Vocal concert ~ Sowmya @ Toronto, October '97
Vari Hall at York University, filled with more than 200 music-lovers, listened with rapt attention to a mellifluous flow of music from Smt. Sowmya on 18, October, 97 . The team-players who contributed a great deal to the enjoyable feast of nearly 4.5 hours were: Sri Embar Kannan(violin), Sri. Melakaveri Balaji(mridangam), Sri S.Karthik(Ghatam). All the artists--except Karthik--had been here before and one could see improvement on all fronts from all. Sowmya was more relaxed, spent more time on less number of songs and Kannan was an excellent supporter for all her efforts. Here is a list of songs ( and some Asides...): (R=raga alapana, N=neraval, S=swara kalpana) -------------------------------
1. vanajaakshi-kalyani(varnam)-pallavi gopala iyer
2. sri valli-natabhairavi -papanasam sivan (S)
3. sabesan sEvadi-saveri-Dr.S.Ramanathan (RS)
Aside 1:
A delightful new song for most of Toronto. Sowmya mentioned how
Dr.S.R ( her guru) intended this as a tribute to one of his own
guru-s, Sabesa Iyer of Annamalai University. This remark had the
inevitable effect of triggering my memories of Dr.S.R at various
parts of the concert....See my Asides 2 & 3..
4. theliyalEru-dhenuka-thyagaraja
5. meevalla-kafi-thyagaraja
A rather fast rendering..
6. chanithodi-harikamboji-thyagaraja (RNS)
Aside 2:
Neraval on line: "pathithula brochE pattaadhikaarini". I remebered
Dr.S.R's lec-dem where he pointed out the connections between folk-tunes
and their influence on present day forms of raga and how Thyagaraja
had used some of these sangathi-s in his songs. I remember him
pointing out the similarity between the tune of the above neraval-line
and the "themmangu" song prevalent in Tamilnadu , going like
"maanaamadhurailyilE marukkozhundhu koodaikkaari..."
7. ekaamrEsa-karnaataka suddhasaveri-muthuswami dikshithar
8. RTP- ranjani-kanda jathi thriputa
"maamava sadhaa varadhE mahishaasura soodhani"
Sowmya regaled the audience with a swara-raga maala of nine ranjani-s
(nava rathri-time?): sri ranjani,sruthiranjani, janaranjani,
sivaranjani, mEgharanjani, karNaranjani, maararanjani(a melakartha),
sumenasa ranjani ( rendered in Hindhustani-style of Madhukauns with
two 'ma'-s..), manOranjani.
9. Mridangam-Ghatam Duet
10. karuNai dheivamE-sindhu bhairavi-madurai srinivasan
11. ee muthukrishNaa-dhurga-kanakadasa(?)
12. naarimaNi-kamaas(javaLi)-dharmapuri subbaraya iyer
13. maadhava maaya-hamsanandhi-papanasam sivan
14. villinai-kavadi chindhu(senchurutti-based?)-subramanya bharathi
15. vedi padum -mohanam-subramanya bharathi
A "vedi padum aNdathhidi pala" applause for this fast-paced Bharathi
song on "oozhi koothu" ( In the Time of Breaking of The Worlds).
Interestingly, this song was in response to a listener who pleaded
with Sowmya to "sing two more songs...any two songs of her choice".
( Listener's Choice ? Listener's Request
for Artist's choice ? You can guess what I like....)
Aside 3:
Dr.S.R. undertook a project to collect some of the original
tunes of Bharathi ...and the above was one of them. In a lec-dem
I remember him admiringly refer to Bharathi's concept of Time in
this song. A line in the song goes: " thaanE eriyum kOlam kaNdE
saagum kaalam" ... a loose translation implies that in the Final
Dance of Universal Death, even Time gets burnt ...and , of course,
Time is ever-present and so Time is seeing Itself burning away...
16. geetha-dhanasri(thillana)-swathi thirunaaL
17. mangaLam