Venue: Satguru Gnanananda Hall, Narada Gana Sabha, TTK Road, Chennai
Date: 14th Nov 2006
Organizer: Gurukrupa Trust
Vocal: Sri N. Vijay Siva
Violin: Smt. T. Rukmini
Mridangam: Sri Vellore Ramabhadran
List of songs:
1) slOkam – hamsadwani
pArvatI patim – hamsadwani – Adi – muthuswAmi dIkshitar
2) pAhi srI girirAja – Anandabhairavi – rUpakam – syAma sAstri (ONS)
3) EmidOva balkumA – sArangA – Adi – thyAgarAja (AS)
4) srI raghuvara – kAmbOji – Adi – thyAgarAja (AST)
5) rAgam tAnam pallavi (RTP) – gOwrimanOhari – tisra jAti jampa tALam (misra gati)
pallavi wordings: “kandan guhan endan guru enrum tozhum ennai, arul kandan guDiyil tangiya”
6) chelinEnEtlu sahintunE (jAvaLi) – paras – Adi – patnam subramaNya iyer (?)
7) ninyAkO – rAgamAlikA – Adi – purandaradAsa
8 ) vetta veLi thanil (kAvaDi chindu?) – Ananda bhairavi – misra chApu – ?
9) UrmEl (tiruppugazh?) – madyamAvati – Adi – aruNagirinAthar (?)
10) pavamAna (mangaLam) – sOwrAshtram – Adi – thyAgarAja
(Key: O=raga outline, A=raga alapana, N=neraval, S=kalpana swaram T=taniavartanam)
A look at the list of songs would give one the impression of a full-fledged concert that would probably have lasted for about 3 hours. It would be very hard to believe for people who were not present for the concert that all these songs were sung by Sri Vijay Siva in just 1 hour 30 minutes. As has become customary in almost all concerts that are scheduled after a felicitation function, yesterday’s concert too got delayed and started about an hour late at 8PM. The best part was that the 1.5 hour concert itself gave the satisfaction of having listened to a 3 hour one with no compromise done whatsoever in any aspect of the concert. Kudos to Sri Vijay Siva for making the concert enjoyable despite the limited time made available to him.
Kamboji raga alapana was done well, though it had shades of kamAs and yadukulakAmbOji at certain places. The sangatis in the pallavi of “srI raghuvara” were very good and built up well step-by-step. The ragam tanam pallavi (RTP) was the highlight of the evening. It came at a time when most, if not all, would have been least expecting it. Sri Vijay Siva demonstrated very good control over the talam. It is not very easy to sing the pallavi in the talam he chose. Towards the end of the pallavi, he also sang the kalpana swarams in tisra jAti triputa tALam in tisra gati (7*3=21) which amounts to the same akshara count as the tisra jAti jampa tALam in misra gati (6*3.5=21) originally chosen for the pallavi.
Ramkumar R 