Been very long since I updated my blog because of 2 reasons. Firstly, I have been attending very few selected concerts these days and secondly, most of whatever I attended happened to be my Guru’s concerts which I chose to not write a report on.
So, today it was my favorite musician, Dr. Jayanthi Kumaresh’s performance organized by Vagadheeshwari Kala Kendra Trust and for a change, this happened to be a morning concert! If I have to sum it up in a few words, it was a delightful morning and a wonderful musical experience as is the case with all concerts by Dr. Jayanthi.
- Tharuni – Kambhoji (Varnam)
- Sree Narada – Kanada
- Muddumomu – Sooryakantham
- Kamakshi – Bhairavi (Swarajathi)
- Entha nerchina – Udaya ravi chandrika / Madhukauns
- RTP Nattakurinji
- Narayanathe namo namo – Behag
- Mangalam – Madhyamavathi
It was a lovely concert that started with a brief aalapana of Kambhoji followed by the Adi tala varnam that set the tone for the concert. Next followed one of my favorite ragas, Kanada – the Sree Narada composition by Saint Thyagaraja was presented nicely with beautiful kalpana swaras. Suryakanthi raga elaboration and the composition followed which was again presented in great detail, especially in kalpana swaras (I didn’t know the composition and ragam and hence couldn’t notice, thanks to Dr. Jayanthi who announced later for the ease of illiterates like me 🙂 ).
The Bhairavi aalapana was very soulful and the Swarajathi by Saint Syama Sastri was a pure delight to the ears (as is always the case with any composition of Bhairavi). Yet another Thyagaraja’s composition, Entha Nerchina followed, which was so magically presented that literally everyone in the hall was mesmerized.
I always wait for the Ragam Tanam Pallavi (RTP) in all concerts, and especially Dr. Jayanthi’s because I just so love the way she presents Tanam and today was no different. A detailed aalapana of Nattakurinji showing multiple facets of the beautiful ragam was followed by a scintillating Tanam. I don’t have much knowledge on Tanam, but to my understanding she presented at least 3 or 4 types of Tanam in short bursts, and the awe from the rasikas has clearly reached it’s peak. Pallavi was in Adi Talam and there were several phrases of improvisations to it followed by detailed kalpana swaras (if I am not wrong, she did in chaturashra, trishra and mishra nadais). Another interesting aspect that amuses me in Dr. Jayanthi’s kutcheris is the ease with which she does Raga maalika in the end and today it was amazing. A couple of them were a bit long followed by at least 4 or 6 ragams which changed after every cycle of chouka kala adi talam (16 beats – yes for every cycle she was playing kalpana swaras in a new ragam). She announced one of them as Samantham (2nd one) and I couldn’t figure out any others as she was transforming from one to other so quickly (may be one was Gowla?). Tani Avarthanam was excellent with the Guru-shishya combination on Mridangam (Sri Anoor Anantha Krishna Sharma a.k.a. Shivu Sir) and Khanjira (Sri Guruprasanna). They played some nice variations and Dr. Jayanthi requested Shivu Sir to explain the variations, which he did. He also said something similar to this in Kannada… “these days getting time for Tani is only difficult and it’s so great of Dr. Jayanthi that she requested him to explain the variations too!”
The concert ended with Dr. Jayanthi stamped (if I may say) Behag aalapana followed by Saint Annamacharya’s Narayanathe namo namo and a small Madhyamavathi composition.
Overall, a treat to the ears on a Sunday morning, to have attended a soothing, amazing, excellent concert after many months. I am afraid I already ran out of adjectives to describe Dr. Jayanthi’s concerts. I think it’s time to get an English dictionary to learn new adjectives! 🙂
Note – Please correct me if I have written anything incorrectly.. I am an illiterate and I just write these articles out of enthusiasm to learn and understand more of Carnatic music.
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