maharAjapuram rAmachandran@RK Swamy hall on March 31st,2010

[rajeshnat]

maharAjapuram rAmachandran@RK Swamy auditorium(mylapore) on March 31st,2010
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Vocal : maharAjapuram rAmachandran
Violin : MA Krishnaswamy
Mrudangam : R.Ramesh
Concert duration : 2 hours and 30 minutes
Sabha : lalit vedikA??

1.inta chAlamu - bEgaDa - patnam
2.??- nAttai - Dikshitar krithi

3. saranAgatham eNru nambi vaNdEn (NS,S)- gowlai - GKB
4. chAla kaLLa lAdu (R N S) - Arabi- T
8 mins alApanai, 4 mins violin return
5 mins neraval in "ilalO sari vAralalO"
swaras for 9 mins

5. kA vA vA(R S) - varAli - psivan
6. enTarO mAhanu bhAvulu - shree rAgam
7. nenaranci nAnu anniTiki(S) - mAlavi - T

8A. pAhi pAhi shAradhE kripAnidhE (R N S T) - kalyAni - Anadavan Piccai
9 mins alAPanai, 6 mins violin,5 mins neraval and 8 mins swaras
neraval in "shankari giri puravAsa shankari shree chakrAngi simhAsanEshwari"
8B. tani for 6 mins

9. chinnan chiRu kiLiyE -rAgamAliga - bhArathiyAr
10A. peTra thAi thanai maRandAlum - bhAgeshri + hamsAnandi + revati - rAmalinga aDigal
10B.bho sambhO - revati - swami dAyananda saraswati
11. pavamAna

An authoritative voice with sustained pitch as his recurrent plus point, the numbers are generally very repetitive is a usual crib that any one has , but I as a rasika try to space his concert say once in 3 to 6 months and for that duration there is always a captivating classicism .

Mised the first two and started with a rare number of GKB in gowlai , this number though his dad sang but rAmachandran sings with a little more power and exhilarating speed , there was a nice neraval sketch and a good spread of swaras

Two rAgas of rAmachandran always captivates me , one is lalitA which he did not sing in this concert ,the second is his Arabi. For Arabi alone this concert was worth it, superb touches like his dad and grand dad ,this was brighAs in a pace that is so captivating and well rounded with an aura of ARa BEE pitch. THe varAli was well done and for a change he took another varAli number kA vA vA, than the usual shyama Sastri bangAru kAMakshi, always I observe he has a sequence of going with trinity and atleast 3 out of 5 ghana pancharatna rAgas before main . (today it was all five today)

The concert was very powered and without him taking even one slow number and jumping into shree rAgam masterpiece was somewhat tiring ,and when mAlavi was there it just become a very noisy and difficult concert to concentrate. I wish he had varied with atleast one slow tempo.

KalyANi alApanai was fantastic no mediocre sag sangathis and this rare krithi I am hearing for the second time , one perennial drawback of this musician is he pays not that needed attention to a main in general , with so many near sub main numbers he runs out of energy and main especially neraval and swaras do have a very limited sangathis.

bhArathiyAr's rAgamAliga bought the much needed speed break in his concert and the finish was lovely, I also liked the viruththam a really top class one and expectedly he closed with his own personal carnatic anthem bho sambho , tukkadas always have a very janaranjakam touch which is a hallmark of maharAjapuram school

Accompanist:
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MA krishnaswamy played well though a little more press would have made it better. R.Ramesh (sishya of KM), was a partial disappointment he was hyper aggressive and he banged it and even for a powerful vocal voice his volume of play was excessively thaviLish not mrudangamish.

If there is a major weakness in this concert (I am very used to his repetitive numbers as such they are sung beautifully I have no problems there), the vocalist must have sensed the over banging of mridangist ramesh and may be dropped a few numbers in a slower pace how about a soothing hindolam/neelAmbari/reetigowlai instead of say that over aggressive mAlavi and shree , to that extent the vocalist miscalculated and was in excessive speed mode.

Overall a very good concert for 2 and 1/2 hours, certainly rAmachandran has a gravitas and a very sonorous style with a high classical touch, if percussion was bit soothing it could have been a far better concert.

[kssr]

Although he had to take time to come out of his illustrious father's shadow, he is doing very well indeed, these days. Perfect stamping of each and every note. Beautiful communication with the audience. In some ways he is even better than Santhanam - no nasal influence. Every concert is a success. He is a good addition to the list of senior vidwans. More the merrier for rasikas!!

[mohan]

In Sydney he recently sang Bharatiar's poem 'ennaku vendum ganapathi' set in raga nattai. Perhaps this is what he sang in RKS hall too?

[rajeshnat]

Now I recollect what another forumite told me , he sang this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_38tI3cJsFQ
varasiddhi viNayAkam - nAttai - ambi dikshitar