Chamber Vocal Concert on 11th of September

[divyanandc]

Dear Rasikas,

Brhaddhvani presents a chamber vocal concert by: Sri Ramakrishnan Murthy (Disciple of Delhi Sri P.Sunderajan & Chengalapattu Sri Ranganathan)

He will be accompanied by: Anayampatti Sri Venkatasubramanaim (Disciple of Sri MS Ananthraman) on the Violin
Sri KS Ramana (Disciple of Dr TK Murthy) on the Mridangam

Date: 11th of September 2010
Time: 6pm

Address:
A1/4, Flat No 3, Hari Nivas
3rd Main Road
Besant Nagar
Chennai-600090
Next to Elliots Beach
Ph: 9500077230

ALL ARE WELCOME

[advaitam]

I spoke to the artiste and I believe the focus of the concert will be some lesser heard kritis on Lord Ganapati, since it is Vinayaka Chaturthi. Looking forward to being there

[Nick H]

Very sadly, I have to decline in favour of R. Vedavalli.

Hopefully I will get to your next concert.

[mankuthimma]

That is one less of our guaranteed visitors to our concerts . ]

[rajeshnat]

I am very sorry I cannot make it , I am tied with some very pressing personal emergency for the last 7 days and the next 7 days. I have not heard yet ramakrishnan murthy , but I heard thru grapevine that he is really really good .

[Nick H]

That is one less of our guaranteed visitors to our concerts . ]

Yes, sorry... and I missed divyanandc's previous concert due to something.

House concerts all always special, with the proximity to the artists, the personal interaction with both musicians and friends etc etc. There are not many people I would go and sit in a big hall to watch instead of a house concert. Anyway, I thought I'd better confess my reason on this occasion.

rajeshnat, if you have not been concert going this last week then I'm sure your presence has been missed in a number of halls. Best wishes for getting sorted out.

[ragam-talam]

You Chennaites...you are so lucky! I attended his concert last season, and he was very impressive. We have a thread on him here: Ramakrishnan Murthy

MT - perhaps you can do a webcast of the event so that the rest of us can also attend? <hint, hint>
(who knows, in a few years' time costs may have come down so much, that webcasts could be a regular feature...)

[mankuthimma]

I like his singing too. His concert for Charsur a fortnight ago had a full house in Narada gana sabha mini hall
Yet I was forced to sit on the steps outside to listen to his elaboration of a very very carnatic raga ( main ) .
Chennaities will bump into this lad , more and more in the future. But if you can afford to come today , please do so.Considering the chamber music settings.

Live web casts ... RT
The dust will have to settle down . I am a bit perturbed at the increasing rate at which artists prevent me from recording .
Aishu Venkatraman allowed me record but did not give me the tape quoting some manager in the US , Vijay Siva pulled out the tapes from the recording devices before start , Ranjani Hebbar and Vijanagaram Vardhani quoted some long term contracts with Recording labels to prevent me from doing so , Thanjavur Sankara Iyers Video concert went down a dark alley.

I do these programs with just 1% of the intensity with which I started .
This world is getting a bit polarised and I am not comfortable at both the poles.
It is a complex issue - these rights and other stuff . But I am not far from winding up all these . You overseas guys with the big bucks have distracted the artist community . And so the solutions will come from your end , too.
This is not to kick up a controversy . But a plain statement of facts.
if I have quoted some names here , it is with a full respect for their sentiments and privileges . I am just trying to tell you , that in the process of trying to do something for overseas rasikas , I am been trampling on some "Keep Off" territory.
rasikas.org , with an increasing tendency to just chat online , has missed the bus , to be a strong and potent force on the ground . To act as a balancing tool.
I have much better work to do than drill some sense into the artists head that they need to be flexible , at least with the likes of us.

And we locals , from this forum , don't attend even. How can I insist on Divyanand to retain the " with Rasayana " tag , in spite of part funding these.

[Nick H]

I just wish I could be in two places at one time

I'm sad to hear what you say, 'thimma, because my understanding was that part of the purpose of the Rasayana concerts was to contribute to a high-standard archive

[mankuthimma]

Not one of our concerts have moved away from the high standard profile .
But we cannot exist in a vacumm . Can we ?

[Nick H]

everyone has been high standard, of course, but not, it seems, contributed to the archive.

No... and if I were you I might think in terms of some sort of re-affirmation from the "membership". Perhaps that term is too loose and needs to be tightened up somehow.

We met at the beginning of this year, and there was enthusiasm for going forward, but...

Anyway... perhaps this is a topic for a separate thread?

[mankuthimma]

Yes.
I will start one.

[mankuthimma]

Yes.I will start one.

On second thoughts . No I wont start this thread.
Concerts will continue at Mantras / my residence , God willing . With willing artists . captured on camera too.
Interested folks may keep in touch through email.
No I am not running away from rasikas again
It is just that it is not worth the effort to advertise here , for the concerts.

[Nick H]

That is one less of our guaranteed visitors to our concerts . ]

And I'm still a guaranteed visitor and supporter, assuming that I'm in town, and that Vedavalli/Maharaj/Sen are not on stage elsewhere

[mankuthimma]

Yes and assuming
X does not have his Gurujis concert for him to carry the Mridangam that day
XY does not have his weekly prayers at the IIT Temple
XYZ does not have his US customers keeping him late on a Saturday
and
assuming
For The rest , TMK , Sanjay , Panthula , Sowmya , UKS , not performing that day .

That works out to
assuming my Newspaper boy does not drop the morning paper - For myself.
I am lucky I got to 25 concerts atleast .

[Nick H]

That, unless you want to do a massive and impossible job making sure that twenty or thirty people are free at a particular time on a particular day --- is life.

[advaitam]

The concert was a very engaging one indeed!! It began about a half hour late because the mridangist could not reach the venue on time, despite starting out from T.Nagar (fast becoming a dreaded traffic nightmare every evening!!) well in time. But despite this delay (and the thin audience turn-out) the concert was a resounding success. We were all so completely immersed in the music that we did not realise how two and odd hours passed!! The Tambura artiste also did not turn up and it was heartening to see a fellow young musician take up the Tambura and enthusiastically spur the artistes on in their creative endeavours whilst providing a "motherly" background to the music (Sruti Maata)

The audience was small but knowledgeable, in that every nuance of the artistes was closely followed and appreciated with emphatic gesticulations of "Bhale" and "Sabaash"!

The concert seemed to be pervaded by Mahaganapati. Ramakrishnan Murthy began with a zesty rendition of the Mysore Maharaja's Athaana kriti on Ganesha, "Sri Mahaganapatim Bhajeham". The tempo with which this kriti took off was consistently maintained throughout the concert, one of the main reasons why we never, for even a moment, tired listening to the young vocalist. After that followed a crisp rendition of Tyagaraja Swami's "Dinamani Vamsha" (Harikambhoji), a la Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer. The swara prastaaram at the pallavi had flashes of inspiration from the Alathur brothers and was spiritedly followed by both K.S.Ramana on the mridangam and A.G.Venkatasubramaniam on the violin. Next followed a wonderfully revealing Gaula raga alapana with phrases that were simultaneously inspired and inspiring. This was followed up with a rendition of Mutthuswami Dikshitar's "Sri Mahaganapatiravatumaam" with swaras at the pallavi. Ramakrishnan did chaturashram, chaturashra tishram, tishram and chaturashra mel kaalam in the first round of chittaswaras after the anupallavi with ease and aplomb. One did wonder if he could have possibly taken up neraval-swaras at "Prakaashakaro..." but maybe time concerns were pressing on the artiste.

The next to follow was a brisk rendition of Shyama Shastri's "Biraanavaraalichi" in Kalyani, with a very brief but telling raga sketch before launching head-on into the marvelous swings and glides that this wonderful kriti proffers. In particular I must mention the excellent accompaniment that Ramana offered here. The neraval-swaraprastaaras at "Shyamakrishna Sodari Gouri" developed into a repartee between the vocalist and the violinist at blitzkrieg speeds, creating a wonderful climactic effect!

The honour of main piece for the evening went to the monumental composition of Mutthuswami Dikshitar "Mahaganapatim Vande" in Thodi ragam. Ramakrishnan and Venkat developed the raga in tiers, moving finally to the tara sthaayi madhyamam and panchamam, weaving mesmerising phrases that were succinct and did full justice to the grand emotive content of Thodi raga. As the grandiose structure of the kriti began to unfold, Dikshitar's mastery of the raga, tala, the Sanskrit language and in particular his mastery of the subtleties of Gaanapatyam became evident. Ramakrishnan did full justice to the rendition of this rather difficult and rarely sung kriti. He chose to do neraval-swara kalpana at "Upanishad pratipaaditam Uma-Maheshwara Sutam" a beautiful line explaining how Ganapati is worshipped in the Upanishads, the basis for all Vedanta (thus possibly indirectly meaning that Ganapati is accepted by all schools of Uttara Mimamsa/Vedanta). The thani, in keeping with the pace of the concert, was crisp and filled with traditional korvais that have become a stamp of the Thanjavur school. The abundant chouka-kaala soukhyam that this school revels in, was evident at every stage in the thani, in Rupaka talam (2 kalai).

The tukkada section was relaxed and well spaced out, unlike a lot of concerts today, where either the tukkada section is hurriedly finished off with a Thiruppugazh/Thillana (if its a sabha concert) or dragged out tediously (in marriage and similar "tukkada" concerts). First in line was Gopalakrishna Bharati's evergreen Behag kriti "Adum Chidambaramo". Then Ramakrishnan took off on a most soulful and melodious viruttham (selections from Thondaradipodi Azhwar's "Thirumaal" on Lord Ranganatha) sung in Bhimplas and Sindhubhairavi before quickly shifting to Darbaari Kanada (Narayana Teerthar's "Govardhana Giridhari"). The violin repartees in the viruttham were telling of the Parur school stamp! This was followed by brisk renditions of Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar's Purnachandrika Thillana and "Marukulaaviya" (Thiruppugazh in Purvikalyani) before wrapping up with the Mangalam. This was truly a concert that cannot be forgotten, and for those who could not make it, I must say perforce that you missed an extremely enriching evening of chaste Carnatic music.