Dr.pantula RamA, BTM cultural centre, Bangalore 27-02-10

[keerthi]

Vocal - Dr.Pantula Rama
Violin - M.S.N. Murthy
MRdangam - KoTipaLLi Ramesh
Khanjari - Guruprasanna
Tanpura - Gopalakrishna

Songlist -

1. chalamela - natakuranji varNam - adi - Rangaswami nattuvanAr
2. GirirAjasutatanaya - BangAla
3. BrOcEvarevare - srIranjani (RS)
4. RTP Kalyani, rAgamAlika swarakalpanA followed by taniAvartanam
5. long speeches, prize distribution, lucky dip raffle
6. kapi tillana - M.D.Ramanathan
7. mangalam

Will post details later. the pallavi was particularly interesting, with each anga in a different gati, with lyric about the vAggEyakAra-trinity.

[arasi]

Keerthi,
Looking forward to the review. I was planning to be there. Missed meeting you, too.

[rajaglan]

I read the advt as RTP concert. I wanted to go as some of her radio
renditions are great. But could not make it for this concert.
But Kalyani as RTP...Not something of great interest to me. She is one singer
I have to listen live.

[bilahari]

I love how number 5 finds a place in the songlist.
Looking forward to hearing PR in San Diego later this month. Hope she has an RTP in store for us or I'll subject all of you to my whining and bemoaning again!

[arasi]

Bilahari,
Hope Drs. Panthula Rama and Murthy are reading this--at least, someone known to them who reads this tells them. We know that you are shortchanged often in your city when it comes to RTPs.
Hope other performers read this too to know that there are RTP lovers in smaller cities too in the US and Canada!

[pattamaa]

This is not really a review, but just some impressions.

1. Nattakuranji varnam was presented well in 2 kalai. She didn't sing chitta swara sahitya, and also swara sahitya in charanam wasn't sung. Those sahityam are beautiful, not sure why Dr Rama didn't sing them, may a paddati?

2. Sriranjani alapana was crisp for about 2 minutes, and brought out ragha bhava quite well with characteristic pidis.

3. Brocheva revare was in fast kalapramanam, and it sounded little fast for me, little screechy at some places particularly during - bhavAbdhi taraNO, the last charanam.

4. Kalyani alapana was for about 30 minutes, and i wasn't very impressed, as my standards for kalyani is quite high, having heard MDR, DKP and very recently Parasala Ponnamaal version. It is not good to compare, but can't help here. Dr Rama could have avoided singing alapana for 30 minutes, rather try to sing to bring out ragha bhava, ragha swarupa in 15 to 20 minutes, and could have spend additional time in taanam to make it ragamalika. This was advertised as ragamalika RTP, but no ragamalika in raga alapana or taanam, which was quite disappointing. The alapana had lot of vishranti, and she almost did nyasam in almost all swaras. There was graha bedam done, i think with nishadam, i couldn't identify resulting raaga.

The violin response was short, for about 10 minutes, and it was more enjoyable. The thanam was very decent, was for about 25 minutes. As i mentioned, a ragamalika thanam would have been more satisfying to this rasika.

Pallavi.

Pallavi lyric
rAmAnugraha pAtra thyAgabrahma
kAmAkshi pAlitha shyAma
shanmukhApta muthukumAra namastE

This was sung in kanda jaati ata talam in 2 kalai. First laghu in chatusram, 2nd laghu in tisram and two dritams in kanda nadai. First laghu was dedicated to thyagaraja (and in chatusra nadai, as most of thyagaraja swami's composition in chatusra nadai), 2nd laghu in tisra nadai (dedicated to shyama sastri, and some of his compositions in tisra nadai), and last two dhritams dedicated to Muthuswami dikshitar in kanda nadai.

Pallavi eduppu was 2 aksharas from samam. Total aksharas in taalam - 5*4 + 5*3 + 2*5 + 2*5 = 55

Dr Rama did graha beda swaras during kalpana swaras, did graha bedam, i think with Ri, Ma, Dha, Ni and ga, and sang in both ragas - graha bedam in kalyani, and in resultant raga with new graha (sounding the new note, hope i am clear).

Ragamalika swaras were in valachi, sahana, anandha bhairavi and lalitha. After last 3 ragas, she did appropriate eduppu in pallavi for shyama sastri and dishitar, with those ragas being considered a favourite of those composers respectively.

Thani was interesting, but wasn't that enjoyable in same scale as a single nadai laya vinyasam.

Dr Rama sang MDR's thillana in kapi, one of my personal favorite and ended in mangalam.

The concert was close to 3 hours, and RTP taking majority of time. Speech took a long part, about 15 minutes. It was quite well attended. Sabha need to be appreciated and congratulated for organizing such concerts.

[Abhishek]

The pallavi seems very interesting. Dr. Pantula Rama seems to choose quite challenging and complex pallavis to sing in her concerts. It would have been even better if she had made the pallavi in 3 ragams, just like did at MA this year. I wonder what else she has in store for us in the future

Greha Bedham on Kalyani from nishAdam to nishAdam yields Thodi. It would have been nice to go one note down, from dhaivatam to dhaivatam, which yields KharaharapriyA.

[ardentcmlover1]

talking of grahabedham and kharaharapriya - brings back memories of pantula rama singing kharaharapriya with grahabedham at all possible swarasthanams in visakhapatnam in late 80's - for the kriti "videmu saeyavae" - for one of her first well known kutcheries - her guru - sri. ivaturi accompanied her on the violin and patri satish or k sadguu charan accompanied her on mridangam.

[arunk]

Recently I heard 2 different artists do grahabedham on ni with kalyani but with sa/pa varja resulting in suddha-dhanyasi. N3 R2 G3 M2 D2 N3 => S G2 M1 P N2 S

Arun