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Accompanied by his son ramani - vocal support ,TV RamAnujachAryulu - violin and ramkumAr - mridhangam
Before the review , just wanted to remind that this vidwan is singing in nanganallur today (Jan 04,2009). Patrons of nanganallur and around please hear this rare and great vidwan.
1. sarasijanAbhA "varnam" (R)- kAmbOdhi - vadivelu
2. gam gaNapathE (RS S)- hamsadhwani -HMB
3. mEru samAna (R N S)- maayamAlavagowlai - T
neraval in "alakala muddunu tilakapu tIrunu"
4. ambA vAni(R N S) - keeravAni - HMB
5. marugelarA - jayanthashree - T
6A.sreenivasA tava charaNam (R N S T)- kharaharapriya - PSivan
5 minutes each for rAga alApanai, violin return,neraval , swaram and tani
6B.tani
7A. slOkham "sudhAm brahmavichAra...veenA pushtaka" - dhanyAsi + shanmughapriyA + begaDa + kalyAni?
7B. shringArapuRadEEshwari sharadE - kalyAni?? - padmacharan
8. manavE mantralayA (why there is doubt?? )- suddha sArang -padmAcharaN
9. deva baNda nAma swami - durgA -PD
10. sakala kalai aRuLum shree saraswathiyE nanmaiyum yeLLam tArum nalinAkAnthiyE - saraswati + nalinakANthi + amrithavarshini + Anandabhairavi + kalyAni + bhAgeshri + sAveri + keeravani - T srinivAsan
11. shanta ahimsA murthi (R) - sindhubhairavi - mAyuram vishwanAtha sAstri
I asked this question at the end of the concert?
Shri sankar, can I say your bAni is very much some kind of maharAjapuram vishawanAtha Iyer touch,as he has learnt from Smt vallabham kalyAnasundaram , who was the sister of mayuram vishwanAtha sAstri
Shri sankAr answered , you can say some what , but he told he was majorly influenced by musiri and he has listened maximum to KVN . He went on to say that KVN is my all time favourite.
That answer KVN did give a hint to his concert , in one word it was balanced and every number was very good to excellent .There was no sixer and four like what you hear in a typical concert , but that was very much compensated by his spread with MM gowlai , keeravAni and kharahara priyA.
His son ramani supported very well, particularly his voice was quite good and he sang just like his dad in a true open throated fashion.
I was most happy to hear rams RamkumAr , simply the trademark UKS nAdham was there . He was strokeful but never banged. Particularly in mAyamAlava gowlai neraval and swaras , rams- shankAr had the touch of uks-ssi in lots of places.
The violinist TVKR professional experience was exhibited everywhere (He must have played 10 times more in concerts of the other 3 vidwans put together). There was always proportion in the play.
IMHO The only negatives in this concert was the 7B. shringArapuRadEEshwari sharadE - kalyAni?? - padmacharan, which I and sathej had no clue, shri sankAr said it was a light kalyAni, that matter is now in subjudice till we hear the concert recording. Also in the rAga mAliga slokham "sudhAm brahmavichAra...veenA pushtaka" , the begada signal was very light , he sang more like shankarabharanam , only the violinit played a clean begaDa.
This is my 3rd or 4th concert of his .To me this musician with his experience and musical clarity must have been in the league of say in between OST and neyveli age bracket and concert slot bracket(age I am speculating the concert slot i am not speculating). To me the top pick was his keeravAni,incidentally my first experience of this musician was in smt mangalam ganapathi vaggeyakara concert , that day the keeravani was the top no in an otherwise so so concert(THE Review is somewhere in this jungle) .
Thanks to mantrAlaya, this musician had rasikas from all continents newzealand, britain ,US and ofcourse Asia with
spearheading, a well balanced concert attendance just like his well balanced music.
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