No sooner did the popular Chennai-based vocalist Sanjay Subrahmanyan begin his recital with the Adi tala Navaraga (nine ragas) varnam “Valachi” than music lovers began to savour his rendering. Realising this quickly, Sanjay presented song after song to their delight, unmindful of the less than comfortable environment at the venue due to the hot and humid weather conditions. And music lovers remained connected to him right till the end. Sanjay’s concert was organised on the concluding day of the Mandalabishekam celebrations of the Karunya Mahaganapathi temple complex in Delhi’s Mayur Vihar II.
Endowed with a powerful voice capable of expressing complex musical phrases, Subrahmanyan’s main item was a ragam-taanam-pallavi, an item which more often than not eludes the Delhi rasikas, due to time constraints of the visiting artistes. Since Sanjay’s concert was for about three hours, he thoughtfully included the ragam-taanam-pallavi in his presentation. Sanjay skilfully presented the pallavi “Parama bhaktarukku sahana sadguru nin malaradi paniyum”, composed in raga Sahana and set to a slow Adi tala of 4 kalai. Another enjoyable feature in this session was the ragamalika swaraprastaras in ragas Keeravani, Nalinakanti and Subhapantuvarali, besides Sahana.
Another composition that Sanjay took up for detailed presentation was Muttuswamy Dikshitar’s “Bhajare re chitta” in raga Kalyani. Earlier, Sanjay handled yet another Dikshitar composition, “Kshitijaramanam” in raga Devagandhari, well. In a fine delineation of this raga, he brought its features to the fore. Tyagaraja’s “Entavedukondu” in raga Saraswatimanohari too was presented well with neraval and swaraprastaras.
Sanjay’s later session too was received with an equal level of enthusiasm by the music lovers. He included in it a ragamalika song and emotively sang “Thunbam nergayil” (Desh), “Kaana vendamo” (Sriranjani) and “Tiruvadicharanam” (Kambhoji), which was preceded by a scintillating viruttam.
Kumbakonam M.R. Gopinath on the violin and Neyveli Venkatesh on the mridangam provided excellent support. Gopinath’s ragamalika swaras during the ragam-taanam-pallavi was delightful. He played fine alapanas of ragas Devagandhari and Sahana too. Besides an enthralling tani avartanam that Venkatesh played in Adi tala, his riveting accompaniment during the ragam-taanam-pallavi was noteworthy. On the whole, it was a fitting finale to the Mandalabishekam celebrations.
Radio concerts
All India Radio, in their national programme last week broadcast the recordings of a Carnatic vocal concert of Lalitha and Haripriya, popularly known as the Hyderabad Sisters. In a fine recital of about an hour-and-a-half, the sisters took up Mysore Vasudevachar’s “Bhaja manasa”, in raga Mandari and Dikshitar’s “Balagopala” in raga Bhairavi. Last Sunday at 12 noon, AIR-Delhi’s Rajdhani channel broadcast the recordings of late Mani Krishnaswamy in which two compositions of Tyagaraja, “Aparama Bhakti” in raga Pantuvarali and “Evarimata” in raga Kambhoji came in for detailed presentation. Shlokas in the form of ragamalika viruttams in ragas Dhanyasi, Saveri and Suruti were scintillating.
