R Sridhar@rAgasudhA on April 10th,2010

[rajeshnat]

R Sridhar@rAgasudhA on April 10th,2010
----------------------------------------------------------------
Vocal : R Sridhar
Violin : Akkarai swarnalatha
Mrudangam : R Ramkumar

Theme : SVK yearly rememberance (nAdainbam)
Concert duration : 90 minutes

1. Missed the ata tAla varnam in kalyAni
2. saraseeruhA (RS,S)- nAttai - puliyur Duraiswami Iyer
swaras for 3 minutes
3. thyagarAjaya namasTE(R S) -bEgaDa - MD
9 mins alApanai ,4 mins violin
6 mins swaram

4. anupama guNambudhi - atAnA - T
5A. O rangasAyee (R S T) - kAmbOdhi - T
13 mins alApanai , 7 mins violin return
9 mins swaras
5B. tani for 5 mins
6. parulanna mAta - kApi -DS

Sridhar is rams (ramkumar's) younger brother.Went to hear this combo for the first time. Bit late to the concert more in a dilemma whether to watch the match of chennai or go to the concert , carnatic takes a precedence over cricket , a big change in priority that has developed in the last decade , any way the dilemma induced delay was bit lucky as I just lost only the kalyAni varnam(just kidding)

Coming to the concert , Sridhar started very well , nAttai with its flurry of quick turnaround sangathis and the mridangist brother just starting rolling well . BegaDa alApanai was very detailed had its moments of excellence most of the time , a tough uphill MD krithi just appeared little bit steep for this upcoming vidwan , swaras were quite creative.

AtAna was a bit low key , his start of kAmbODhi was bit bordering on his cousin brother shankarAbharanam , but he picked quite a pace after few minutes and justt went well . The krithi O rangasAyi was sung quite well , the vidwan lost a bit of staminA there , the swaras were just good .

Tani by the elder brother was just a quick one giving way for his younger brother to sing more , he just had time to wrap a kApi semmangudi thriller .

Ramkumar played beautifully , he certainly did go very well with the singer and anticipated all the sangathis well.The violinst played very well and had a nice shruthi sowkhyam, her beGada came out better than the kAmbOdhi.The team of accompanist did a great job

Few shortcomings :
----------------
1. Sridhar should strive to sing more open throated , he is bit holding a lot and I hope he also develops little more vocal muscle .

2. Time management was not that perfect , I am assuming he wanted to sing a neraval with another concert to follow , he just could not make it . To an extent he could have cut the alApana little bit in begada or kAmbOdhi and given few minutes atleast for one neraval

3. Overlap of begada and kAmBodhi as sub main and main just did not provide the right aesthetic contrast.

Overall a good concert . It was a short one to be followed by another evening concert.

[Nick H]

A very nice concert from another of Smt Vedavalli's students.

I thought his voice was very mature. Look forward to hearing more!

I have spoken to him quite a few times, and knew that he was a student of vocal music. It is amazing when one knows someone for quite a while before seeing them perform. The strength and maturity of his voice took me by surprise. Deferring to rajeshnat's comments made from greater experience, I'd say that Sridhar can only get better. I suspect that greater concert experience will be good for him and I hope he gets it.

Ram played very well. When siblings accompany, there is usually a very high degree of sympathy. His tani was nice, and its closing korvais was announced by an interesting mohara.

I would have liked to have heard more of Akkarai swarnalatha, but what the volume level allowed me to hear was very sweet.

[arasi]

I have met Sridhar once along with the family, if I rememberwell but did not know he was a budding vocalist!
Way to go, brothers!

[srikant1987]

His tani was nice, and its closing korvais was announced by an interesting mohara.

I don't remember moharas even skeletally, but believe I'd have heard this one at best twice before. I think it has a small khaNdanaDai bit?

Tani by the elder brother was just a quick one giving way for his younger brother to sing more

Imho it wasn't that much of a quick tani! I found it satisfying.

his start of kAmbODhi was bit bordering on his cousin brother shankarAbharanam ... picked quite a pace after few minutes ... Overlap of begada and kAmBodhi as sub main and main just did not provide the right aesthetic contrast.

I don't know what the kAmbOdhi bordered, but it was indeed not so satisfying after a bEgaDa -- and an aThANA.

Swarams in bEgaDa were amazing. The swarams in bEgaDa and kAmbhOji indeed showed the Vedavalli style, though I can't say why!

Sridhar should strive to sing more open throated , he is bit holding a lot and I hope he also develops little more vocal muscle ... the vidwan lost a bit of staminA there

At two or three few-second phrases, it wasn't very clear to me what he meant to sing. I felt maybe some silences could be inserted in between to enable uniformly clear articulation. But indeed, I'm supposing the kAmbhOji was done in a little bit of a hurry.

Maybe the varNam chosen could have been a smaller (Adi tala) one (or even done away with, as it was a 1.5-hr concert, after all.)

[rbharath]

It was a good concert by Shridhar.

I wasnt particularly happy with his choice of ragams one after another, but then he presented them well and did a good job. Sornalatha and Ram were amazing