Shertalai Ranganatha Sarma@Vanimahal on Feb 17th,2019

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rajeshnat
Posts: 9906
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Shertalai Ranganatha Sarma@Vanimahal on Feb 17th,2019

Post by rajeshnat »

Shertalai Ranganatha Sarma@Vanimahal on Feb 17th,2019
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Vocal : Shertalai Ranganatha sharma
Violin : BU GaneshPrasad
Mrudangam : KV Prasad
Ghatam : Anirudh Athreya

Concert Type : Nirvana - No concert to follow , Free concet
Day/Duration : Saturday / 2 hours and 05 minutes
sabha/Hall : ThyagaBrahma Gana sabha , Vanimahal, T Nagar
Time : 6:30 to 8:35pm
Festival : Thyagaraja aradhana festival, all dedicated to thyagaraja

1. meru samAna (S) - mAyAmAlavagowlai
  • swaras for 6 mins
2. chAla kAla lAddu (S)- Arabi
  • swaras for 4 mins
3. balE bAlendu(R) - reetigowlai
  • 7 mins alapana and 3 mins violin return
4. maravairi ramani (S) - nasikAbhooshani
  • swaras for 4 mins
5. Atu kAradhani (R)- manoranjani
  • alapana for 7 mins and violin return for 3 mins
6A. endukO nee manasu (R N S T) - kalyani
  • alapana for 14 mins and violin return for 6 mins
  • neraval in tyAgarAja hrdaya sadanuDani for 6 mins
  • swaras for 6 mins
6B. tani for 13 mins

7. enta muddo enta sogusO (starting with enta vAralaina) - bindumAlini
8. nee nama roopamulaku

rajeshnat
Posts: 9906
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: Shertalai Ranganatha Sarma@Vanimahal on Feb 17th,2019

Post by rajeshnat »

I as a rasika donot have that many choices from jan 2nd week to Feb 2nd week to hear that many concerts as it is a slump for all organizers to take rest post the margazhi season. My favourite vaggeyakkara is sadguru thyagaraja . The reason i choose sadguru is not for the reason for his rama bhakthi and the way he created the right layam and raga bhavam . I donot have any inclinations to understand telugu other than read V GOvindan thyagaja translations and meanings.Some musical meanings like say GKB krithis, Sivan krithis that I understand have an edge to say DIkshitar sanskrit and Thyagaraja/SS telugu krithis

As such I consider sadguru Thyagaraja is a KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT GURU . He wanted to teach his disciples and more importantly created a musical lineage of bhaava of intense music thru his seven disciples ranging from Manambuchavadi , Walajahpet venkataramana bhagavathat etc . I have seen Semmangudi in my life and thank god i heard him speak once in SKGS as such I honestly feel focussing on the KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT GURU VAGGEYAKKARA is the key to get more classical carnatic music votes.Thyagaraja always showcases Intense carnatic music , as a percentage his musical vibes has percolated most to his nth generation of vidwans and vidushis .

Why such a long introduction , it was more to vent my personal frustration that I hardly heard any live concerts since Jan . Shertalai Ranganatha sharma's appa Narayana Iyer has learnt music form the extraordinary Semmangudi , parttime extraordinary Kumaraswamy IYer etc . Shertalai has one of the strongest masculine voice , but he also does not have voice mobility as his gAthram voice has to obey bit of law of physics.

Shertalai started with Mayamalavagowlai . Who in the world will not like this raga and this masterpiece Meru Samana . This was not showcased as a semmmangudi blockbuster with racy brigas and podi swaras . But it was bit there as a voleti whose voice and shertalai voice matches . The drive in the krithi and first half of swaras was excellent , what words alagala ... and the loop back to merusamana , thyagaraja rules with his musical bhaava in ragas like mAya MalAva GLow love

He moved next to another lovely krithi cAla kallalAdu and there he moved with a bit more arresting speed . Semmangudi and his guru Maharajapuram vishwanatha IYer rule with this krithi in arabi . I liked it again but a dash of neraval in ilalO would have been nice , ranganatha sharma is risk averse musician , but still great arabi.

The first alapana was a clean copybook alapana of extraordinary muse reetigowlai. Nice rendition of alapana but very very clock centric alapana . I felt he could have taken bit more risk with alapana . The krithi bAlE balendu was quite good reetigowlai, i missed a certain aggression. Nasikabhooshani came in next , strong voice was bit rigid to manoevoure with musical twist that is usually needed in these offbeat nasikabhooshani . Swaras were well done he loosened a bit and I liked it.

He next moved to an alapana , I knew it was not ganamurthi or vanaspathi , but i forgot to recognize the raga before he announced .The raga was manOranjani. One has to give it to his vidwat to sing manOranjani alapana, I expected the krithi aTu kAradhani and that only came up, passable krithi , so far never in my life I have seen an intense elaboration with neraval and swaras in aTu kAradhani

Deep down as every number was going on and on with the flow of mmg -manoranjani , I knew that yet dislodged queen of prathi kalyani is on its way. Kalyani krithi was not vasudevayani . I cannot expect a kamalambham bhajare or neetu charana etc as it is not a T krithi. The enduko nee manasu krithi came on . This krithi takes all the musical hotspots of weak kalyani raga devata that rajesh has an aversion . Shertalai sang very well , copy book alapana - konjam he could have gone in the direction of SSI or GNB in kalyani alapana. But he was not taking much risk. krithi was well done ,the only neraval in the concert was not that creative , possibly all the 4 got lost in obesiance of Thyagaraja ,but i was looking for few more raga devata away from excessive squat of kalyani.

Time was 08 30 I was assuming he can sing for another 30 mins instead of 5 mins post tani. bindumAlini was sung with great feeling ,when he started with anupallavi i knew he was just wrapping up the concert . BindumAlini touched me immensely with his brilliant musical aesthetics. As I walked out i heard one gentleman and 2 ladies speaking out vanimahal la yen 9 varikkum padala, i did not speak for a change it was some thing that I heard from some one which i usually say.

BU Ganesh prasad is a champ , lovely sunaadam that too when songs are bit slow he gives intense raga bhavam, he is to me an underrated accompanist genius. KV Prasad was seasoned with patterns but little more muscle power would have helped . The young anirudh is a great accompanists I am assuming he follows the order of when to play and when not to play.

Attn Vanimahal
Volume was near perfect with only duration of concert was imperfect . I know some one will read it from vanimahal - fix the end time till 9 pm Sir/Madam.

Yesterday I wanted to choose between palakkad ramprasad vs shertalai ranganatha sharma . I skipped ramprasad despite Trichy sankaran is playing for him.The engagement column also said there is a speech By M Chandrasekaran and few more dignataries prior to Ramprasad concert and the ramprasad concert was at 7pm start .I made a move to 06 30 shertalai vs 07 00 pm ramprasad , both ended up musically scarce. Rathnagirieeswarar temple concert is just on its way in fairly bone dry February.

Overall a very good concert for 2 hours and 5 mins.

CRama
Posts: 2939
Joined: 18 Nov 2009, 16:58

Re: Shertalai Ranganatha Sarma@Vanimahal on Feb 17th,2019

Post by CRama »

The concert was good maintaining the core values of music as you can always hear in a Renganatha Sarma concert.
Bale balendu Bhooshani- is a rare song in the concert field nowadays. It was a staple fare in Dr. S. Ramanathan's concerts.
manoranjani- raga alapana I have heard only in Ranjanimala RTPS. It was presented well.. I could not fix the raga till he announced.
Main song. Good selection. I was fearing for E thavunera.
Since the concert was only two hours duration, neraval was limited and Sarma skipped keezh kala swarams.
Winding up the concert with Entha muddo looked odd. He could have sung a couple of Divayanama keerthanams.
Vani Mahal could have started the concert at 6 PM. There were many people who arrived early. On a Sunday evening, it is not difficult for people to come at 6 PM, if it is difficult for some people to stay beyond 8.30.
The AC is too cold. I have to shift to a corner to escape from the blow of the AC. In the concert of Neyveli Santhangaopalan a couple of days ago, I left after two songs, because of unbearable cold. The organisers should look into this aspect.

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