shertalai KN RanganAtha SharmA@Vanimahal on March 27th,2010

[rajeshnat]

shertalai KN RanganAtha SharmA@Vanimahal(obul reddy hall) on March 27th,2010
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Vocal : shertalai KN ranganAtha SharmA
Violin : S. Varadarajan
Mrudangam : Tanjore Ramadas
Ghatam : N. Govindarajan
Theme : Thamizh Isai exclusive Concert
Concert Duration : 2 hours and 10 minutes

1. siddhi aRul sivashakthi bAlakaNE(RS,S)- nAttai - Neelakanta sivan
5 mins swaras
2. uNNadiyE gathi eNRaDaiNdEN (Raga sketch)- bahudAri - GNB

3. gowrimaNohara karunAkara shivashaNkara (R,S) - gowrimaNohari - papanAsam sivan??
5 mins alApanai , 3 mins violin return
6 mins swaras
4. vazhi maRaithirukkuDhE (Raga sketch) - nAttaikurinji - GKB
5. vElum mayiLumE (R,S) - sucharitrA - Koteeshwara Iyer
2 mins each for alapanai and violin return , 5 mins swaras
6. eesan kanakasabEsan - bEgaDa - KI

7A. kArthikeya gAngeya (R N S T) - tOdi - papanAsam sivan
14 mins alApanai, 7 mins violin return
neraval in "kurunagai thavazh ArumugA mEl maruvum kara kamalA" for 6 mins
swaras for 12 mins
7B. tani for 13 mins

8. kAna vEndAmO - shreeranjani - papanAsam sivan
9. irakkam varAmal(R) - behAg - GKB
2 mins alApanai
10. tara dheem ta dheem tiranA "uNNai sharAnaDainDeN" - mAnd - LGJ
11. brief viruththam "sEnai ya vAL viNai theerkum thirumAlE" - madhyamAvati - ???

This is the first concert of shertalai KNR sharma that I am hearing . There is always a positive expectation and at the same time some what a faint negative feeling that I have for any concert. The positive expectation here in this case is Hey I am hearing this vidwan for the first time, the negative feeling perhaps is more to do with in general thamizh isai. If you look at exclusive thamizh isai concerts most of the time (not all the time) vidwans/vidushis who generally dont have this usual carnatic concert experience will be singing exclusive thamizh compositions , to an extent the language becomes pradhanam and the music becomes secondary , the classicism will automatically step down as semi classical.

On a side note just after the concert I was just mentally running in my mind a list of powerful male musicians who in generally have a very great voice power like ranging from TVS-TNS-maharAmachandran-KJY in super senior to TMK-SuryaprakAsh in senior and really few up coming artists like say KBMK and abhishek and others like them ,they all have great power in their voice .

Voice Power for these musicians range from holding in a sustenant pitch , incredible clarity in sAhityam and a weight in rAga bhAvam. But comparing this gentleman Dr RanganAtha sharmA to all those male high vocal power musicians of today , looks like he has a vocal power atleast a full point higher than any of the male musicians.

Every sangathi , be it rAga alApanai or krithi had so much voice power and sustained pich , he had two fairly high powered percussionists and an expressive violinist but every sangathi he sang I felt as though I am not in a sabha but listening to a DVD with a high powered sony headphone , what voice power this gentleman had.

The start in nAttai was a brief alApanai was booming with a new unheard krithi rendition and swaras. My personal favourite GNB number in bahudAri came out well. Voice fidelity and sustained pitch was at his best of best in this rare gowrimAnOhari ,he being a disciple of his father(whose name was some Iyer??? I forgot) who was Semmangudi mAma's disciple must have wondered in heaven my gurulekha yetuvanti paddantaram handled with a strong voice , Particularly few short burst of swaras in ri ga ri sa ni in gowrimanohari was voice sareeram at its best.

The contrast of fairly semmangudish gowrimanOhari with a slow moving nAttaikurinji in vazhi maraithirukudE had exceptionally high fidelity. Koteeshwara Iyer's sucharitA was superb with pitch at its best.His diction was superb in thamizh I got every word inclusive of the fast begada filler which had its charanam like "eesan kanakasabesan thillAi vAsan 'thiru natarAjan' padam thunaiyE kumarEsan isai thamizh", phew all these lines perhaps in just 2 to 3 seconds , what clarity and what a voice power.

The main was the todi defining pApanasam shivan master piece, my disappointment came up for the fist time as he did not sing a detailed neraval despite a very good alApana ,the neraval line was a new one liner for me. Swaras were well done and I found a little more disappointment there as there was too much of kuraippu patterns , todi swaroopam appeared as a small capsule than what the rAga is usually done with all musicians.

KAna vendamO was ecstasy what a voice I felt I was upgraded from sony DVD to the latest avatar sound setting. what a lovely spread of lyrics getting blessed with the pitch of male voice. The behAg was excellent though it took me out some time to come out with kAdAL ketka vendAmO. MAnD thillAna was not that great .

[rajeshnat]

Few shortcomings :
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1. Neraval , neraval neraval could have been more that too he having decided to sing for only one, he did not do much justice.

2. The big shortcoming is he did not sing a thamizh viruththam at all ,with his voice how beautiful it would have been say if I heard a combo of sahAna+ dhanyAsi or some designer viruththam . His last was just one liner which reminded me that thamizh thematic concert should have a better viruththam than this lip service one.

Accompanist:
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VaradarAjan was excellent throughout especially the sucharitrA was lovely. tanjore rAmadAs had some lovely thoppi usages at different times which embellished and brought more clarity to his voice. GovindarAjan (professor of philosophy in AM jain) gelled very well with the madurai musical college Dr ranganatha sharma , I wish I hear him more.

A great singer of keralite origin that speaks of his incredible voice and madurai music college Phd that spoke of his scholarly treatment .

Overall , male voice with an incredible and an extraordinary voice power who can sing without mike(not kidding) , it was a very good to excellent concert for 2 hours and 10 minutes.

[rshankar]

Rajesh,

#11 must be the Smt MSS/RV masterpiece - 'ceDiyAya valvinaigaL tIrkum tirumAlE' - where the composer wants to be reborn as a step/stone in tirupati on which mortals, beautiful women and even the gods stand to catch a glimpse of the face of the Lord of the seven hills. Smt MSS/RV sing it in hamsAnandi as a prelude to 'SrInivAsa tiruvEMkaTamuDaiyAn'....

[arasi]

Rajesh,
Interesting, I have heard him just once and my impressions were similar to yours. Of course, I don't dive into details as you do (so I do impressions, not reviews!).
An impressive bunch of faculty--Ranganatha Sharma, Sreevalsan Menon and now I hear of Prof. Govindarajan.
By the way, you drop an 'r' in your typing and we arrive at violent reaction (a fist)--kidding, kidding
Have you dropped an 'r' in the rAgam too that Varadarajan played beautifully?

[braindrain]

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1. Neraval , neraval neraval could have been more that too he having decided to sing for only one, he did not do much justice.

This was my exact impression , when I heard him last two times.. neraval was only for the main kriti..

[kssr]

Yes. It is always the powerful voice that is most noticeable in Shertallai's concert. Also, it is admirable for him to have accepted a full Tamil concert.

On the point of "Chediyaya valvinaigal theerkum tirumaale"- Item 11, I am reminded of TNS's handling of the same. He normally sings in Hamsanandi. But in one concert he made it a Ragamalika virittham. Also, in a TV interview, the interviewer, before concluding the programme, requested TNS to sing something in his famous Thodi raga. After a moment's pause, he rendered the same Divyapabhandam piece in Thodi. It was just brilliant- repeat brilliant. I think I even have a video recording of the same.

Back to Sherthallai, a concert review of one of his Bangalore concerts can be seen below:

http://nadasurabhi.org/concert-schedule ... tha-sharma

[sappri]

Shertalai KN R is indeed a truly awesome musician ...awesome voice, bhava laden presentation, a thorough musician. Btw - he's a prof at Madurai's College of music.