Short, but Sweet concert

Ananya Ashok gave a short, 90-minute concert under the auspices of South India Fine Arts at the Santa Clara Convention center on Sunday, October 1st, 2017. She was accompanied on the veena by Hrishikesh Chary and on the mridangam by Vignesh Venkataraman.

She began her concert with the Tyaagaraaja kriti bhavanuta na in mOhanam. This was followed by the popular Dikshitar kriti sarasijanabha sOdari in naagagaandhari - an apt song on devi considering that navratri had just concluded. Ananya sang the Purandara Dasa kriti, nInE anAtha bandhu next. The neraval on madanayya madhusUdananendare mundindali bandodagide krishna was exquisite. She sang the fast paced Papanasam Sivan kriti saravanabava guhane shanmukhane next. This was the lead in to the main song, which she sang next. Her detailed alapana in Bhairavi was truly a treat to listen to. She sang the Shyama Shastri classic, kamakshi amba. Hrishikesh also rendered a superb Bhairavi alapana. Vignesh's taniavartanam in mishra chaapu was shortened due to the condensed time of the concert. Nevertheless, he did justice in his allotted time. Ananya concluded her concert with a soulful rendering of the padam by muttuAndavar in khamAs, theruvil vArAnO. 

In this short concert, Ananya had weaved in songs from all three major composers. She included songs in Telegu, Kannada and Tamil.

Kudos to South India Fine Arts for providing the platform for up and coming, young artistes. The nearly full Elizabeth Hangs is testimony to the support from the audience in the Bay Area.

We certainly hope to listen to a full length concert by Ananya (for Bay Area audiences) in the near future.

Scintillating Concert

Living in the Bay Area, 8500+ miles from Chennai, the Mecca of Carnatic music, one never feels deprived from experiencing the rich cultural environments of a sabha. The mountain, as the saying goes, comes to Mohammed! If anything, there is an exuberance of activity in the Bay Area that one has to "pick and choose".

One sparkling example of Bay Area's Carnatic Cornucopia is Sanjay Subrahmanyan's SIFA concert on September 21st 2012 at Gunn High School in Palo Alto. Even though the performance was over six weeks back, it is still fresh in my memory. 

Sanjay was ably accompanied by S. Varadarajan on the violin and Neyveli Venkatesh on the mridangam. Thanks to getting caught in heavy traffic, I missed the varnam that Sanjay sang (if you attended the concert, please add information about the varnam as a comment). Sanjay's next song was vinAyakA ninnu vinA brOchutaku in hamsadhwanI. He followed this with a short alApanA in yadukula kAmbhOji and the krithi ninnu sEvinchina. Next, Sanjay started singing an elaborate alApanA in kalyaaNi. At one point he held the gAndhAra swaram (without pausing to take breath) for over a minute. When somebody in the audience started applauding, Sanjay shushed that person by holding his hand out to a stop sign. He continued to hold the swaram for another minute plus! The audience was left breathless!! He sang the Tyaagaraaja krithi sivE paahimambikE. Sanjay performed an elaborate neraval on the caraNam, carA caramayi karAravindamuna rAma cilukanu birAna.

Sanjay then sang the KOTeeshwara Aiyyar composition, kalangaadE manamE. He followed this with an exquisite alApanA in nATTai kurinji and sang the Gopalakrishna Bharati composition, vazhi maraittirukkude. Next he sang the fast paced Thyagaraja krithi anupama guNaambudi in aThaaNaa. He was, of course, setting up the audience for the Ragam-Thanam-Pallavi. The RTP was in AbhOgi. The lyrics for the pallavi were, not surprisingly, "sabhApatikku vEru deivam samAnamAgumA tillai. Sanjay sang the rAgamAlikA swaras in the Hindustani raags of jOg and darbAr. Much to the delight of the audience, Sanjay (perhaps sensing that a majority of the audience were Tamil speaking) sang the rest of the Gopalakrishna Bharati composition after Neyveli Venkatesh completed the thaniAvarthanam.

On the "home stretch" (aka tukkada section), Sanjay packed in three more songs - a Purandara Dasa krithi in bhAgEshri, followed by an excellent ragamAlikA viruttam and a composition in mAnD. The concert lasted for almost 3.5 hours and the audience were on its feet at the end acknowledging the brilliance of the artist.