Date: 7th November 2009
Venue: Balaji Temple, Aurora (outskirts of Chicago, IL)
Violin: Shri. RK Shriramkumar
Mridangam: Shri. Arun Prakash
Ghatam: Shri. Guru Prasad
1. vande vAsudevam - Shri - Shri Annamacharya
2. Rama Neepai - Kedaram - Shri Thyagaraja
3. Marubalga - Shri Ranjani - Shri Thyagaraja
4. shrI bhArgavI bhadraM mE dishatu - maHNgaLakaishiki/tripuTa - Shri Dikshitar
5. Shri Raghuvara Aprameya - Kambhoji -Adi x 2 - Shri Thyagaraja
6. Mayamma - Ahiri - Shri Syama Shastri
7. Saramaina mata menta - Behag - Swati Thirunal
8. sOdanai sumakka - Kapi - Shri Papanasam Sivan
9. Tirupati Venkataramana - Sindhu Bhairavi - Shri Purandaradasa
10. Vanga Kadal Kadaintha - Surutti - Thiruppavai - Andal
11. Maitreem Bhajata - Ragamalika - HH Shri Chandrashekhara Saraswati
12. Pavamana - Sourashtram - Shri Thyagaraja
The concert which was held at the Balaji temple in Aurora, IL was well attended (~ 125 people - which is good by Chicago standards for an instrumental concert); Started at 6:15pm and was for 3hrs straight.
RKS started with vande vAsudevam in the very auspicious Shree ragam. After a quick Rama Neepai in KedAram, he moved to an excellent AlApanai of Shri Ranjani, bringing out all the descriptive phrases with great melody and emphasis. I was personally hoping he'd play bAlAmbikayA but was not disappointed at all by Marubalka.
shri bhArgavi bhadram was ethereal. It was my first exposure to the rAgA and the song. It is still haunting me after 3 days - so much so that I downloaded TMK's version from iTunes and that closely matches RKS' version and my guess is that they collaborated on the interpretation straight from SSP.
Next, he played one of my favorite rAgAs, kAmbhOji. The elaborate AlApanai full of swift and grand phrases was followed by an excellent rendition of Shri ThyAgarAjA's shree raghuvara aprameya. Neraval and swaram at the 2nd charanam, sÄÂÂ
RK Shriramkumar Violin Solo at Chicago Nov 7th, 2009
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rajeshnat
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Thanks vpadmana for the review . Always nice to read reviews of RKSK in a solo violin concert, it is quite rare in india.vpadmana wrote: 11. Maitreem Bhajata - Maand - HH Shri Chandrashekhara Saraswati
maitreem bhajata is usually sung in yamunAkalyAni + kApi ragamAliga and not mAnd. May be you just got mistaken with maand when yamuna kalyani was sung?
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vasanthakokilam
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I attended the concert and enjoyed it.
mangaLakaisiki and Ahiri were the top picks.
The very slow speed mangaLakaisiki was just superb. MangaLakaisiki sounded like nadanamakriya in many places but there was enough difference to know it was not. Shriramkumar announced the raga at the end of the song. One could sense the little 'H/m/mm...' type of reaction soaked in wonder spreading through the audience. The very slow tempo was just right for this song, the mridangam and gatam providing the most minimal taps here and there and only to play continuously during the madyama kala passages. Perfect execution. With such songs, one is reminded of the wide variety and breadth of compositions that exist under the CM umbrella.
Arun Prakash and Guru prasad provided excellent support. One problem was, the audio was just too loud over all. It could have been at least 40% lower. On top of that, when Mridangam and Ghatam were playing at high decibels, they drowned out the already loud violin sound. Fortunately that was the case only at a few places. A lower volume and better miking arrangement would have helped. There was an extensive sound check and it passed the artists' expectations ( which in my opinion was THE source of the problem. The artists should not be allowed to have an opinion on volume level of the auditorium speakers ).
During the thani, that high volume actually helped. They played quite an exciting thani with the usual Koraippu and an interesting sounding Korvai.
One thing I noticed is the nadham of the mridangam was better during the thani than during the accompaniment. During the songs, the 'wooden' sound was much more prominent than the higher frequency sound.
Back to Shriramkumar,
The short kedaram alapana was quite cheerful and so was the song, it was hard to resist swaying your body to the song. I wondered what mood Thyagaraja should have been while composing 'Rama Neepai' to come up with such a sweet gem.
Sriranjani alapana and the song did not jell with me too well, may be it was just my mood.
Kambhoji was grand. One of the jAru gamakam he employed right at the beginning of the alapana was a bit too slow and high curvature. It may have been on the Ni. It sounded fine, it was just new to me. Shriramkumar really hit his mark on kAmbhoji during the kalpanaswarams. It was brilliant.
Mayamma was incredible. As vpadmana wrote, it was the DKJ bANi and one can follow along the sahitya enunciation on the violin.
The Ahiri gamakams flowed with great sowkyam.
kApi alapana, though brief, was quite moving.
All the three artists were quite friendly and interacted with the audience at the end of the concert. Shriramkumar narrated the difficulties he had with the violin strings. We could see his occasional retuning and at one point he quickly changed one of the strings but I did not realize the extent of the troubles he had to cope with. He did not show any of that on stage nor did he let it affect his pleasant demeanor. More importantly he did not let it affect his playing. I can imagine the extent of adjustments he had to make on-the-fly.
One little tid-bit I picked up during the post concert chat from someone else is, on a prior visit to Chicago 15 years or so back, a side concert was organized with Shriramkumar vocal to Vijaya Siva's mridangam.
mangaLakaisiki and Ahiri were the top picks.
The very slow speed mangaLakaisiki was just superb. MangaLakaisiki sounded like nadanamakriya in many places but there was enough difference to know it was not. Shriramkumar announced the raga at the end of the song. One could sense the little 'H/m/mm...' type of reaction soaked in wonder spreading through the audience. The very slow tempo was just right for this song, the mridangam and gatam providing the most minimal taps here and there and only to play continuously during the madyama kala passages. Perfect execution. With such songs, one is reminded of the wide variety and breadth of compositions that exist under the CM umbrella.
Arun Prakash and Guru prasad provided excellent support. One problem was, the audio was just too loud over all. It could have been at least 40% lower. On top of that, when Mridangam and Ghatam were playing at high decibels, they drowned out the already loud violin sound. Fortunately that was the case only at a few places. A lower volume and better miking arrangement would have helped. There was an extensive sound check and it passed the artists' expectations ( which in my opinion was THE source of the problem. The artists should not be allowed to have an opinion on volume level of the auditorium speakers ).
During the thani, that high volume actually helped. They played quite an exciting thani with the usual Koraippu and an interesting sounding Korvai.
One thing I noticed is the nadham of the mridangam was better during the thani than during the accompaniment. During the songs, the 'wooden' sound was much more prominent than the higher frequency sound.
Back to Shriramkumar,
The short kedaram alapana was quite cheerful and so was the song, it was hard to resist swaying your body to the song. I wondered what mood Thyagaraja should have been while composing 'Rama Neepai' to come up with such a sweet gem.
Sriranjani alapana and the song did not jell with me too well, may be it was just my mood.
Kambhoji was grand. One of the jAru gamakam he employed right at the beginning of the alapana was a bit too slow and high curvature. It may have been on the Ni. It sounded fine, it was just new to me. Shriramkumar really hit his mark on kAmbhoji during the kalpanaswarams. It was brilliant.
Mayamma was incredible. As vpadmana wrote, it was the DKJ bANi and one can follow along the sahitya enunciation on the violin.
The Ahiri gamakams flowed with great sowkyam.
kApi alapana, though brief, was quite moving.
All the three artists were quite friendly and interacted with the audience at the end of the concert. Shriramkumar narrated the difficulties he had with the violin strings. We could see his occasional retuning and at one point he quickly changed one of the strings but I did not realize the extent of the troubles he had to cope with. He did not show any of that on stage nor did he let it affect his pleasant demeanor. More importantly he did not let it affect his playing. I can imagine the extent of adjustments he had to make on-the-fly.
One little tid-bit I picked up during the post concert chat from someone else is, on a prior visit to Chicago 15 years or so back, a side concert was organized with Shriramkumar vocal to Vijaya Siva's mridangam.
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vpadmana
- Posts: 46
- Joined: 23 Sep 2006, 05:08
You are correct. Must have had a brain-freeze. Of course it is Yamuna Kalyani & Kaapi.rajeshnat wrote:Thanks vpadmana for the review . Always nice to read reviews of RKSK in a solo violin concert, it is quite rare in india.vpadmana wrote: 11. Maitreem Bhajata - Maand - HH Shri Chandrashekhara Saraswati
maitreem bhajata is usually sung in yamunAkalyAni + kApi ragamAliga and not mAnd. May be you just got mistaken with maand when yamuna kalyani was sung?
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mahesh_narayan
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srikant1987
- Posts: 2246
- Joined: 10 Jun 2007, 12:23
But this concert's list is a little unlike RKSK. -
vpadmana
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- Joined: 23 Sep 2006, 05:08
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cacm
- Posts: 2212
- Joined: 08 Apr 2010, 00:07
I do not think so. According to S.Rajam, Dr.Ramani & SEVERAL OTHER MUSICIANS as well as listeners like me the MYHICAL average audiences here are FAR MORE KNOWLEDGEABLE than in the so called "Mecca of Music" Chennai"(where I am from)....Many of them drive hundreds of miles to listen to carnatic music concerts. VKVmahesh_narayan wrote:I am surprised that Shriramkumar, being an ardent devotee of Dikshitar, hasn't been including more than one Dikshitar kriti in his concerts on the tour. Are Dikshitar kritis too heavy for the average audience in the US?
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cacm
- Posts: 2212
- Joined: 08 Apr 2010, 00:07
This NOT an ARGUMENT but a Statement of FACT. I have learnt after 75 years on this planet that one shd. express their opinion & others can say its senseless& agree or disagree with it......I do these things to set the record straight. vkv
Last edited by cacm on 12 Nov 2009, 00:44, edited 1 time in total.
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mmani
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