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Accompanied by BU Ganesh Prasad - violin ,R.Ramesh (sishya of KM)-mrudangam. The concert was part of navarAthiri celebrations.
Atleast 4 to 5 years back in one vanimahal concert , I had a chance to talk to maharAjapuram Shri ramachandran after his concert.As conversation went along ramachandran was greeted by many rasikas, most of them told it was just like listening to your dad in terms of numbers and few of them felt he was just repeating santhAnam. So in short he is one vidwan who is crossing one of the dangerous roads in chennai, kind of any direction he goes he will get hit (hit in mega hit or complaints of he repeating the hits), in short ,he has this two polarized views to permenantly deal on it on day to day basis.
Having said that I have noticed with lot of keen interest that despite he repeating 80% or so of his dad and to an extent grand father, his remaining 20% of repertoire is very rare and usually no other musician generally sings those numbers. Personally I feel he takes the best of santhAnam and also vishwanatha iyer (his grand father), at times the overlap of he to his grandfather is more, than his dad santhAnam to his father vishwanAtha Iyer.
rAmachandran == santhAnam:
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santhAnam has polished few rAgamAliga songs to that extraordinary aesthetic perfection , that those numbers will be such a mega hit . rAmachandran took two of that , both rAgamAliga he was as much as his dad.Also he took revati with a particular finishing tukkada to such heights , thanks to Shri Krishnan who tuned and gifted this to santhAnam.BTW, I dont remember hearing the preceding viruththam of revati "kaLLA pizhaiyum karutha pizhaiyum " , perhaps rAmachandran first sang that , that few lines of thamizh with an expressive revathi is awesome.
5. nalinakAnthi mathim - String of 15 ragamALiga from nalinakAnthi... to hamsadhwani - madurai krishnaswami
7. ksheerAbdhi kannikE - rAgamAliga - PD
8A. viruththam "kaLLA pizhaiyum karutha pizhaiyum" - revati -??
8B. bhO sambhO - revati - swami dayananda saraswati (tuned by Krishnan , dad of mridangist ArunprakAsh)
All 3 no's of rAmachandran = santhAnam was excellent
rAmachandran == vishwanatha Iyer:
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MVI was a maverick in terms of manodharmam, most of the time he will try to present almost every krithi be it alApanai or swaras in such an exhilirating speed. To that extent rAmachandran is more his thatha than appA (grand dad then dad). The same maverick style was evident in both suddadhanyAsi (what a cracker explosive start it was, his mel kAla swaras was fantastic), also going immediatley with nAttai fast viruththam and ending with swaras in nAttai. At few places in nAttai swaras he lost his breath hence for few cycles shruthi went a bit off.
1. varnam "srI rAja mAthangI chAmuNdeshwari - suddha dhanyAsi -HMB
2A.viruththam "pAlum teLi tEnum pAgum paruppum ivai nAngum kalandunakku nAn taruvEn, kOlam Sei tungak kari mugattut tU maNiyE, nI enakku Sangat tamizh mUnRum tA!" - nAttai -??
2B.pAhimAm shree rAjarAjeshwari (S) - nAttai -SS
swaras for 5 mins
rAmachandran == rAmachandran
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ramachandran has certainly his own originality.rAmachandran has been tutored by late mayavaram rAjam Iyer especially MD krithis, hence his
way of handling MD krithi that too with his voice sareeram is no frills but only thrills.
I always rate his lalitha the best (infact I will post soon about ramachandran and laltiha in maharAjapuram thread), that 18 minutes of hiranmayeem with alAp, especially in the last few charanam sangathis of lalitha , which just gives me goose pimples. He is one musician who goes down and down and down but the voice strength stays up and up and up. voice sareeram at its best.
His kamAs krithi rendition of a rare krithi was excellent though swaras were not that great.He took a main in kalyAni, it had no drowsy touchpoints ,the alApanai was excellent , the krithi (a rare one hearing for the first time) was nice , to an extent he lost his expansive treatment in neraval and swaras .Observing rAmachandran in the last 6 years or so, he gives so much of sangathi cycles with minimal breathing cycles before main, he loses a bit of sheen in the main.
3.Shree swaminAthAya namastE(R S) - kamAs - MD
5 mins alAPanai, 2 mins violin and 3 mins swaras
4.hiraNmayeem lakshmeem(R) - lalitA - MD
6 mins alApanai and 4 mins violin
6A. pAhi pAhi shAradhE kripAnidhE (R N S T) - kalyAni - ???
9 mins alAPanai, 6 mins violin,5 mins neraval and 8 mins swaras
neraval in "shankari giri puravAsa shankari shree chakrAngi simhAsanEshwari"
6B. tani for 6 mins
Accompanist:
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I am hearing BU ganesh prasad for the 3rd time in the last 4 concerts .His returns had sowkhyam , but I would prefer to bring alApana returns in line with rAmachandran , for eg his kalyANi alApanai return was the usual one , he could have given more of ramachandran's kalyAni.R.Ramesh had a very good sound , his tani was very good , had a lot of KM touch. His play for songs were at times little slower than ramachandran.
Overall a very good to excellent concert , for 1 hours and 55 minutes.
