Vasudha Ravi@Sastri Hall on May 20th,2018

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rajeshnat
Posts: 9907
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Vasudha Ravi@Sastri Hall on May 20th,2018

Post by rajeshnat »

Vasudha Ravi@Sastri Hall on May 20th,2018
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Vocal : Vasudha Ravi -disciple of Manjula Sriram (GNB School) and A sundaresan
Violin : Karaikal Venkatasubramaniam
Mrudangam : Nellai Balaji

Concert Type : Nirvana - no concert to follow
Day/Duration : Sunday/ 2 hours concert
Concert Type : Free concert
Hall : Sastri Hall , Luz
Occasion : Purandaradasa trust but offering exclusive MD and SS krithis

1. pAhimAm shree rAja rAjeshwari - nAttai -SS
4 mins swaras
2. sandhya dEvim sAvitrim (R) - devakriya - MD
3 mins each alapana and 2 mins return

3. kAmAkshi nAthO vAda - bEgaDa - SS
4. kAsi visAlakshim (R,S) - gamakakriya- MD
4 mins alapana and 3 mins violin return
4 mins swaras

5. pAhi girirAja suthE (CS) - Anandabhairavi - SS
6. chandrasEkaram sadA bhajEham - marghahindOlam - MD

7A. devi meenalEtra (R N S T) - shankarabharanam - SS
8 mins alapana and 5 mins violin return
7 mins neraval in bAla neevE gathi yani
7 mins swaras
7B. tani for 9 mins

8. ganEsha kumara - jinjOti - MD
9. shankari shankari karunAkari - kalyani -SS

I have no clue about Dr Manjula Sriram who is the 3rd generation disciple of GNB thru Gowri kuppuswamy. Read some where that vasudha ravi learnt from Vidushi manjula and if my memory is right even Brinda Manickavasagam learnt from Manjula Sriram. I did like one or two songs that vasudha sang after i heard thru web and I made two attempts in the past to hear her. Both concerts were washed out due to rains , one i definitely recollect during rainy season in 2016 or 2015 in shanmughapriya sabha in mylapore

In the paper it was advertised that Purandaradasar trust is conducting this concert .I thought let me hear also a full length PD concert other than venkatachalanilayE or kallu sakkarE. THe googly was there in the introduction of artist . The organizer said the purandaradAsar trust is conducting a 2 day festival , first day we had CR Vaidyanathan singing T and PD krithis , now Vasudha Ravi will sing the next two trinites - MD and SS. No qualms personally but if PurandaradAsar trust itself does not make musicians sing a full length concert of PD krithis ,where else can we hear Purandaradasar in chennai. I do recollect Vasudha Ravi review in our forum where she has given a full length PD concert so possibly in vasudha's case she had the stuff to sing full length PD concert but she did not get a chance to sing . Any case I came to know that vasudha ravi has also learnt from Late A sundaresan . Sundaresan is considered a great vidwan and in particular i do know that he has huge repertoire of SS krithis .Late A sundaresan has many students and one of them is Gayathri venkataraghavan

Vasudha Ravi has got a great voice , the quality of timbre and her ability to sing with intense classicism without giving a light feel is always there in every minute. Her Start in nattai with shyama sastri krithi - pahimAm shree was well done , nattai with swaras adds great charm and indeed it did. THe next asampoorna devakriya (sampoorna sudda saveri)was new to me and I liked the rendition of MD krithi sandhya devim.

Begada was a short filler , the heaviness was there but it did not register that much impact to me. THe asampoorna gamakakriya which in near or equal to sampoorna poorvikalyani came next as submain .She did cover the gamut of gamakakriya and I missed a neraval for the krithi overall it was well done. The anandabhairavi is a ss owned raga and the krithi pAhi giri rAja suthE with cittaswaras was neat and clean. The filler marga hindolam was done well with a neat MD krithi chandrasekaram , the margahindOlam is tricky raga to sing long . I am conjecturing the reason for it is marga hindoam will go in the marga direction of natabhairavi or saramathi and lose its color.

When voice reaches quite a high power and the throw is more than decent , shankarabharanam will taste better . There was not much sag and she taking a rare meenakshi navarathna krithi with devi meenaletra was well done . THe neraval was not that great as she was kind of caging herself into excessive madhyamakAla thrust but she came out slightly out of her comfort zone in her swaras. Jinjoti ganesha kumara did bring a clean finish but for me the biggest education is to know that there is a shyama sastri mangalam krithi in kalyani ragam . I would love in future to have more and more kalyani mangalam closure krithi of shankari shankari karunakari.Shankarabharanam and kalyani overlap was not felt as there was also a tani in between which went with the flow of the song.

The violinist karaikal venkatasubramaniam played well only if the notes are hovering on slow take your time side . I felt he could have tuned well his divine instrument . Nellai Balaji played very well and he came with right choice of solkattus to highlight many rare compositions .Nellai balaji needs more airtime with more performing artist , he has the nAdam and is not obtrusive.

There was also a brief speech by kolkata Shankar(disciple of PSN) , he spoke well and did not eat the time.All said vasudha Ravi has got an extremely high quotient of emote in her voice , just may be little more throw with bit more madhyamakAla alapanas and neraval/swaras would have made it better . Looking forward to hear Vasudha Ravi ,her classicism is indeed rich.

Overall a very good concert for 2 hour inclusive of 5 mins speech.

Sachi_R
Posts: 2174
Joined: 31 Jan 2017, 20:20

Re: Vasudha Ravi@Sastri Hall on May 20th,2018

Post by Sachi_R »

Rajesh,
Vid. Manjula Sriram hails from Mysore. She studied under Dr Gowri Kuppuswamy, who was a professor in Mysore. Dr G K had been a student of GNB.

Vid. Manjula Sriram lived subsequently for many years in Madras and taught music at the Music Academy. That's how Vid. Vasudha learnt from her.
Now Vid. M S lives in Bangalore.

I learnt all this from the guru and her disciple when V R performed in Bangalore a while ago.

I believe V R is going from strength to strength. She has sung very well for some top notch bharatanatyam performances, too.

rajeshnat
Posts: 9907
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: Vasudha Ravi@Sastri Hall on May 20th,2018

Post by rajeshnat »

Sachi_R wrote: 23 May 2018, 22:49 Rajesh,
Vid. Manjula Sriram hails from Mysore. She studied under Dr Gowri Kuppuswamy, who was a professor in Mysore. Dr G K had been a student of GNB.
I am making an assumption that Dr gowri kuppuswamy was a student of GNB in the last few years of GNB when he was in trivandrum as swathi college principal .Is that right?

Sachi_R
Posts: 2174
Joined: 31 Jan 2017, 20:20

Re: Vasudha Ravi@Sastri Hall on May 20th,2018

Post by Sachi_R »

Rajesh,
Here is a detailed profile of Dr Gowri Kuppuswamy. She and her husband were well regarded in Mysore always.
http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday ... 054510.ece

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