Pantula Rama - North Carolina - 6.10.18

[bilahari]

Pantula Rama - vocal
M.S.N. Murthy - violin
K. Ramesh - mrudangam

SIFAA
2h 30m

Approximate Songlist:

niravati sukhada - ravichandrika - Adi - T (N, S @ mAmava marakata)
azhaga azhaga azhaga - shuddha dhanyAsi - k. cApu - Ambujam Krishna (R, S @ pallavi)
kamalAmbam bhajarE - kalyANi - Adi - MD (R, N @ nirvANa nija, S)
srI guruguha tArayASu - dEvakriya - rUpakam - MD
RTP - bindumAlini - Adi [2]; sama eDuppu (T)
Pallavi: gAnalOla karuNAla vAla - gOvinda mAm pAhi
RM in sahAna, varALi
antamu Anandamu - Ananda bhairavi - Adi - NCH Krishnamacharyulu
jO achyutAnanda - kurinji - m. cApu - Annamacharya
mangaLam

Dr. Pantula Rama and her team presented a thoroughly enjoyable concert this evening in North Carolina. The concert was steeped in classicism, seriousness, and gauravam. A lilting ravichandrika immediately drew attention to the vidushi's imagination and sense of aesthetics, with a beautiful neraval with appropriate kArvais in mAmava marakata, followed by crisp swaras. The shuddha dhanyAsi alapanai was thorough and had elegant use of daTTu sequences; it was followed by a really beautiful AK composition with the pallavi structured neatly in k. cApu. Swaras were presented with good poruttam to the pallavi. Dr. Rama's kalyANi was expansive; it started off slowly but picked up intensity as it headed into the upper octave with a rain of brighas. MD's immortal composition was sung with great devotion, and the subsequent neraval and swaras were easily a highlight of the concert. The neraval was dripping with bhAvam, and her dwelling on the word 'nityakalyANIm' was ever so evocative. Detailed keezh kAla swaras highlighted the gandharam in the middle and upper octaves and were a refreshing change from musicians in a rush to enroll in a high speed chase. Dr. Rama, however, is no run-of-the-mill musician. Her one-hour RTP in bindumAlini was a testament to her creativity and focus. I cannot remember the last time i heard an elaborate pallavi in a contemporary concert. Her raga alapanai reflected great concentration navigating the difficult scale of this raga with seamless brighas and fast phrases. Other than LGJ's enta muDDo, I have only heard Neyveli Santhanagopalan elaborate this beautiful raga, and Dr. Rama's interpretation will leave a mark in my memory. Her tAnam was truly exceptional, and used the scale of the ragam to great effect to create short phrases. The dhaivatam was used particularly effectively. The pallavi had a neat structure and there was a crisp neraval mostly in the upper octave, followed by elaborate swaras in two speeds. The highlight of the pallavi, however, was the rAgamAliga in sahAna. Dr. Rama started with a brief swara segment in sahAna, then sang an utterly touching neraval in the ragam, and then returned to sing swaras in two speeds in the ragam, earning a burst of applause from the audience. It was almost stream of consciousness, and it swept us away. The pallavi concluded with a beautiful kOrvai structured from the arohanam and avarohanam of the ragam. The two post-tani items were both sung beautifully, and the highlight would be the very folksy NCHK composition in Ananda bhairavi that I found myself humming on my drive home.

Dr. Rama is one of my favourite contemporary musicians. Her voice has remarkable timbre, and her open-throat singing is so admirable. More than that, however, she is uncompromising in her classicism and seriousness as a classical musician. CM is manOdharma sangItam, and Dr. Rama has manOdharma in spades. Her neravals are elaborate and thoughtful, and she always maintains sAhitya shuddam while singing, ensuring she utters the word in the lyric before taking up akAram in the neraval, instead of chopping up the word as so many do. She also sings remarkable kIzh kAla swaras as we witnessed in the kalyANi piece, leaving us entirely immersed in the beauty of the raga and the composition. She sings fantastic pallavis. I still remember a febrile Dr. Rama seemingly eons ago in San Diego mustering all her strength in a truncated concert to deliver an Arabhi RTP and chakkani rAja that I still remember. Some time ago, someone had shared her khamAs pallavi in this forum. Today, her bindumAlini showcased all her strengths as a singer, as she delved into every nook and cranny of a rarely heard raga with utter ease. If Dr. Rama struggles in any capacity, she does occasionally go off pitch especially when singing complex phrases in the upper octave, but it is a rare occurrence, and only highlighted because of how clearly she sings and how well she projects.

Sri M.S.N. Murthy played with more finesse than I've ever heard. He shares an obvious rapport with Dr. Rama, and demonstrates admirable pakka vAdhya dharma. He has a very compact technique primarily dependent on finger stops rather than glides, and he bows with azhuttham. He played some delightfully MSG-like fast fingering janTa phrases in his shuddha dhanyAsi alapanai, and his bindumAlini tAnam was truly outstanding. I must admit, however, that I am partial to the bouncing bow manner of playing tAnam rather than the reversing bow technique most musicians including Sr. MSNM use. His sahAna swaras were also rich in beauty.

Sri Ramesh, a disciple of Kamalakara Rao, accompanied rather well. He has a vigorous style. I thought he had a little dyssynchrony with Dr. Rama in some of the kritis, but his playing for the manOdharama segments of the concert were sensitive and appropriate. I thought his post tani accompaniment was superb. The tani was lively and engaging.

The concert was marred by a great number of inattentive children in the audience and consequently constant movement and noise in the auditorium. In particular, it amazes me that people think it is appropriate to sit in the front row only to leave and re-enter the auditorium every few minutes. Dr. Rama was clearly distracted, with two mid-concert entreaties to the audience to not record it and to reduce the noise.

But distractions in the audience only matter so much to a consummate professional like Dr. Rama, who instead just closed her eyes and sang. And how.

[rajeshnat]

....
K. Ramesh - mrudangam

SIFAA
2h 30m

Approximate Songlist:

niravati sukhada - ravichandrika - Adi - T (N, S @ mAmava marakata)
....
RTP - bindumAlini - Adi [2]; sama eDuppu (T)
Pallavi: gAnalOla karuNAla vAla - gOvinda mAm pAhi
RM in sahAna, varALi
.....
Her one-hour RTP in bindumAlini was a testament to her creativity and focus. I cannot remember the last time i heard an elaborate pallavi in a contemporary concert.

Thank you bilahari for your lovely review .She sang the same pallavi bindumalini with the same sahana and varali Ragamalika combo. I am assuming for sure you counted tani time and rolled that as one hour RTP in bindumalini. Let us wait next time for vidushi Pantula to really sing another 30% extra sangathis to celebrate it as 1 hour bindumalini RTP.

For the record i think bindumalini as a RTP must have been started by Mandolin srinivas. Among the contemporaries Priya sisters, Neyveli , sangeetha swaminathan, Lalgudi siblings have taken it. My conjecture is perhaps Mandolin srinivas must have been highly motivated to hear Lalgudi Jayaraman (Most Likely)and Flute Ramani(Less Likely) with their entha muddO and must have taken it and just like that played bindumalini RTP.

I may stand corrected if say Voleti , Nedunuri , BMK had taken RTP bindumalini and if they were the earliest source of RTP in bindumAlini.

K Ramesh is Kotipalli Ramesh, only through you i knew that he is a student of kamalakar Rao. When i heard the bindumalini pallavi in chennai kamalakar rao blessed pantula and msn murthy , now his student Kotipalli Ramesh is playing mrudangam.

RTP in RTP area hurray.

[arasi]

Bilahari,
When I listen to RamA-gAru, it isn't dry eyes moments for me, doc. Moist-eyes-listening is more like it. This review of
yours is as absorbing as her music is--as precise and astute as her singing can be. As rich in imagination, is your listening capacity. It's a testimony to her art, your sculpting the words of appreciation, as she would her music. I was almost there, thanks to you--in kamalAmbAm bhajarE, the lower notes of durvAsArchita gupta yOginIm, and dukha dhwamsinIm, would have been riveting. To hear azhagA from her would have been an added bonus...
Her violin mate is an asset, in her music and in life. May they flourish!

[bilahari]

Arasi, indeed it is moist-eyes-listening to Dr. Rama. What consistently impresses me about her music is her ability to sing both rakti and non-rakti ragas with equal ease. There is beauty in everything she sings.

[harimau]

Pantula Rama - vocal

.........
jO achyutAnanda - kurinji - m. cApu - Annamacharya
.........

That would have been in the raga named for the Persian New Year and not in Kurinji but you got close enough.

Andhra musicians such as Pantula Rama, Priya Sisters and the late Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna do not sing it in Kapi either, as MSS has done.

[arasi]

Written and pronounced with a 'j' rather than a 'z'? And yet in Andhra as 'z' as in rOZu?

[bilahari]

That would have been in the raga named for the Persian New Year and not in Kurinji but you got close enough.

Andhra musicians such as Pantula Rama, Priya Sisters and the late Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna do not sing it in Kapi either, as MSS has done.

Thanks for the correction. I don't know anything about Navaroj. What prayogas distinguish Navaroj from Kurinji?