Lalgudi Krishnan-Vijayalakshmi@bhAratkalAchAr on Dec 25th,10

[rajeshnat]

Lalgudi Krishnan and Vijayalakshmi@bhAratkalAchAr on Dec 25th ,2010
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Violin : Lalgudi Krishnan and Vijayalakshmi
Mrudangam : R Ramesh (sishya of KM)
ghatam : AS Murali

Concert duration/Day : 2 hours and 25 mins/ Friday (4:05 to 6:30pm)
Sabha : bhAratkalAchAr

Lalgudi jayaraman sir as a violin solo is one that I have heard when i was in my school or college . I do remember bit distinctly the accompaniment of GJR Krishnan then. It is atleast close to a decade and half or even two decades before , I just did not hear this sibling till this concert .Few concerts which I wanted to hear had siblings having some kind of jugalbandhi with other western instrument and very recently I also noticed tabla was an accompaniment in few concerts , kind of not that much pull for me to hear.

Fast forward yesterday , I had a chance to hear the siblings if I could say Lalgudi Krishnan now was playing the role of Lalgudi G Jayaraman then , and Lalgudi viji was playing the role of Lalgudi Krishnan then, kind of a fast forward - but there was definite brilliance.

1. garudAdhwani varnam - LGJ
2. orajUpu (RS, S) - kannadagowlai - T
4 mins swaras
3. eTula brOtuvO (R, S) n- chakravAkham - T
8 mins alapanai and 6 mins swaras

4. Unnaiyanri Utra TuNai(brief raga sketch) - bhavAni - Dandapani desigar
5A. mA jAnaki(R N S T) - kAmbOdhi - T
12 mins alApanai
2 mins neraval
13 mins swaras
5B. tani for 16 mins

6. RTP in behAg
9 mins alapanai ,
4 mins tAnam
pallavi line was "harE rAma govinda murArE mukunda sowrEsha muraharE"
pallavi talam was in chatushra jampa tAlam - khanda nadai
Swara rAgamAliga in a garland of sapta ragas apart from behAg

7. thillAnA "kOla mayil" - revati - LGJ

Lalgudi siblings play violin in line with their illustrious guru as though they just sing.The crowd was just about 70 or so , kind of those who pay 100 Bucks like me sit at the back and then a long rows of empty chairs and then perhaps donor and salAm and salute passes in the front.

Krishnan announced each of the song , I wish he did that for even RagamAliga rAgas of pallavi. Lalgudi school always reserve two numbers to LGJ one a varnam and a thillAnA . The varnam was a rare garudadhwani which always has a definite different and distinct touch, the thillAna is one of my favourite ones of LGJ sir in revati "kOla mayil" , the thilllAna was lovely and the varnam was very good.

The no 2 was orajUpu ,kind of lovely synchronization , with a nice sprinkle of swaras. ChakravAkham alAp was handled by viji and had a nice sowkhyam at few places it was very very slightly off, but with the krithi and swaras carnatic intenseness was omnipresent

The rare bavani which foxes you to think it was a subhapantuvarAli adds a pathos ,if I would like to bring my perspective " pathos adds the best of best experience in violin", the dandapani desigan krithi was played beautifully.

Krishnan took over the main with a very nice alApana it appeared right though he tried few tAra sthayi touches but was not there.The mA jAnaki is one of my favourites in kAmbOdhi,there is no calm ,but only storm in kAmbOdhi. The duo played beautifully and with the brief neraval ,the swaras were really well done.

The duo announced they would play the pallavi , it was a behAg with a lalgudi touch. Lalgudi keeps even hindustani rAgas in a zone of carnaticness unlike few of their peers and behAg was one of that . The tAnam was bit short charged , the pallavi lines for few sangathis was sung by Smt Viji .

If there was anything best in the concert it was changing pallavi with a sprinkle of swaras with the sapta rAgas. Krishnan took sAveri without a doubt, Viji followed with hamsadhwani .The next two in gAnamurthi ???(hopefully not vanaspati)was superbly played by Krishnan, Durga was played well by Viji though I recognized bit late, Chandrakowns ?? (hopefully) was played beautifully by krishnan and viji wrapped beautifully with Desh.

For few minutes when krishnan came back in reverse it was very very aesthetic could see a lot of his illustrious appA spark there, in the sense there was very "distinct rAga bhavam and it was not hazy at all". Many of them in pallavi reverse will go in a bit of haste wrapup , where you spot half and other half you may not spot all, but I guess this is where lalgudi padantara suddham comes in play

In mridangam , ramesh played well with a very able support by AS murali in ghatam(Not sure of his name he is not the trichy or madipakkam murali ). In tAni it was bang bang bang diwali atom bomb, I just dont get this R Ramesh who in the habit of showcasing Karaikudi Mani like strokes just bangs and bangs.It was very loud,thank god it was an open air auditorium , but still tani teared my eardrum and made sure that I did not attend the third crt of the day.

Possibly just possibly, just like how we have a majority of rasikas thinking maharajapuram santhanam is great and maharajapuram ramachandran is just not there which is a purely wrong notion, possibly Lalgudi siblings are playing as well as their illustrious father , may be bit slightly less, but not noticably less aesthetic to layman ears like me (especially krishnan who has lot of sowkhyam and rAga bhava clarity). Atleast in this concert they held their grand lalgudi bAni with its carnatic authenticity.

Overall an excellent concert .

[rshankar]

All the times I have heard the duo, I have always felt that they were both equally good...no one playing second fiddle at all.

[bilahari]

I agree with Ravi - I like their duets for their even division. They understand each other quite well and give each other a lot of space. Lalgudi Viji is a great accompanist, too. I distinctly remember her kalyANi and dhanyAsi accompanying Vijay Siva two years ago.