwara Kalpana at pallavi. Flavourful EvvareRamayya in Gangeya Bhushani in adicomposed by Tyagarajar was presentednext.

An elaborately scintillating Bilahari ragaalapana with well knit sangati-s followedby fast paced Paridanamicide in Kanda Capuwith Niraval and Swara Kalpana in “Rokamichudaku”. The violinist S. Varadarajanwas super reflexive, which made the swaradialogue between the vocalist and violinistenthralling to the audience. Then came arefined Atana raga alapana by the vocalistand the violinist, followed by MysoreSadasiva Rao’s compositionVacamagocarundani on the presiding deityof Tiruvallikeni. The Kirtana has a beautifulChittaswaram and Swara Sahitya which wasbrought out by the artist.

Todi was a raga pravaha that was built overtime magnificently with woven briga-s backand forth! The violinist was spontaneous

in exact reproduction of the briga-s. SriSubramanyo mam rakshathu by Diksitar inmadhyama kala with swara kalpana at pallaviending on a different note every other timegave multiple “Aha!” moments to theaudience. Tani avartanam by the Mridangamand Kanjira artists, PoongulamSubramaniam and Venkataramananrespectively was artistically competitiveexchanging with interesting Kanaku-vazhaku-s and the audio was very soothing.Bewitching, was the Behag raga alapana andthe audience went crazy about it. Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi in Tisra Triputa tala with thePallavi line: “Orudaram Siva Chidambaramsonnalum podhum” (Possibly inspired from

Gopalakrishna Bharati’s Sabapathiku-Abhogi) with niraval and Swara kalpana-sin ragas Pantuvarali, Abhogi, Sama andSindhu Bhairavi with a Sarvalaghu Koraipuwhich will forever be ringing in the ears ofthe audience. This RTP was followed by thekrti ‘Idhuvo Tillai Chidambara kshetram’ fromNandanar Caritram. Next presented wasanother ragamalika with the lyrics "Bhaktimudhalam padi enaku” in ragas Ahiri, HamirKalyani and Suruti. The concert ended witha high note - Tillana in Kapi (or was it Filtercoffee?!) and Chatusra Jampa tala on LordNataraja followed by mangalam. “Men inwhite” indeed made amazing music!

- Bhairavi Meenakshi

DECEMBER 27, 2019 5

J.A. Jayanth, one of the awardeesof the year, presented a brightFlute concert on Dec. 24, 2019.Senior vidwans V.V.S. Murari onthe violin and Tanjavur Murugaboopathi on the mridangamaccompanied him with AnirudhAthreya on the kanjira.

Ramya Kiranmayi's concerton Dec. 24, 2019 wasvibrant, yet sobre withmelodic aspects intact. Theteam Saketha Pantula on theviolin and Sivagangai K.Vishvak on the mridangamwere pleasing to the ears.

Oneness in duality

B. Suchitra's harikatha 'NavakotiNarayanan' on Dec. 23, 2019 was wellpresented. The singing in context withthe stories was enjoyable. DuraiSrinivasan (Violin) and A.V. Manikantan(Mridangam) accompanied her keenlyobserving her music and stories.

Concert by the CarnaticaBrothers - Shashikiran andGanesh was a lively andinteractive evening for therasikas. It began with theaesthetic Ritigowla Ata talavarnam composed by VinaKuppaiyar. Next presentedwas the Sanskritcomposition ofPurandaradasar in raga Nattai/kanda capu-Jaya Jaya Jaya Janaki kantha. Raga alapanaof Suddha Saveri with brilliant mandra-stayisancaras was followed by Diksitar’sÉkamresa Nayike. Captivating Kalpanaswara was presented at the madhyama kalasahitya “Pamara jana palini”.

Tyagaraja’s Evvarikai avatarame in Devamanohari came next. Dhurita kala renditionof Sarasamukhi in Gowda Mallar was a bliss!The highlight of the concert was the

Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi in raga Saramathi.Beautifully woven sangati-s were presentedby the duo, special appreciations to Ganeshfor the dynamics, stage excellence and onthe spot rendition. During the Tanam, ragainputs were taken from the audience -Saramati(S*), Bowli(G*), Varali(V*),Narayanagowlai(G*), Déva gandhari(V*)and CalaNattai(G*). ViolinistSundareswaran was equally enthusiasticwith playing different ragas. AestheticPallavi with the Poshaka mudra

(Parthasarathy Swami Sabha)and Raga mudra (Saramati) :“Sarathiyai mana-saramathiavar padame gathi - Partha” inadi tala was presented. Niravaland swara prastharas wereexperimented by the duo andthe violinist in differentedupu’s and different ragas:Valaji, Amrta Varshini and Purvi

Kalyani. The summimg up of both ragaalapana and Kalpana swara in the reverseorder of all ragas handled was impressive.Captivating Tani was presented by thepercussionists Thanjavur Murugaboopathiand K.V. Gopalakrishnan. The concert endedwith a Tillana on Shri Parthasarathy swamiin raga Hamsanandi.

Foot Note : S*- Shri. Shashikiran, G*- Shri.Ganesh, V*- Violinst Shri. Sundareswaran

- Bhairavi Meenakshi

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6 DECEMBER 27, 2019

T V Sankaranarayanan - Refreshing Vachaspathi

Sisters Anahita & Apoorvarendered a concert full ofenergy and life on Dec. 24, 2019.Apoorva Krishna on the violinand B.S. Prashanth on themridangam matched thevocalists' presentation andthe concert was anappealing one.

T V Sankaranarayanan (TVS)gave a refreshing Vachaspathi,a welcome break from theThodis and Bhairavis and theaudience (and there was quite alarge number) was treated to thebeauteous phrases with astunning range of depth andimagination that this ragasports. The song on everyone’slips was Parathpara but that was not to be.TVS chose a not-too-often-heard “SripatheNatha Jana Dasa” a composition ofThulasivanam. This song had a neraval atPadmanabha Murare Kesava and then camethe array of many single avarthana swarasthat caught one’s attention for the immensecombinations that TVS could offer. Earlierthe audience had a chance to listen to VeenaiKuppayyar’s sahithyam, Vinayaka inHamsadhwani. This had its dose of MaduraiMani Iyer’s (MMI) swara patterns (the ragabeing Hamsadhwani) that must havebrought back memories of him. We should,

as we listen to TVS’s concerts, think of thedeep impact MMI has had on TVS, leavingan indelible mark on his music.

TVS chose to sing songs that had their‘immediate context’. At first it was SriParthasarathi in SuddhaDhanyasi invokingthe name of the Lord after which the sabhais named. This was followed by SaranamAyyaappa in Mukhari of Papanasam Sivanthat goes well with the Sabarimalai season.He had one more such contextual songremembering the Anusha Nakshathiram ofKanchi Jagathguru. It was Punniyam OruKodi Purindheno in Keeravani of Periasami

Thooran. Keeravani alsohad an alapana that had ragamoorchana-laden prayogascoming with abundance,with the neraval and kalpanaswaras occurring at AnnaiKamakshi.

Nagai Muralidharan’salapanas for Vachaspathiand Keeravani were born

out of his immense overall experience andduring the swara kalpanas he was also onthe same page of the main artiste. Hehowever, had some complaints about abooming sound that seemed to come fromnowhere but that was taken care of aftersome time. Mannargudi Eswaran on themridangam, another veteran in the samemould accompanied for the songs with akeen song-sense and inspired TirupunithuraRadhakrishnan who was on the Ghatam tofollow suit bringing in his imaginative styleinto play.

- S. Sivakumar

A very charming concert byBharat Sundar on Dec. 24, 2019was well received by theaudience. Vittal Rangan on theviolin, Tiruvarur Vaidyanathan onthe mridangam and AnirudhAthreya on the kanjira wereharmonius with the singer toelevate the concert to a higherlevel.

Srividhya Vasudevan offered a delightful concerton Dec. 25, 2019. Thirucherai Karthik on the violinand Ambur Padmanabhan on the mridangamsupported her ably.

DECEMBER 27, 2019 7CLASSICISM ALL THROUGH

Prince Rama Varmapresented a veryinformative Lec-dem onCompositions of otherVaggeyakaras set to musicby Dr. ManganampalliBalamuralikrishna onDec. 25, 2019.

One of the important topics of relevance today 'Teaching and learning CarnaticMusic in the 21st Century' was taken up for panel discussion on Dec. 24, 2019.Panelists Dr. Radha Bhaskar, Dr. Sriram Parasuram, Dr. Rajshri Ramakrishna andKiranavali Vidyasankar, musicians who also teach music to many young peoplediscussed the interests in the learners, the modern facilities along with manyother challenges.

Concerts by masters are always anexperience to watch for. They always givethe listener new things to learn and alsopresent time-tested master pieces in theirown nice way to make the overall concertexperience a great one.

When Seshachari (of Hyderabad brothers)took mukhari as the first agam of theirevening concert, it made the audience situp. The mood was already set with a racyrendition of the abhogi varnam andThyagaraja's Kalanidhi one-hit-wonder'chinnanaadena'. The mukhari was crisp andneat. It showed the essential flavours of thisragam.

Thyagaraja's ‘entha ninne’ was presentedwith neraval and swarams at 'kannulaarasevinchi'. It was beautiful and enjoyable.DelhiSunderrajan on violin was in hiselements showing the contours of theragam in his own way. An emotional andsedate rendition of ‘ekkalatilum maravene’(nattakuranji, Ramaswamy Sivan) was thenext number. A masterpiece presented bymasters. Trivandrum Balaji on themrudangam and Udupi Srikanth on thekanjira gave an able support to this sedaterendition.

When Seshachari took up Amruta Varshinias the next ragam for elaboration, it was ajoyous moment. The alapanai was in detailand developed in a good progression. Aclassical and anchored alapanai of the ragamgot an equally good response fromSunderrajan. ‘Saraseeruha nayane’, a rare

Thyagaraja kriti was presented neatly withelaborate neraval and svarams at 'varadAyaki amruta varshiNi'. The neraval andsvarams by both Seshachari andRaghavachari gelled well with amazingcoordination. The brothers sang‘paramathmudu’ of Thyagaraja as the nextitem, as chosen by a rasika who walked upto them and asked for it.

The main alapanai was in Todi. The brothersshared the alapanai and it was a goodrendition of the ragam by both vocalists andthe violinst. Thyagaraja's master piece ‘EmijEsithEnEmi’ was rendered with neraval andsvarams at 'kAma mOha dAsulai shrI rAma'.Very interesting svara patterns. There wasan elaborate tani which followed through.

With about more than half-an-hour ofconcert time left, it was not clear what wouldcome next. When a slow ‘RagahupathErAma’ in sahana followed, one thought apallavi could come. Then came a racyrAkAsashivadana in Takka. This is whenanother rasika walked up to the stage and

asked for a song on Hanuman, since it wasHanumath jayanthi that day.

Seshachari then asked the audience if theywant padam and javali or songs on hanuman.The unanimous response was that bothwere wanted. Dvijavanthi padam ‘Tharuninyaan’ was presented next in a veryenjoyable manner followed by ‘Bhavayepavamaana nandanam’ in Yamuna kalyani.

The concert was a great presentation by theveteran artists who were also supportedwell, by their accompanists. It was anawesome concert. The Amruthavarshiniwas a learning experience while the Todi wasa masterpiece, presented in style.

- Bharathwaj R

8 DECEMBER 27, 2019

Season’s newsletter from Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha. For Private Circulation only.

EDITORIAL TEAM

S. Sivakumar | R. RevathiV. Mohan | Bhaskaran ShivaramanBhairavi Meenakshi | Bharathwaj R

Photos:Lingan Studios Shankar

Layout & Design:Fairy M

Vishakha Hari's discourses withabundant music in them alwaysattract the audiences. The title'Nee Bhakthi Bhagya Sudha', theopening lines of Thyagaraja's kritiin Jayamanohari raga gave her alot of scope for exploring Bhakthi,the value of life. The hall wasoverflowing with many rasikas onec. 25, 2019. She wasaccompanied on the violin by Dr.Jyothsna Srikanth (Violin),B.Ganapathy Raman (Mridangam),Trichy Murali (Ghatam).

Jayashree Vaidyanathan wasrobust as well as pleasant in theright places during her concert onDec. 25, 2019. She brought outthe core of the ragas in heralapanas. Durai Srinivasan on theviolin, Sai Raghavan on themrodangam and N. Rajaram onthe ghatam.

Sikkil C. Gurucharan's melodious concert was a delightful andcaptivating one. Audience gathered in large numbers to listen to thisconcert on Dec. 25, 2019. V. Sanjeev on the violin was equallymelodius, Bangalore V. Praveen on the mridangam and Giridhar Udupaon the ghatam were the winning duo on the percussions.

Bhakthi explored