Friday, December 9, 2011

59th Sawai: Shri. Shankar Mahadevan

Sangat:

Violin: Smt. Padma Shankar
Mridangam: Shridhar Parthasarathy
Ghatam: Giridhar Udappa
Tanpura: Meghana and Manasi Ektari: Dr. Rajendra Doorkar
Harmonium: Avinash Dighe
Tabla: Bharat Kamat

Shankarji started the performance with a varnam in raga Natakurunji. Shankar's voice was in superb shape right from the beginning and immediately captivated the audience with powerful yet surel singing.

Shankar continued his performance with raga Hamsadhwani. He sang brief alap followed by alap on the violin played beautifully by Padma Shankar. This was followed by a composition - namo namo shree maha ganapate set to Adital. The saragam based jugalbandi with the violin was superbly done.
This was followed by a composition - nanaro dinaro set to Adital. This included some superfast saragam pieces which were sung with a lot of clarity and finesse.

This was followed by raga Vakulabharanam. Shankar explained that this was like Charukeshi in the first half and the Carnatic version of Todi in the second half. To me it sounded a lot like Basant Mukhari (S r G M P d n S - S n d P M G r S). The alap were sung elaborately and beautifully. This was followed by exquisit alap by Padma Shankar on Violin. This was followed by a composition - kuniyadagar mani - set to Adital. Again here the improvisation jugalbandi with violin was very well done. This was followed by a brief taalvadya jugalbandi - done skillfully and tastefully.

Shankar paid a tribute to Bhimsenji and Shriniwas Khale by singing a medley of abhangs in accompaniment of ektaara and chiplya - indrayani kathi, namacha gajar, sawale sundar roop manohar, sundar te dhyan, jethe jato tethe tu majha sagati, soubhagyada lakshmi baramma, shewatcha disa god whava yachasathi kela hota attahas, majhe maher pandhari - where all the other instruments joined in and was sung fully.

All sangatkars provided excellent support. Padma Shankar's violin sangat was however simply superb.

Overall a fantastic performance by a great performer.

- Bansuriwala

1 comment:

  1. the nanaro-dinaro was the kriti Nenarunchinaanu in Maalavi ragam :)

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