House Concert by Sri Neyveli Santanagopalan - June 9 2007 - Review

'Parampara' center for Carnatic Music has just put its first step
forward in trying to bring vintage music to the students of the school
and the music lover (rasika) fraternity in the Whitefield area. We
made a grand beginning with Shri Neyveli Santanagopalan's concert ably
supported by HK Venkatram on the violin and Neyveli Narayanan on the
Mridangam. The ensemble was complemented with Shri Prasad on the
Tambura and Shri Sunil on vocal support.


Neyveli Sir opened the concert with a kriti in Mayamalawagowla. The
calm and serenity that he exuded with this kriti continued throughout.
I thought it is fitting in the school content to start with this raga
- easily identifiable by some of the beginner students in the first
row. He then sang Giripai (Sahana) complete with dripping raga bhava.
There was a brisk 'Nenendu Vedakudura' (Karnataka Behag) and Parimala
Ranganatham (Hamid Kalyani) in the first half of the concert. The main
item was in Dhanyasi followed by RTP in Sankarabharanam with swaras in
Ragamalika. He deftly used some of the ragas that were part of the
ragamalika swaras for his Tukkadas (Hamsanandi, Bhageswari etc.)


The ambience was festive and people were expectant. Most of the
audience was made up of the parents and grand parents of the students
of Parampara. It was an incredible feeling sitting a few steps away
from the maestro and without any fan fare of tickets, auditorium and
traffic etc. It was an orderly gathering and a very attentive rasika
community, I must say. There was not a bit of noise and of course, no
getting up to hit the canteen during the Thani Avartanam either.
People took heed of the basic ground rules set out by Mr. Kartik at
the very outset. The concert went on for more than 2:30 hours though
it started on the dot at 5pm.


Neyveli sir was very affectionate and had a nice, encouraging message
for the students. He said that students should not only find out which
raga is being sung but also sing in such a way that others can
recognize what they are singing, in a lighter vein! Audience mingled
with the artists at the end of the concert before they dispersed
humming their favourite string from one of the amazing the note/
sahitya patterns that caught their fancy.


All in all, it was a very worthy effort possible only by the
collective energy and enthusiasm of the core team ably guided by
Savita and Kartik.. We can't wait for the next one to happen in our
midst...


- Prasad