raji gopAlakrishnan@PS High School on Feb 01st,2010
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Vocal : raji gopAlakrishnan
Violin : Dr hemalatha
Mrudangam : neyveli skandasubramaniam
Ghatam : madipakkam murali
sabha : nadopasanA
Concert Duration : 2 hours and 15 minutes
1. vinayakA "varnam" (R)- kalyAnavasantham - TM Thyagarajan
2. saraseeruha(S) - nAttai -puliyUr duraiswami Iyer
swaras for 4 mins
3. rAju vedala (R,N,S) - TOdi - T
3 mins alApanai and 3 mins violin return
neraval in sema manohari surulu virulu??? for 6 mins
swaras for 4 mins
4.abhimAnumulEdA(R) - hameer kalyAni - T
7 mins alApanai and 4 mins violin return
5.shree chakra rAja nilayE (R S)- shivasakthi- GNB
9 mins alAPanai and 5 mins violin return
5 mins swaras
6.rENukA dEvi - kannaDa baNgALa - MD
7.pAlinchu kamAkshi (R N S T) - madhyamAvati - SS
11 mins alApanai of madhyamAvati , 6 mins violin return
neraval in "kAntamagu pEru ponditivi kAruNya mUrti" for 7 mins
swaras for 7 mins
7B. tani for 11 mins
8A. slokham "mAnicka veenAm " - neelAmbari + shuruTTi + revati - Is that kAlidAs ???
8B. sumanasa vanditha - revati -ashtalakshmi stOtram??
9. maruthi varuvAr mangalam tharuvAr - sudda sArang? - ???
10. pavamAna
Smt rAji is one of my favourite female artist,there is always high classicism with a very soothing voice and at many places she reminds me of Smt mlv in the sense of being quite daring. Raji's concert started with her guru's varnam , after a brief emotive alApana of kalyAnavasantham. The varnam was excellent start both from hearing as a novelty varnam and blending with her azhuttam in her voice.
nAttai was her #2 , it had moments of excellence and at just few places more in the swaras there was a very slightly usual nAttai assertion that was missing. A fairly brief tOdi alApana followed with a standard submain raju vedala, her neraval was more enjoyable than her swaras.
The contrast of tOdi with hameer was a great choice , but to me this krithi was not sung that well by smt rAji.
shivashakthi, the creator of the rAga was GNB , a fairly recent origin , this is the first time I am hearing a detailed alApana of shivashakthi and most of the time I only connected to varamu then shivashakthi because of my unfamiliarity. THe raga alapana of shivashakthi was excellent and GNB's krithi and a dose of swaras were all well done, to me this was the pick of the day.
A very contemplative renukA devi found its way and I just loved her rendition.The main was madhyamavati , quite apt for me personally as Smt MLV took this rAgam madhyamAvati and this shyama sAstri krithi to himalayan heights. To me personally raji did not go as much as himalayas , but settled much below to the range of ooty, certainly the krithi and neraval were well done, she lost a bit of voice staminA there.
The first tukkada was a kAlidasa?? slokham in three rAgas , the contrast of lullaby neelAmbari with an assertive revati padded with a twists and turns of shuruTTi were aesthetically very appealing. She ended with with an excellent revati krithi sumanasa vanditha. THe last maruthi varuvar I think was in sudda sArang showed her reportoire, nevertheless the krithi could have been better sung .
The violinist Dr hemalatha was very good, though at few places especially in the first half her bowing was quite thin .THe mridangist skanda was energetic throughout though at few places I felt he was slightly loud (perhaps it had to do more with smt raji's voice thinning a bit). murali in ghatam gave an able support , their tani was well done .
Overall smt raji's concert had high classicism , though her last few concerts that I attended was a shade better.Nevertheless she is to me a very daring musician who always has a great sense of musical aesthetics,be it rAgam or neraval or swaras. Overall a very good to excellent 2 hours and 15 mins concert.