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This concert was conducted as part of Shri GNB centenary celebrations jointly by Mudhra and Indian Fine Arts (IFA). The concert started after nisha's concert and 45 minute lecdem multimedia lecture of GNB by Smt SAK DurgA. The concert started at 07:35 and ended by 09:15 pm.
Accompanied by H N Bhaskar - violin, mannArgudi easwaran - mridangam and TV Vasan - ghatam
1. eKadhantam bhajEham (S) - bilahari - MD
4 mins swaram
2. ranjani niranjani (R N S)- ranjani - GNB
4 mins alApanai, 3 mins violin, 3 mins neraval and 4 mins swaram
3. mA ramaNaN - hindOlam - PSivan
4. vasudevayani (S) - kalyAni -T
5 mins swaras
5A. tAmadam eNswAmikku(R S T) - tODi - GNB (Not GNB but pApanAsam shivan)
10 mins alApanai , 7 mins violin and 9 mins swaram
5B. tani for 9 mins
6. dikku theriyAda kATTiL - rAgamAliga - bharathiyAr
7. rAdhA samethA krishna - mishrayaman - Unknown composer
8. dhvalaroopa saraswati - Ananda bhairavi - ?? (AGN)
9. pavamAnA
This is my third concert of SrirAm for me . To a great extent I have missed his music by possibly not hearing more or it is more a case of this musician is not getting the recognition to what his musical merit should have rightfully earned him.
Like the last concert of sriram@ashthika samAjam the no 1 and 2 were the same . BrighA brighAs brighAs everywhere , and when one thinks of brighas the style of singing is more to do with flat notes rendition and to an extent the gamakam is not that rich , certainly briga adds supersonic speed . Well that is the style of the legendary GNB .
The bilahari just did not take off that well , I would say the percussion did not gel. ranjAni was sung very good ,definitely not as scintillating as one of the my previous reviewed concert of sriram @AsthikasamAjam where that ranjani was simply mindboggling. mA ramanan in hindOlam could have been a tad slower than his high speed rendition and to an extent hindOlam was a definite dip in quality
I would compare GNB with few westindian bowlers like marshall and holding .They will give two devastating overs and clinch the match . The kalyAni and tOdi were the two overs and he was superb in all counts. There was excellence in raw classical form.
The chief highlights of the kalyAni was a lot of fast PoDi swaras and then long cycle of swaras in rajadani mode . Todi alApanai was a beautiful carbon copy of GNB. Liked the spread of madhyama kAlam and mEL kalam , incidentally he started more with mEL kalam. The beautiful number of Shri shivan popularized by GNB tamadem EnSwamikku was presented aesthetically , does any one sing this tODi krithi with neraval , perhaps there was an apt line pOdum pOdum in that song for neraval. The swaras of tOdi was inside out nAdaswara piDi, it was breadth taking , why because he was not taking any breadth.
To an extent I can firmly say that Sriram has to watch out for his excessive speed . In the mega rAgamaligA because of speed , the feel of lyrics was lost .GNB has sung this dikku theriyada , but when one hears say the rendition of maharAjapuram santhanam you indeed get a feel of the picturesque treatment of mahAkavi in each and every sangathi of dkku theriyAda. He had cut short lot of saNgathis for the ragamAligA, one particular line kAlgAl sOrNdhu vizhaLaNEN could be perhaps sung as VegAm (speed)sorNdhu vizhalAnEn.
Loved GNB's brilliant tukkada in both the perennial rAdha sametha and more rare dhvalaroopa saraswathi in Ananda bhairavi that was another brigha filled flat note Ananda bhairavi and it was superb.
Few Disappointments:
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1. The ghatam vidwan TV vAsan was idling little too long for almost all the songs . Would be nice if his taps in the claypot is proportionate to his smile.
2. Sriram should go consciously little slow in atleast one or two krithis. Too much of speed like GNB may have been wonderful then (when gnb was in his peak, kvn and mdr did not come into scene ), but it is little difficult for me to concentrate and hear his concert. Every westindian team will atleast have one spinner.
3. Why should one end in 1 hour 40 minutes the concert. About 8 years before concerts many a times touches 10 PM easily when the start is post 07:30 PM. Why cant sabha and Sriram plan and sing more. Why could he not launch into another 40 minutes of music.
Special Mention of Mannargudi easwaran and HN bhaskar:
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Easwaran's play in bilahari was little slower, but from ranjani it was superb especially the high speed brigA support for sriram in kalyAni and tOdi was very very perfect he anticipated beautifully.For most of the time easwaran had to double up for ghatam too , it must have been taxing , but he enjoyed it thorougly .HN Bhaskar was also quick in returns and the proportion sense was great
Overall Sriram is indeed a great musician , possibly only in the last 2 to 3 years I am appreciating GNB more and more , and when Sriram sings like GNB , this must be considered by rasikas as a mindboggling achievement , than few of my friends and accquintances who just say that he has not developed a style of his own , which is to me bit gibberish.
He preserves traditions and GNB padantharam in total, even though I prefer a clever mix of many styles. If Sriram just applies a little brake, he is indeed musically as much as in my own personal senior slot bracket favorites like say a suryaprakash or a vijayashiva or a sanjay or a rajee gOpAlakrishnan or a TMKrishna to me(my top 5 present favourite artists as of July,2009, they will change for sure soon) .
In that sense the music is filled with charge charge charge and there is no s a g , s a g , s a g.Hoping to hear more of Sriram gangAdha without much of ran
. Overall very good concert.