Shall upload couple of pics here... Request for other attendees to post the song list and the review... One thing is that am just spellbound with the concert and yet to recover from it, even though the acoustics played havoc ; and the other thing is that am just too lazy to type..
sAmi ninnE (sketch) - shrI rAga - Adi - Poochi
Ekadantam (S) - bilahari - cApu - MD
nEnendu veda dUra - karnATaka bEhAg - Adi - T
rAga ratna mAlika cE (RNS) - rItigauLai - rUpakacApu - T
vararAgalaya - cencukAmbhOji - Adi - T
? (R) - nAyaki - rUpakacApu - ?
rAgasudhArasa (RST) - AndOLika - Adi - T
Post tani pieces were new to me -- there was one in karnATaka dEvagAndhAri then hindOLam, a tillAna in mOhanakalyANi (not the LGJ one). A lovely madhyamAvati shlOka, then pavamAna.
The sketch of shrI rAga was nice, and the usage of dha itself set the tune for the composition to follow. rItigauLai AlApanai was elaborate, but I missed madhyamakAla passages, especially in the violinist's response. UKS's accompaniment for the rItigauLai, especially the song, was pure class!
I found it a little difficult to place Shri Srikantan's nAyaki initially. This might be a daring thing to say, but I blame it on shuddhabangala that it came in the way of his exploration of the raga. I mean, the fault is shuddhabangala's! The violinist's AlApanai here was totally awesome.
Prof Ramakanth handled the AndOLika vocal AlApanai. His singing today suffered in shruti, though admittedly he had to sing more of tArasthAyi and faster phrases.
I found that the violinist's exploration of AndOLika too showed great maturity, and used a combination of the kriti approach, and the arohana-avarohana approach (which, for a raga like AndOLika, is needed to some extent).
I found that the percussion accompaniment for rAga sudhA rasa was rather more energetic than I normally associate with the song.
The total ease with which Shri Srikantan handled both a rakti rAga like rItigauLai and a rAga like AndOLika was absolutely inspiring! Shri H K Venkataram's responses in both were able and supportive.
The tani was brilliant and energetic.
It can be seen that a lot of similar rAgas were chosen in this concert -- shrIrAga, rItigauLai, nAyaki, AndOLika, shuddhasAveri and then madhyamAvati. It was taking-aback to see that AndOLika was the main item, though. I was expecting something more rakti!
Dr.R.K.Srikantan is a veteran AIR artist. On the occasion of his 90th birthday, Sri.Krishnamurthy, granson of Mysore Vasudevachar and a junior colleague of RKS, recalled how he participated in a Radio drama. RKS was to play the role of a person who is unable to learn music. He in fact struggled to produce Apaswaram, even for the sake of the drama!!
Secondly during the function by Nadasurabhi when Sri.RKS was awarded the first "Sangeetha Surabhi" award, his long associate Mysore V Subramanya narrated how even today, RKS keeps himself continuously busy, either by teaching or making notations for songs or writing some article and so on and how he has a perfectly disciplined life.
Also before this concert under review, I checked up from the internet "the oldest" performing musician. Among Indian musicians, RKS is THE OLDEST performing musician who even today gives 3 hour performances, sometimes 3-4 times a week. The next is Pandit Ravi Shankar who is younger by a few months and gives a concert once in few months. Long live such great artists.
