RamaNa BAlachandran - veeNA at Jacksonville, FL on May 19, 2018

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Sundara Rajan
Posts: 1081
Joined: 08 Apr 2007, 08:19

RamaNa BAlachandran - veeNA at Jacksonville, FL on May 19, 2018

Post by Sundara Rajan »

RamaNa bAlachandran-veeNa
SumEsh nArAyaNan- mridangam
under the auspices of "Jaxraaga" of Jacksonvill, FL.

1. GaNanAyakam bajEham-rudrapriya-MD's 8 min.
2. ThulaseedalamulachE- mAyAmALavagowLa-T's 10 min.
swara at saraseeruha
3. poorvikalyANi Alapana 6 min.
jnAnamusakarAdha- T's, neraval at usual paramAthmudu jeevAthmudu 10 min.
4. kanukontini-biahari-T's 4 min.
5. hEmavathi rAga AlApana 8 min.
Sree kAnthimathim- MD's 6 min.
kalpana swaram-16 min.
mridangam solo 12 min.
6. rAgam, thAnam, pallavi in kApi
AlApana 11min., thAnam 7 min.
pallavi: pibharE ramaNa rasam, janana maraNa sOka vidhuram - 20 min. including swara.
RamaNa announced that the pallavi was in "kanDa thriputa thALam, thisra nadai, eduppu
after 16 syllables, arudhi at 8 " (This was/is all "Greek" to me, a thALa jnanasoonyam ! )
kalpana swarams in rAgamAlika that included my favorite sahAna. The swara presentation
alternated between vocal and mridanagam was enjoyable.
short Thani for 2 min.
7. kanDu danyanAdE udupi sree KrishnA- behAg-Mohana Vitala dAsa's 4 min.
8. thillana in senchuruti
9. thiruppugazh- yErumayilEriviLayAdum mugam
10.mangaLam-aruNAchala sivA aruNAchala siva

A very good concert for 2.5 hours.that I enjoyed. It was a pleasure to witness the good performance of the young vaiNika, who vocalized a few lines of the songs. He was ably supported on the mridangam by Sumesh NarayaNan, whose short Thani Avarthanam also was enjoyable.

I have seen a few veeNa concerts of Ramana Balachandran in the You Tube videos that I liked. As it is a few years since I last enjoyed a live veeNa concert, we ventured to drive the 130 miles to Jacksonville in spite of Florida's seasonal thunder storm that delayed our drive, and we arrived at the venue 5 minutes late at 2:35 p.m.
We were surprised to see only TEN in the audience, while the artists were attempting to adjust the audio system on the stage ! It was 3:05 p.m. by the time all was ready and the concert started and by that time another 15 people had leisurely walked into the auditorium. By about 4:00 p.m. the audience had swelled to about sixty. I guess our folks take it for granted that the programs will always be late and hence take their own sweet time to arrive.

Ramana's mother, who was sitting directly in front of him in the first row, was doing "thALam" loud and clear with both her palms during the entire concert. I am not sure if Ramana needed this as guidance from her. However, personally, I found it very distracting. This encouraged a few more in the audience also to do "thAlAm' and "thappu thALam" !
Last edited by Sundara Rajan on 23 May 2018, 17:41, edited 1 time in total.

rajeshnat
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: RamaNa BAachandran - veeNA at Jacksonville, FL on May 19, 2018

Post by rajeshnat »

Sundararajan sir
Wonderful and keep continuing with your 130 mile trip enthusiasm. Was the concert say from 3 pm to 5 :30 pm. For your seasonal thunder I am assuming you had a great coffee(Kapi RTP).

Sundara Rajan
Posts: 1081
Joined: 08 Apr 2007, 08:19

Re: RamaNa BAlachandran - veeNA at Jacksonville, FL on May 19, 2018

Post by Sundara Rajan »

Yes, Rajesh.The concert was originally scheduled for 2 to 5 p.m., later changed to 2:30 to 5:00 p.m, but really was between 3:05 to 5:25 p.m. The kApi RTP was quite enjoyable, but no food or drink was available near the auditorium. We drove to a Starbucks coffee place on our way back for some cake and hot coffee and were back home by 8:00 p.m. for dinner.

arasi
Posts: 16774
Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 09:30

Re: RamaNa BAlachandran - veeNA at Jacksonville, FL on May 19, 2018

Post by arasi »

Bravo, Sundara Rajan!
You certainly are an inspiration to your fellow-seniors and juniors!
The trip was well worth it too, it seems.
Some years ago, I felt the same about big time tALA in the front row of a vINA concert. It was distracting. Then I realized that this is not uncommon in some vINA concerts. Both their hands are playing, and there is no way they can keep tALam themselves, except inwardly.

vijay.siddharth
Posts: 358
Joined: 14 May 2017, 13:08

Re: RamaNa BAlachandran - veeNA at Jacksonville, FL on May 19, 2018

Post by vijay.siddharth »

I have heard vainikas like Smt. Kalpakam Swaminathan keep tala using some of the veena strings (the tala strings I believe they are called). Is that practice out of vogue?

arasi
Posts: 16774
Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 09:30

Re: RamaNa BAlachandran - veeNA at Jacksonville, FL on May 19, 2018

Post by arasi »

Siddharth,
You are right. That's why I said some vINa concerts. I haven't seen this in a Kalpakam Swaminathan concert or in J&J's concerts either. Or, I might not have paid attention :)

vijay.siddharth
Posts: 358
Joined: 14 May 2017, 13:08

Re: RamaNa BAlachandran - veeNA at Jacksonville, FL on May 19, 2018

Post by vijay.siddharth »

Arasi mami,

Do listen to this recording:

http://www.sangeethapriya.org/new-templ ... xpLm1wMw==

I feel the presence of the tala strings (harder strums for the sashabda kryas and softer ones on nishabda kryas).

Sundara Rajan
Posts: 1081
Joined: 08 Apr 2007, 08:19

Re: RamaNa BAlachandran - veeNA at Jacksonville, FL on May 19, 2018

Post by Sundara Rajan »

Arasi: Most all musical instruments need both the hands to play, be it violin, flute, veeNa, nAdaswaram, clarinet, guitar, mandolin etc. ( whistle, harmonica etc. may be exceptions.) All instrumentalists use their foot/feet for maintaining the thALam, as does Ramana also while playing his veeNa. As Vijay-siddharth pointed out, veeNa has the advantage of built-in thALa strings for the purpose. Thus the hand thALam perhaps was an additional support.

arasi
Posts: 16774
Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 09:30

Re: RamaNa BAlachandran - veeNA at Jacksonville, FL on May 19, 2018

Post by arasi »

Sundara Rajan,
Got it :) I don't know why I didn't think of the other instrumentalists keeping tAlam with their foot (not the percussion ones, of course!) May be because the vINa is huge and cumbersome and leaves no room for them to quickly do kai (hand) tAlA too if they want to figure out something or just emphasize the pattern they are playing.
With J&J, when one of them is playing alone, the other sometimes minds the tALA .
I can tell you this much though. When I was still not in college, I did not know one iota of what Siddharth knows now, the l'enfant terrible of music appreciation lol:

Siddharth,
I mean it in the positive sense of that expression, of course...:)

bilahari
Posts: 2631
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 09:02

Re: RamaNa BAlachandran - veeNA at Jacksonville, FL on May 19, 2018

Post by bilahari »

Thank you for the report of Ramana's concert. I admire your energy and dedication driving so far to attend concerts!

Sadly I'm working next weekend when Ramana plays in NC; having watched almost every concert of his on YouTube, it is an occasion I was eagerly anticipating.

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