Venue: Kasturi Srinivasan Hall, The Music Academy, TTK Road, Chennai
Date: 08 Apr 2007
Organizer: Bharatiya Sangeeta Vaibhavam Trust
Bharatiya Sangeeta Vaibhavam Trust organized a Dikshitar Akhandam (comprising concerts of Sri Muthuswamy Dikshitar kritis by different artists) at the Meccademy today from 9AM to 9PM. I could only be present there between 5PM to 9PM and attended concerts of Sri Malladi Suribabu & Sri Malladi Narayana Sarma, Smt. Vijayalakshmy Subramaniam and Sri N. Vijay Siva. The following are the song lists and some details about the concerts. The song list for the Malladis’ concert is not complete as I reached when they were singing the nATTai kriti.
5:15 PM? to 6:30 PM
Vocal: Vid. Malladi Suribabu & Vid. Malladi Narayana Sarma
Violin: Vid. Mysore V. Srikanth
Mrudangam: Vid. N. Manoj Siva
List of songs (partial):
* paramEshvara jagadIshvara – nATTai – Adi – muthuswAmi dIkshitar
* shrI chidambaranAdasya (slOkam) – saurAshTram – sistla satyanArAyaNa rAjasEkaram
sUryamUrtE namOstutE – saurAshTram – chatusra dhruvam – muthuswAmi dIkshitar
* shrI mahAgaNanAtasya (slOkam) – bhUpALam – sistla satyanArAyaNa rAjasEkaram
sadAchalEshvaram bhAvayEham – bhUpALam – Adi – muthuswAmi dIkshitar (O)
* himagiri kumAri IshvarI – ravikriyA – Adi – muthuswAmi dIkshitar (A)
* shrI chakrarAja (slOkam) – dEvagAndhAri – sistla satyanArAyaNa rAjasEkaram
kshitijA ramaNam – dEvagAndhAri – Adi – muthuswAmi dIkshitar
* vAgdEvi krupayA (slOkam) – kannaDa – sistla satyanArAyaNa rAjasEkaram
shrI mAtrubhUtam – kannaDa – misra chApu – muthuswAmi dIkshitar
* subramaNya shaDakshari mahAmantra ratAtmanE (slOkam) – pahADi – sistla satyanArAyaNa rAjasEkaram
* antahkaraNa sutAya (slOkam) – sindhubhairavi – sistla satyanArAyaNa rAjasEkaram
* navagraha krupA pUrNa (slOkam) – madyamAvati – sistla satyanArAyaNa rAjasEkaram
6:35 PM to 7:50 PM
Vocal: Vid. Vijayalakshmy Subramaniam
Violin: Vid. R.K. Sriramkumar
Mrudangam: Vid. J. Vaidyanathan
List of songs:
1) vallabha nAyakasya – bEgaDa – rUpakam – muthuswAmi dIkshitar
2) mahAlingEshvaram madhyArjuna – paras – Adi – muthuswAmi dIkshitar
3) gOvindarAjam upAsmahE – mukhAri – misra chApu – muthuswAmi dIkshitar
4) kalAvati kamalAsana yuvatI – kalAvati – Adi – muthuswAmi dIkshitar
5) madhurAmbikAyAm – hEmavati – rUpakam – muthuswAmi dIkshitar (O)
6) pAlayamAm pArvatIsha – kannaDa – rUpakam – muthuswAmi dIkshitar (O)
7) mAtangI marakatAngi – dautapanchamam – rUpakam – muthuswAmi dIkshitar (O)
8 ) karikaLAbhamukham – sAvEri – rUpakam – muthuswAmi dIkshitar (A)
9) nandagOpAla mukunda – yamunAkalyANi – Adi – muthuswAmi dIkshitar
7:55 PM to 9:05 PM
Vocal: Vid. N. Vijay Siva
Violin: Vid. R.K. Sriramkumar
Mrudangam: Vid. J. Vaidyanathan
List of songs:
1) varalakshmIm bhajarE – saurAshTram – Adi – muthuswAmi dIkshitar
2) ananta bAlakrishnamAmava – IshamanOhari – Adi – muthuswAmi dIkshitar
3) parimaLa ranganAtham – hamIrkalyANi – tisra Eka – muthuswAmi dIkshitar (AS)
4) ambikayAh abhayAmbikayAh – kEdAram – Adi – muthuswAmi dIkshitar (AS)
5) krishnAnanda mukundA murArE – gauLipantu – misra chApu – muthuswAmi dIkshitar
6) mahAgaNapatim vandE – tODi – tisra Eka – muthuswAmi dIkshitar (A)
7) shivakAmIpatim chintayAmyaham – nATTaikurinji – Adi – muthuswAmi dIkshitar
8 ) kanaka sabhApatim – mALavasrI – Adi – muthuswAmi dIkshitar
9) shrI kamalAmbikE – srI – kanDa Ekam – muthuswAmi dIkshitar
10) swasti prajAbhyah paripAlayantAm (slOkam) – srI
(Key: O=raga outline, A=raga alapana, N=neraval, S=kalpana swaram, T=taniavartanam)
Sri Malladi Suribabu & Sri Malladi Narayana Sarma, disciples of Sri Voleti Venkateswarulu, kept the audience completely engrossed with their very beautiful presentation of Dikshitar kritis. Their concert was different in that each kriti was preceded by a slOkam on Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar written by Sri Sistla Sathyanarayana Rajasekharam. If one closed his eyes and didn’t look at the stage, one would feel as though he/she were listening to Malladi Brothers singing. The only difference seemed to be that the Malladi Brothers have softer voices while the Malladi elders have voices that seem to have a lot of “azhutham“. Before singing the ravikirya kriti, Sri Malladi Suribabu announced in a voice soaked with gurubhakti that his guru Sri Voleti Venkateswarulu and his parama-guru Sri Sripada Pinakapani used to like the song a lot.
Their concert was followed by that of Smt. Vijayalakshmy Subramaniam. She took the not so popular compositions in many of the ragas she sang and communicated well with the audience. She said that usually the association of Chidambara kshetra is with Sri Nataraja. But Sri Dikshitar has composed the mukhAri kriti she sang on Sri Govindarajaswami whose temple is also a famous one in Chidambaram. She said that the composition “madhurAmbikAyAm” in hEmavati has a lot of swarAkshara prayOgas and has been handled by Sri Dikshitar in a way that is a lot different from the more ‘in vogue’ composition of his – “sri kAntImatim“. She also said that in the composition “karikaLAbhamukham“, there is a confusion as to what the word “dhundhi” in “dhundhi gaNEsham” in the pallavi line refers to exactly. She said that some feel the song has been composed on a temple in Mayiladudurai while some say it refers to a small village near Pune by that name. However the words “kAvEri taTastitam” seem to rule out the village theory. She said that this song has a very extensive treatment of the raga sAvEri.
The concert that, in my opinion, stole the show was that of Sri Vijay Siva. Every moment of the concert kept me totally involved. It gave me the feeling of having listened to a complete carnatic music concert despite Sri Vijay Siva singing for just over an hour’s time. Everything about the concert was so good, be it the selection of kritis, the short but delightful raga alapanas or the beautiful, involved and clear rendition of the kritis !! As one of the organizers remarked, it provided a fitting finale to the akhandam.
A very enjoyable akhandam indeed. I was planning to set up my tent and camp there from the morning itself but other things that needed immediate attention kept me away 😦 . But I thoroughly enjoyed the 4 hours time that I spent there. Hope more akhandams like this keep happening !!!!
Ramkumar R 